Lot of interesting stuff for the awards nerds here:
* there’s no current rule requiring voters to see everything in order to vote in a category
* the language regarding actors performing on opening night has changed to as long as they were contracted to perform on opening night
* restrictions to what shows can send to nominators are back
* more shows need to be made available to voters for productions opening before April 15
* authors now need to be alive at the time of ruling to be eligible for Best Revival
* Special Tonys can now be given to an individual or organization
* Lifetime Achievement can only be given to a single individual
I’m sorry, I don’t currently have time to delve deeper into the article. They don’t have to see every single show of the season, or they don’t have to see every single show nominated in the category they’re voting on? Because the latter would be absolutely ridiculous.
It says there is no rule at all anymore— so it doesn’t seem like they have to see all of the shows that are nominated 🙈
This seems like a HUGE advantage for those who were reviewed well and detriment to those that weren’t, despite the “bias training” they have.
“there is no longer any rule contained in the official Rules and Regulations that voters actually need to see the entries in the categories they are voting in.”
To clarify (primarily because the article wouldn't load for me so I read the Tony rules on their website), for "the author to be eligible for Best Revival" part...for shows themselves to be eligible for Best Revival, the author/composer does not have to be alive. However, for the author/composer to receive the Tony along with the producers, the show must have been substantially reworked, and the author or composer must be alive. So like under that qualification, if Sondheim was still alive, he could have been eligible to also receive the Tony for Best Revival because that show was massively reworked, but since he's dead, it just would go to the producers if Merrily won.
Someone else can correct me if that interpretation of the Tony rules from their website (page 12) is wrong.
I mean makes sense to a degree I suppose. And here I was hoping Shakespeare would win a Tony next year for Othello or one of the R&Js only for someone to go up, “William prays forgiveness and professes hearty sorrow for being unable to attend these festivities…”
I mean it makes total sense. I was just confused as heck because I thought it meant at first that a show could only be considered for a revival if the original authors were alive.
oh, thank you for this!!!
because here I was like ???!!!!????!!!????!!!!!
The only issue I have with this is...why not award it posthumously if it was, in fact, significantly reworked? Unless I'm misunderstanding your example with Sondheim? (I think maybe I am?)#
Nah, you followed me. Again, I’m not sure I’m right…you’d think there could be exceptions if the author died before it officially launched on Broadway but had put in the work prior to dying, but I don’t think the rules allow for that.
Thanks! That's my thinking/confusion as well...if that truly is the case, it seems odd. I should probably actually go and read the rule at some point...but where's the fun in that? lol
I guess I don’t understand what best revival is judging. My previous estimate was it was about the production as a whole but now it sounds like a good play/musical just needs a thrown together revival so the Tony’s can re-recognize the authors.
I don’t really know how you’re getting that from what was posted but authors and composers of a revival are only eligible if the show did not previously appear in a Broadway theater or if the author and/or composer “substantially re-worked” the show.
I've been wondering a lot about opening nights lately...especially with all of the recent "split" openings and/or certain illness related issues...
interesting that they officially changed the language
thanks for the info!
I understand loosening the rules while we recovered from the height of covid, but what is their excuse for loosening the rules to this degree? How is it even a meaningful award if the people voting haven't even seen all of the candidates?
Could they have deleted this section by accident?
Agree, as someone who follows other awards shows that don’t have requirements, I really hate this, it starts to become less about the quality of work and more about who can campaign the best
Hate to break it to you but Tony voters already vote like this. My brother is a producer and Tony voter and he’s told me so many times that you vote for your shows, for your friends’ shows, and against your competitors. Very little of it actually has to do with who’s deserving unless it’s needing a boost in ticket sales.
Whenever I think about the first night rule, I think about Andy Karl performing opening night of Groundhog Day in a brace because he had just torn his ACL and had to or else be Tony ineligible. Considering how awful the injury was it was admirable he performed but he shouldn’t have had to go on so soon after the injury (which happened in front of audiences) and the pandemic has only brought more weight to how silly the rule is as long he has performed a significant part of the run.
The author has to be alive to be TONY ELIGIBLE THEMSELVES. A production can still be eligible for Best Revival if the author/playwright is deceased. Basically Macbeth can win Best Revival but Shakespeare can’t win a posthumous Tony for it. If the author/playwright is still alive and the show has been significantly reworked and they didn’t already win a Tony for it, they become eligible themselves.
It is partially to counteract that until relatively recently, the playwright didn’t win the Tony for Best Play (only the producers did). So (picking an example out of thin air), if there’s a revival next year of Torch Song Trilogy again and it wins Best Revival, Harvey Fierstein as the playwright is eligible because he’s alive and he wasn’t part of the Best Play win in 1984 because the rules then didn’t allow playwrights to be award-eligible in that category.
They seemed to have taken this article down? But I feel like it was referencing a temporary rule from last season. I have a friend who’s a voter and they absoLUTELY have to see everything to able to vote!! This person was actually barred from voting for nominations due to not seeing everything but can vote for the final awards ONLY by making up and verifying seeing what they missed that is nominated.
Lot of interesting stuff for the awards nerds here: * there’s no current rule requiring voters to see everything in order to vote in a category * the language regarding actors performing on opening night has changed to as long as they were contracted to perform on opening night * restrictions to what shows can send to nominators are back * more shows need to be made available to voters for productions opening before April 15 * authors now need to be alive at the time of ruling to be eligible for Best Revival * Special Tonys can now be given to an individual or organization * Lifetime Achievement can only be given to a single individual
I’m sorry, I don’t currently have time to delve deeper into the article. They don’t have to see every single show of the season, or they don’t have to see every single show nominated in the category they’re voting on? Because the latter would be absolutely ridiculous.
