‘A Strange Loop’ leads with 11 Tony nominations as Broadway comes back from a plague

Amid a plague, both of disease and revanchism, Monday morning’s Tony nominations announcement offered history-making and hope with a bevy of stacked categories. 

Tony winners Adrienne Warren (Tina) and Joshua Henry (Carousel) delivered the good news. Warren is a co-founder of Broadway Advocacy Coalition, one of a number of associations and groups, including Black Theatre Coalition, Black Theatre United and #WeSeeYouWAT, that have been agitating for racial equity in the theater.

All three productions leading this year’s class are by and about Black people. Pulitzer-winning lyricist, composer and playwright Michael R. Jackson’s musical roman á clef, A Strange Loop, led this year’s class with 11 nominations, including for best musical. Following with 10 nominations was MJ, the biographical jukebox show about Michael Jackson, penned by Lynn Nottage, and Paradise Square, a musical starring Joaquina Kalukango and co-written by Christina Anderson. And for the first time in the history of the awards, a transgender person was nominated. When L Morgan Lee, who plays Thought 1 in A Strange Loop and is up for featured actress in a musical, plaudits heard the news, she tweeted, “I can’t stop crying.”

Trouble in Mind, the Alice Childress play that was too radical to be mounted on Broadway when she first staged it in 1955, is now up for a Tony for best revival of a play alongside Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. Meanwhile, Caroline, or Change, Tony Kushner’s phantasmagorical family drama about a Black maid in Louisiana and the white Jewish family for whom she works, was nominated for best revival of a musical. Sharon D. Clarke and LaChanze, the vocal tour de forces who made Caroline and Trouble in Mind such lively, compelling productions, were also nominated in their respective acting categories.

In addition, two Black women, Camille A. Brown (for colored girls) and Lileana Blain-Cruz (The Skin of Our Teeth) were nominated for directing prizes, a category that has historically overlooked them. No Black woman has ever won a Tony for playwriting, book writing, costume design, orchestrations or directing.

That could change this year. 

Playwright Dominique Morisseau, who first garnered a nomination for Ain’t Too Proud, netted another writing nomination, this time for Skeleton Crew, which was also recognized for scenic design and for acting (Phylicia Rashad). Her Skeleton Crew director and frequent collaborator, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, netted a nomination for best performance by an actor in a play for his autobiographical story, which also exists in film form, Lackawanna Blues. Morisseau is joined in the playwriting category by two-time Pulitzer winner Nottage for Clyde’s, which also garnered nominations for lead actress Uzo Aduba, and featured actors Ron Cephas Jones and Kara Young. Brown, who also choreographed this production of Shange’s choreopoem, is nominated for her dance work, too, against Bill T. Jones (Paradise Square). Ethiopian-Irish actor Ruth Negga garnered a nomination for her role as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. And Six: The Musical, a contemporary female-empowerment comedy about the wives of King Henry VIII, netted eight nominations. (Much like in Hamilton, the majority of the Six cast is deliberately nonwhite.)

This year’s Tonys will be the first for a full Broadway season (2021-22) that ran in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The last Tony celebration honored work from 2019-20, with truncated eligibility because New York shut down theaters in mid-March 2020, while many shows that were unofficial Tony bait slated to open in April either never made it to opening night, or closed and then reopened. Some of those shows include American Buffalo, Hangmen, The Lehman Trilogy, Six, Company and The Minutes.

This year, Tony voters were required to participate in unconscious bias training. That requirement came, deliberately or not, after Jeremy O. Harris’ Slave Play, which garnered a historic high of 12 nominations, failed to win any awards. One of those 12 nominations went to Kalukango, who is nominated for the second straight season, this time for her work as the lead of the musical Paradise Square.

Racial justice was at the forefront of the 2021 ceremony. Director Kenny Leon delivered a thunderous sermon while accepting the award for best direction of a play for A Soldier’s Play. The Tonys, which are presented by the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League, awarded a special Tony to the Broadway Advocacy Coalition. And that introduced a question: Would we see results from such efforts, or would they be forgotten by theater owners, producers, unions and other groups? The aftermath of the 2016 Tonys suggests watchers proceed with caution — after that historic season, Broadway reverted back to an overwhelmingly white norm. But the short answer seems to be that the momentum has carried through, though there is always more work to be done.

This year’s special Tony recipients have also been announced. The Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre will go to the Asian American Performers Action Coalition, Broadway For All, music copyist Emily Grishman, Feinstein’s/54 Below and United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829, IATSE. The Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award will be presented to Robert E. Wankel.

A Special Tony Award will be granted to James C. Nicola, the influential artistic director of the New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW), who has been in the role since 1988. NYTW continues to be a consistent home for challenging, smart work. Nicola is responsible for introducing recent hits such as Slave Play, What the Constitution Means to Me and Hadestown.

The Tonys will air June 12 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, hosted by Oscar winner Ariana DeBose from Radio City Music Hall.

