| Carol Lawrence was nominated for Featured Actress for WSS--I suppose that was based on billing, as it sometimes is (the Tony Committee is nothing if not inconsistent across the years). Perhaps the nominators felt there was only space for one performer from the relatively unknowns in WSS. But, of course, Anita is the true featured actress role--Maria is the lead. Barbara Cook won--again, I suppose the thinking was that everyone other than Harold Hill was "featured" (also based on billing?) Marian is the heart of the show, IMO. Looking at IBDB, I see that two actresses from Oh, Captain were nominated, and that there was a tie for Leading Actress--Gwen Verdon and Thelma Ritter in New Girl. Ritter's Marthy, wonderful as she is on the OBC, is clearly a supporting role, so who knows? I assume, again, that Ritter's billing and name value from Hollywood (she'd received 4 supporting nominations with 2 more to come) was the rationale. |
