Neil Patrick Harris
This year’s Tony Awards ceremony is scheduled to include more live performances than it ever has before. The marathon of musical numbers will begin with The Book of Mormon, last year’s best musical winner, opening the show with “Hello!,” its Mormon elders knocking on the dressing room doors of several stars before visiting host Neil Patrick Harris. The CBS broadcast will then continue with a medley from several classic musicals.
The show will also feature songs from each of the four musical nominees (Newsies, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Once, and the shuttered Leap of Faith) and the four nominated musical revivals (Follies, Evita, Porgy and Bess, and Jesus Christ Superstar) as well as scenes from the musicals Ghost and Godspell and best play nominees End of the Rainbow, Peter and the Starcatcher and One Man, Two Guvnors.
Presenters and performers who have been announced to appear include Ellen Barkin, Candice Bergen, Matthew Broderick, Jessica Chastain, Sheryl Crow, Nick Jonas, Angela Lansbury, Ricky Martin, James Marsden, Jim Parsons, Mandy Patinkin, Tyler Perry, Bernadette Peters, Christopher Plummer, Paul Rudd, Amanda Seyfried, Ben Vereen, Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
Predictions
Once has picked up the lion’s share of musical awards this season and will most likely take home the 2012 Tony Award for Best Musical, as well as for the majority of its other nominations, including Enda Walsh’s deceptively simple book, Martin Lowe’s expansive orchestrations, Clive Goodwin’s crisp sound design, John Tiffany’s nuanced direction, and the understated but effective set and lighting designs by Bob Crowley and Natasha Katz.
The music of Once was ineligible for a nomination, and this year’s roster for Best Score is a bit sad, but Alan Menken is still the legitimate favorite to win his first award, in his fourth nomination, for his Newsies score with Jack Feldman. The choreography category is one of the most competitive this year, but Newsies will also probably bring Christopher Gattelli a win for his athletic dances.
Follies is my favorite to win Best Musical Revival, and Gregg Barnes deserves the nod for his exquisite costumes. Though Jeremy Jordan carries Newsies and Audra McDonald gives another beautiful performance in Porgy and Bess, my votes for Best Actor in a Musical and Best Actress in a Musical go to veteran performers Danny Burstein and Jan Maxwell from Follies.
For Best Featured Actor in a Musical and Best Featured Actress in a Musical, I think the choices are, once again, two veterans from the same show: Michael McGrath and the chandelier-swinging Judy Kaye in Nice Work.