2023 Tony Award nominations reflect a rocky Broadway season

The 2023 Tony Award nominations were announced Tuesday morning. And the 76-year-old ceremony honoring Broadway is, like most of this season, looking smaller than usual.

Ahead of the awards, held on June 11, the pre-show telecast has been banished by CBS to something called Pluto. The Tonys themselves are taking place about as far away from the Theater District as the planet Pluto — at the United Palace in Washington Heights. And the writers strike all but ensures we’re in for a loosey-goosey night of bad improv and awkwardness.

A-five, six, seven, eight!

Onto the nominees. Battling it out are a number of struggling if occasionally very worthy shows that have had trouble gaining traction with audiences. 

There’s no “Producers,” “Hamilton” or “Book of Mormon”-size hit here among the new musicals. There’s not even a “Come From Away.” Everybody – and I mean everybody – needs to win to survive.    

The likely Best Musical victor, “Kimberly Akimbo,” managed eight nods, including Best Actress for star Victoria Clark, who should come out on top, and Featured Actress for Bonnie Milligan, who will also likely have a happy night.  

Still, the musical comedy “Shucked,” with nine nods, has a kernel of hope to upset “Kimberly” for the big prize. At the “Phantom of the Opera” closing-night party two weeks ago, several voters eagerly told me their affections lie with the joke-stuffed show.

“Shucked’s” Alex Newell should also win Featured Actor for their belty performance.

The other Best Musical competition is “Some Like It Hot,” “& Juliet” and “New York, New York,” which mystifyingly managed nine nominations after getting some of the worst reviews of the season. To quote a far better show, it’s a helluva town!

Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s musical adaptation of “Some Like It Hot,” meanwhile, scored 13 nominations — the most of any musical, but abundance means less at the Tonys than it does at the Oscars. “Mean Girls” had the same number of nominations in 2018 and won zilch. 

“Hot” could nab a few, but its best shot is a Best Actor trophy for J. Harrison Ghee as disguised-in-drag Jerry/Daphne, who is up against Josh Groban (“Sweeney Todd”), Ben Platt (“Parade”), Christian Borle (“Some Like It Hot”), Brian d’Arcy James (“Into the Woods”) and Colton Ryan (“New York, New York”). 

And, in this tough season, a few musicals were snubbed completely — “A Beautiful Noise,” the lame bio-show about Neil Diamond, the revivals of “1776” and “Dancin’” and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Bad Cinderella” all got zero nominations. The latter two would be wise to call it a day.

The plays are more impressive — three of the Best Play nominees are Pulitzer winners — but Tom Stoppard’s sprawling “Leopoldstadt” has the momentum to win. It goes up against “Ain’t No Mo’,” “Between Riverside and Crazy,” “Cost of Living” and “Fat Ham.”

On the acting side, Jodie Comer from “Killing Eve” has gotten raves for her performance as a sexual assault lawyer in the one-woman play “Prima Facie” and is the favorite to take home Best Actress in a Play.  

But Jessica Chastain, who’s also nominated for playing Nora in “A Doll’s House,” is known to be a ruthless awards-season campaigner, having shaken a lot of hands to win the Oscar for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.” Chastain could take it.

“She’s very competitive,” a source said. “She will know exactly how to chase it.” 

Best Actor is more of a toss-up, but I give the edge to Stephen McKinley Henderson. He was excellent in “Between Riverside and Crazy,” has had a long career and is beloved in the industry. His category is formidable though: Sean Hayes in “Good Night, Oscar,” Corey Hawkins and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (both of “Topdog/Underdog”) and Wendell Pierce (“Death of a Salesman”).

There were some notable star snubs: Rachel Brosnahan (TV’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) and Oscar Isaac (“Star Wars”) were left off for their work in “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window.” That play revival was added to the season at the last minute, and Tony nominators, I’m told, were none too pleased to attend. Laura Linney (“Ozark”) didn’t make it for “Summer, 1976,” either.

Hardest to predict is the Best Revival of a Musical race, which is between three shows: “Into the Woods,” “Sweeney Todd” and “Parade.” The fourth nominee, “Camelot,” is lucky to have a seat at King Tony’s round table. 

“Parade” is considered relevant due to a rise in anti-Semitism; “Into the Woods” was one of the season’s few enthusiastic events; and “Sweeney Todd” is the rare big, lush-sounding production of late. I tend to side here with “Sweeney,” which is raking in money, has a big star and isn’t a limited run or already closed. However, its director, Thomas Kail (“Hamilton”), didn’t make the cut in the Best Director category.

But a lot can change in a month. See ya on Pluto!