How the pandemic shaped the 2022 tony nominations landscape

Broadway has been a strange beast to chronicle through the pandemic. It was the first industry knocked out, the hardest hit, and is still trying to find its sea legs two years later. It is also America, writ small: structural inequities, identity crises, a K-shaped recovery. It’s wonderful and it’s awful. Everyone is excited and exhausted all the time. Everyone knows someone who died from Covid, and someone else who was “robbed” of a Tony Award, and those names are often dropped within a breath of each other. It’s really, really weird.

With the next Tony ceremony around the corner, a return to horse race betting and snarky commentary is deeply unappealing. It is also tempting, because it is familiar. Remember when we could do it without also battling widespread hostility toward public health protocols? Ha-ha. But the appeal of that kind of water cooler hubbub is, I think, a kind of proxy: it tracks with our capacity to absorb news that may not be life-or-death, but still important, and (hopefully) fun. You know, fun. Remember that? Ha-ha.

On June 12, the Tony Awards will grant Broadway its highest national visibility since last fall, when Delta hampered an initial comeback attempt. Much has changed since then, and much has, excruciatingly, stayed the same. Within that frame, let’s break down the first full-season slate of nominations since 2019. What do they tell us about Broadway, the country, the pandemic, and the way we’ve changed (or not) in the last two years?

And is anyone having fun?

Here’s the complete nominee list, for reference.

TWO FIRSTS: To start on an unequivocal great note, Pulitzer winner and longtime industry darling Lynn Nottage is now the first writer to be nominated for both a play (Clyde’s) and musical (MJ) in a single season. And she is joined in precedent-setting by Camille A. Brown, who is the first person to ever be nominated for Best Direction and Best Choreography on the same play (for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf). That they are both Black women is of no small consequence, especially if you cast your mind back to the dim yesteryear of 2016, when Nottage was initially unable to secure a Broadway house for her second(!) Pulitzer-winning play. History is, at least in this regard, making up for lost time, and audiences are all the better for it.

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A THIRD FIRST: Speaking of inclusion, L Morgan Lee has made history as the first transgender performer to be nominated for a Tony, for Featured Actress in Musical (A Strange Loop). Make no mistake: her work is impeccable and the recognition well deserved. But as the lives of trans people are under increasing threat, the impact of a trans woman’s contention for the industry’s highest award is huge. After the nominees were announced, Lee simply tweeted: “I can’t stop crying.” Us too.

(HOPEFULLY) LAST: Here are some facts. William Ivey Long is nominated for designing the costumes of Diana: The Musical. This is Long’s 18th nomination. He has won six times. William Ivey Long also faces allegations of sexual abuse made by multiple men who worked with him at a North Carolina theater. After the allegations became public, he and Diana parted ways...while the production continued using the costumes he created to obtain the show’s sole nomination. These are all facts. Cancel culture? We don’t know her. Apparently. (Long "emphatically denies" the allegations.)

FIRST, LAST, WHO KNOWS: Speaking of laundered reputations, Paradise Square received 10 nominations, including Best Musical. This is surprising for three reasons: reviews were meh, development was rocky, and its producer was convicted of defrauding investors in excess of $400 million. The very presence of Garth Drabinsky casts a pall over the whole business. For two years, Broadway has grappled with questions of power, equity, and representation: who gets to be in a Broadway theatre, and why. So how is it that a convicted fraudster, of all people, was given the real estate to self-style a redemption arc? I don’t have this listed as a “surprise” because, as we all know by now, America loves a conman. Heck, there’s even a hit musical about it, currently starring Hugh Jackman.

MOVIE STARS: Speaking of Mr. Jackman, he is one of four Broadway performers selling out shows on name recognition alone - and the only one who nabbed a nom. Daniel Craig, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Matthew Broderick are likewise headlining hits, but came up empty on awards. (Notably, none received rave reviews.) It’s not fair to say nominators had it out for Hollywood, given other famous folks who did get nods, like Billy Crystal and Mary-Louise Parker. But they recognized more downtown heroes (Deirdre O’Connell, Dana H), rising talent (Gabby Beans, The Skin of Our Teeth), and fresh debuts (Jaquel Spivey, A Strange Loop) alongside them. And while stars may not get a free statuette, ticket sales are nothing to scoff at, especially with so many shows on the ropes. Craig’s presence in Macbeth essentially guarantees health insurance coverage for the rest of the cast.

ONE FOR THE TEAM: Six, the only bona fide original musical hit of the season, walked away with eight noms including Best Musical, but none for its stellar sextet of leading ladies. Not incidentally, the season’s other major ensemble piece, The Lehman Trilogy, did garner individual nods for its entire cast of men. Even setting aside the gendered disparity, why isn’t there a Tony for Best Ensemble? Other awards bestow it, and it would make so much sense here. Without it, the Six cast are shut out, and the Lehman boys now have to campaign against each other. Nobody wins.

RACE: During the first 18 months of the pandemic, Broadway’s racial identity crisis mirrored that of America. Much work was promised, some done, plenty still in progress. One immediate change: an influx of non-white artists and producers were given theaters, especially last fall. The Tonys recognized many, including new musicals (A Strange Loop), plays (Clyde's), and overdue revivals (for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf). But several of the biggest, most supported Black-led productions came up short, including Thoughts of a Colored Man, Chicken and Biscuits, and Pass Over. Three Broadway debuts for Black writers: touted for clout, ignored for awards? Maybe. Artists of color have voiced concerns over the way they were rapidly elevated last fall, when it was unclear if buyers were ready to return to the theater en masse. (They weren’t.) The overall Tony turnout is heartening, but conversations about support, success, and recognition are ongoing.

What shows are nominated for Tonys 2022?

Who holds the record for most Tony nominations for costume design?

Was six nominated for any Tony Awards?

Who wrote Tony opening 2022?