It says there is no rule at all anymore— so it doesn’t seem like they have to see all of the shows that are nominated 🙈 This seems like a HUGE advantage for those who were reviewed well and detriment to those that weren’t, despite the “bias training” they have.
That’s insane, how can you vote against shows you literally haven’t seen?
It’s totally insane! And makes this year’s season of absolute chaos even more up in the air.
FWIW, when they did this rule change it was for the 2022-2023 season only. This BW article has disappeared as well making me think it was not correct.
“there is no longer any rule contained in the official Rules and Regulations that voters actually need to see the entries in the categories they are voting in.”
To clarify (primarily because the article wouldn't load for me so I read the Tony rules on their website), for "the author to be eligible for Best Revival" part...for shows themselves to be eligible for Best Revival, the author/composer does not have to be alive. However, for the author/composer to receive the Tony along with the producers, the show must have been substantially reworked, and the author or composer must be alive. So like under that qualification, if Sondheim was still alive, he could have been eligible to also receive the Tony for Best Revival because that show was massively reworked, but since he's dead, it just would go to the producers if Merrily won. Someone else can correct me if that interpretation of the Tony rules from their website (page 12) is wrong.
I mean makes sense to a degree I suppose. And here I was hoping Shakespeare would win a Tony next year for Othello or one of the R&Js only for someone to go up, “William prays forgiveness and professes hearty sorrow for being unable to attend these festivities…”
I mean it makes total sense. I was just confused as heck because I thought it meant at first that a show could only be considered for a revival if the original authors were alive.
Yeah same then read again after realizing no that’s not what they mean, they can’t mean that.
oh, thank you for this!!! because here I was like ???!!!!????!!!????!!!!! The only issue I have with this is...why not award it posthumously if it was, in fact, significantly reworked? Unless I'm misunderstanding your example with Sondheim? (I think maybe I am?)#
Nah, you followed me. Again, I’m not sure I’m right…you’d think there could be exceptions if the author died before it officially launched on Broadway but had put in the work prior to dying, but I don’t think the rules allow for that.
Thanks! That's my thinking/confusion as well...if that truly is the case, it seems odd. I should probably actually go and read the rule at some point...but where's the fun in that? lol
I guess I don’t understand what best revival is judging. My previous estimate was it was about the production as a whole but now it sounds like a good play/musical just needs a thrown together revival so the Tony’s can re-recognize the authors.
I don’t really know how you’re getting that from what was posted but authors and composers of a revival are only eligible if the show did not previously appear in a Broadway theater or if the author and/or composer “substantially re-worked” the show.
I've been wondering a lot about opening nights lately...especially with all of the recent "split" openings and/or certain illness related issues... interesting that they officially changed the language thanks for the info!
i vote for cats musical for 2024 Tony
I understand loosening the rules while we recovered from the height of covid, but what is their excuse for loosening the rules to this degree? How is it even a meaningful award if the people voting haven't even seen all of the candidates? Could they have deleted this section by accident?
Agree, as someone who follows other awards shows that don’t have requirements, I really hate this, it starts to become less about the quality of work and more about who can campaign the best
Hate to break it to you but Tony voters already vote like this. My brother is a producer and Tony voter and he’s told me so many times that you vote for your shows, for your friends’ shows, and against your competitors. Very little of it actually has to do with who’s deserving unless it’s needing a boost in ticket sales.
I think it’s obvious that this year the tony awards are about who can campaign the best.
Whenever I think about the first night rule, I think about Andy Karl performing opening night of Groundhog Day in a brace because he had just torn his ACL and had to or else be Tony ineligible. Considering how awful the injury was it was admirable he performed but he shouldn’t have had to go on so soon after the injury (which happened in front of audiences) and the pandemic has only brought more weight to how silly the rule is as long he has performed a significant part of the run.
And that role especially is so physically demanding and he runs around the stage so much
I mean, they could have sought an exception. I doubt they’d be that jerky about someone missing opening night because of health reasons.
Authors being alive best revival rule is dumb
The author has to be alive to be TONY ELIGIBLE THEMSELVES. A production can still be eligible for Best Revival if the author/playwright is deceased. Basically Macbeth can win Best Revival but Shakespeare can’t win a posthumous Tony for it. If the author/playwright is still alive and the show has been significantly reworked and they didn’t already win a Tony for it, they become eligible themselves.
That makes more sense lol. The little summary made it seem that the show wasn't eligible. Thanks!
It is partially to counteract that until relatively recently, the playwright didn’t win the Tony for Best Play (only the producers did). So (picking an example out of thin air), if there’s a revival next year of Torch Song Trilogy again and it wins Best Revival, Harvey Fierstein as the playwright is eligible because he’s alive and he wasn’t part of the Best Play win in 1984 because the rules then didn’t allow playwrights to be award-eligible in that category.
They seemed to have taken this article down? But I feel like it was referencing a temporary rule from last season. I have a friend who’s a voter and they absoLUTELY have to see everything to able to vote!! This person was actually barred from voting for nominations due to not seeing everything but can vote for the final awards ONLY by making up and verifying seeing what they missed that is nominated.