Another Year, Another Tonys

The 2010 Tony Awards nominees were just announced. A pretty boring bunch, I'd say, reflecting a boring season. Of course, I'm out in LA, so maybe it's better than it looks from afar.

Some noted the snubs, with nothing for former Tony favorites Nathan Lane, Bebe Neuwirth, Kristin Chenoweth and Hugh Jackman. But more pronounced, I think, is the Tony voters are still star collectors. Just look at Lead Actor In A Play, every one a name: Jude Law, Alfred Molina, Liev Schrieber, Christopher Walken, Denzel Washington. Perhaps these were the five top performances, and they just happened to all be movie stars. Other big names include Valerie Harper, Laura Linney, Linda Lavin, Viola Davis, Kelsey Grammer, Sean Hayes, Catherine Zeta-Jones, David Alan Grier, Scarlett Johnansson and Angela Lansbury.

Oddest may be best original score--two of the four nominees are dramas, not musicals. But then, it was a bad year for original musicals. The most distressing category of all is Best Musical. All nominees feature pop songs and three of the four didn't even write songs for the shows, but had shows formed around the songs.

On the other hand, the Tony's haven't matter for quite a while--Broadway is more a showcase for big names and spectacle, so why shouldn't the Tony's go that way?