I think Sean Hayes winning is more a case of #TonysTooPrejudicedTowardsShowsThatAreStillOpen. He's the only one playing in a show that is still running. All the other shows closed on Feb 19 or earlier.
For the record, the nominees are
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
Corey Hawkins
Sean Hayes
Stephen McKinley Henderson
Wendell Pierce
I personally hope Henderson wins, but I think it will be Hayes. Things are a little complicated because the voter would have to have seen Topdog/Underdog in order to vote, but Hayes is going to be the freshest in the mind because it's the only one anyone could have seen in the past 3+ months, and since the other four are all so good, I think they are all going to have their advocates and the people who didn't care for Hayes are going to be scattering their votes among all four of them.
I think there's also going to be a bit of, "Wow, Sean Hayes has been famous for a long time, and I never knew he could play the piano so well!" Which shouldn't have anything to do with winning the Tony, but that's not the world we live in. |