Tony and The Road

The 2009 Tony Award (TM) Nominations will be announced Tuesday morning by two previous winners, Cynthia Nixon and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Just a random aside — I find it kind of humorously coincidental that the nominations are being announced by two people named “Miranda.” Though, with the origin of the name Miranda meaning “worthy of admiration” it is certainly a fitting association for the theme of the day — recognizing theater artistry worthy of admiration by nominating it for this esteemed award.

 

There’s only room for one winner though, of course, per category. This includes Best Musical. So what happens to the shows that don’t make it past Best Musical nominee on June 7, 2009? Is being a nominee for Best Musical good enough to launch a successful National Tour, or do only the winners take all? Let’s take a look at some nominated and winning musicals from recent years and see what shakes out…

 

BRIDES vs BRIDESMAIDS

In 2002 Thoroughly Modern Millie was the winner for Best Musical, and while it enjoyed a healthy tour that ran from 2003-2006, grossing over a total of fifty million dollars, one of the nominees from that year, Mamma Mia, is not only still on The Road enjoying a popular and lucrative tour, according to this recent Variety article, but is still running strong on Broadway with recent great white way grosses hitting over $875,000, and the show at nearly 100% capacity according to Playbill.com 

In 2003 Hairspray won the Best Musical prize. The show only recently ended its Broadway run and is still represented on The Road. That same year, Movin’ Out was one of the nominees, and though it did not win Best Musical and its run on Broadway did not equal the length of Hairspray‘s run, The Movin’ Out tour has still managed to maintain a presence on The Road.

The big year, of course, is 2004, with Avenue Q taking Best Musical over its fellow nominees, one of which was Wicked. Both tours are still out there going strong and both shows are still represented on Broadway, but Wicked, despite not winning the Tony Award (TM) for Best Musical that year, along with receiving mixed reviews, has become a a phenomenon, with road grosses consistently breaking BO records, houses selling out regularly, and multiple tours going at once, along with sit-downs in the U.S and internationally.

2005 brought us Monty Python’s Spamalot, the Best Musical winner of that year. The Spamalot tour began in 2006 and has remained on The Road since, though The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a nominee for Best Musical that year, was also represented on The Road for several years, including a healthy sit-down in Chicago.

In 2006, the blockbuster Jersey Boys took the Best Musical prize and, much like Wicked, seems to be unstoppable both on Broadway and on The Road, as evidenced by consistently hefty grosses. That said, The Color Purple, a Best Musical contender that year, is in its second year on The Road, and beginning to schedule returns.

Spring Awakening came away with the Best Musical Tony Award (TM) in 2007 and has been enjoying a National Tour this year. However, Disney-branded Mary Poppins, which made it to only nominee status that year, hit The Road running in March and is going strong.

2008 brought four less than conventional Broadway offerings into the Best Musical race with Cry Baby, In The Heights, Passing Strange and Xanadu, and of the four it was In The Heights that took the award. Xanadu, however, will also be hitting The Road. It will be interesting to see how the tours of both of these shows fair outside of the Big Apple.

 

AND THE NOMINEES ARE…

Which brings us to tomorrow when we learn which of this year’s new Broadway musicals will be among the 2009 contenders. Though winning is the ultimate goal of course, we can look at recent history to see that winning may not necessarily be everything. Also, while being a nominee for, or winner of, a Tony clearly supports a show’s chances of touring, there are a host of other factors that contribute to a show getting out and succeeding on The Road. Heck, we haven’t even gotten to the nominations yet and Shrek The Musical has already announced its 2010 National Tour launch! Guess the green guy doesn’t have such a low self-image after all.

For a complete list of Tony nominees and winners from all years since the award’s inception in 1947, check out this link at BroadwayWorld.com.