The complete list of 2022 Tony nominations follows:

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Best Book of a Musical

Girl From The North Country

Conor McPherson

MJ

Lynn Nottage

Mr. Saturday Night

Billy Crystal, Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel

Paradise Square

Christina Anderson, Craig Lucas and Larry Kirwan

A Strange Loop

Michael R. Jackson

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Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre

Flying Over Sunset

Music: Tom Kitt; Lyrics: Michael Korie

Mr. Saturday Night

Music: Jason Robert Brown; Lyrics: Amanda Green

Paradise Square

Music: Jason Howland

Lyrics: Nathan Tysen and Masi Asare

SIX: The Musical

Music and Lyrics: Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss

A Strange Loop

Music and Lyrics: Michael R. Jackson

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Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play

Simon Russell Beale, The Lehman Trilogy

Adam Godley, The Lehman Trilogy

Adrian Lester, The Lehman Trilogy

David Morse, How I Learned to Drive

Sam Rockwell, American Buffalo

Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Lackawanna Blues

David Threlfall, Hangmen

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Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play

Gabby Beans, The Skin of Our Teeth 

LaChanze, Trouble in Mind

Ruth Negga, Macbeth

Deirdre O’Connell, Dana H.

Mary-Louise Parker, How I Learned to Drive

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Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical

Billy Crystal, Mr. Saturday Night

Myles Frost, MJ

Hugh Jackman, The Music Man

Rob McClure, Mrs. Doubtfire

Jaquel Spivey, A Strange Loop

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Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical

Sharon D Clarke, Caroline, or Change

Carmen Cusack, Flying Over Sunset

Sutton Foster, The Music Man

Joaquina Kalukango, Paradise Square

Mare Winningham, Girl From The North Country

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Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play

Alfie Allen, Hangmen

Chuck Cooper, Trouble in Mind

Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Take Me Out

Ron Cephas Jones, Clyde’s

Michael Oberholtzer, Take Me Out

Jesse Williams, Take Me Out

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Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play

Uzo Aduba, Clyde’s

Rachel Dratch, POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive

Kenita R. Miller, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf

Phylicia Rashad, Skeleton Crew

Julie White, POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive

Kara Young, Clyde’s

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Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical

Matt Doyle, Company

Sidney DuPont, Paradise Square

Jared Grimes, Funny Girl

John-Andrew Morrison, A Strange Loop

A.J. Shively, Paradise Square

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Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical

Jeannette Bayardelle, Girl From The North Country

Shoshana Bean, Mr. Saturday Night

Jayne Houdyshell, The Music Man

L Morgan Lee, A Strange Loop

Patti LuPone, Company

Jennifer Simard, Company

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Best Scenic Design of a Play

Beowulf Boritt, POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive

Michael Carnahan and Nicholas Hussong, Skeleton Crew

Es Devlin, The Lehman Trilogy

Anna Fleischle, Hangmen

Scott Pask, American Buffalo 

Adam Rigg, The Skin of Our Teeth

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Best Scenic Design of a Musical

Beowulf Boritt and 59 Productions, Flying Over Sunset 

Bunny Christie, Company

Arnulfo Maldonado, A Strange Loop

Derek McLane and Peter Nigrini, MJ

Allen Moyer, Paradise Square

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Best Costume Design of a Play

Montana Levi Blanco, The Skin of Our Teeth

Sarafina Bush, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf

Emilio Sosa, Trouble in Mind

Jane Greenwood, Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite

Jennifer Moeller, Clyde’s

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Best Costume Design of a Musical

Fly Davis, Caroline, or Change 

Toni-Leslie James, Paradise Square 

William Ivey Long, Diana, The Musical 

Santo Loquasto, The Music Man 

Gabriella Slade, SIX: The Musical

Paul Tazewell, MJ

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Best Lighting Design of a Play

Joshua Carr, Hangmen

Jiyoun Chang, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf

Jon Clark, The Lehman Trilogy

Jane Cox, Macbeth

Yi Zhao, The Skin of Our Teeth

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Best Lighting Design of a Musical

Neil Austin, Company

Tim Deiling, SIX: The Musical

Donald Holder, Paradise Square

Natasha Katz, MJ

Bradley King, Flying Over Sunset

Jen Schriever, A Strange Loop

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Best Sound Design of a Play

Justin Ellington, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf 

Mikhail Fiksel, Dana H.

Palmer Hefferan, The Skin of Our Teeth

Nick Powell and Dominic Bilkey, The Lehman Trilogy

Mikaal Sulaiman, Macbeth

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Best Sound Design of a Musical

Simon Baker, Girl From The North Country 

Paul Gatehouse, SIX: The Musical

Ian Dickinson for Autograph, Company 

Drew Levy, A Strange Loop

Gareth Owen, MJ

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Best Direction of a Play

Lileana Blain-Cruz, The Skin of Our Teeth

Camille A. Brown, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf

Sam Mendes, The Lehman Trilogy

Neil Pepe, American Buffalo

Les Waters, Dana H.

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best direction of a musical

Stephen Brackett, A Strange Loop

Marianne Elliott, Company

Conor McPherson, Girl From The North Country

Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage, SIX: The Musical

Christopher Wheeldon, MJ

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Best Choreography

Camille A. Brown, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf 

Warren Carlyle, The Music Man

Carrie-Anne Ingrouille, SIX: The Musical

Bill T. Jones, Paradise Square

Christopher Wheeldon, MJ

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Best Orchestrations

David Cullen, Company

Tom Curran, SIX: The Musical

Simon Hale, Girl From The North Country

Jason Michael Webb and David Holcenberg, MJ

Charlie Rosen, A Strange Loop

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BEST PLAY

Clyde’s

Hangmen

The Lehman Trilogy

The Minutes

Skeleton Crew

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Best Musical

Girl From The North Country

MJ

Mr. Saturday Night

Paradise Square

SIX: The Musical

A Strange Loop

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Best Revival of a Play

American Buffalo

for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf

How I Learned to Drive

Take Me Out

Trouble in Mind

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Best Revival of a Musical

Caroline, or Change

Company

The Music Man