Tony Nods Go to GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE, HEDWIG, Rylance and McDonald

Today was Tony nominations day, when multi-media performers Jonathan Groff (Frozen, Looking, Spring Awakening) and Lucy Liu (Charlie's Angels, Elementary, God of Carnage) took the podium at the Paramount Hotel in New York City to announce who among Broadway performers and which among Broadway shows Tony voters wanted to honor.

But first... Hugh Jackman crashed the announcement to offer a reminder that the Tony Awards themselves will take place on Sunday, June 8 at 8 pm Eastern time. Don't forget!

Back to the nominees. A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder, a musical version of the Alec Guiness movie Kind Hearts and Coronets, landed at the top of the nominations heap with ten overall, with Neil Patrick Harris and Hedwig and the Angry Inch coming up next with eight.

There were some surprises, like the fact that they mustered only four nominees in the Best Musical category, with no love for The Bridges of Madison County, Bullets Over Broadway or If/Then. The nomination for Chris O'Dowd as Best Actor in a Leading Role for Of Mice and Men wasn't entirely surprising, although the production wasn't exactly a critics' favorite. But there was no space for Daniel Radcliffe in The Cripple of Inishmaan or Denzel Washington in A Raisin in the Sun, which were more well regarded. Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart also came up empty for their performances in No Man's Land and Waiting for Godot and Zachary Quinto was the only member of The Glass Menagerie cast not to get a nomination.

I'm also a little miffed that Santino Fontana didn't score a nod for playing Moss Hart in Act One, although the oldest version of Hart in the play, Tony Shalhoub, did. Fontana has to run several miles a performance to play his Hart, and he should've been recognized for that, as well as for being adorable and fabulous in general. While we're on the subject of Act One, it might have been nice to see Andrea Martin on the Featured Actress list for her scene-stealing performance as Aunt Kate.

Meanwhile, Britain's Mark Rylance, a two-time Tony winner, took two nominations this time out for roles in Shakespeare plays. His turn as Richard III in Richard III earned him another nod as Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play, while his Olivia in an all-male Twelfth Night pulled in a nomination in the Featured Actor category. I am not a big Rylance fan -- he was the first Artistic Director of the Globe Theatre but he's a Shakespeare denier, which I find quite odd -- plus I'm not enthusiastic about the conceit of all-male Shakespeare shows when good roles for women in Shakespeare are already scarce. But he certainly does play well to the Tony committee.

The only one who plays better may be Audra McDonald. She's won five Tonys already, and if she picks up the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for her work in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, she will set a new record with six acting Tonys, including one in each of the four major categories.

So who else was nominated? Here's the list:

Best Play
Act One, by James Lapine
All the Way, by Robert Schenkkan
Casa Valentina, by Harvey Fierstein
Mothers and Sons, by Terrence McNally
Outside Mullingar, by John Patrick Shanley

Best Musical
After Midnight
Aladdin
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder

Best Revival of a Play
The Cripple of Inishmaan, by Martin McDonagh
The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams
A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry
Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare

Best Revival of a Musical
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Les Misérables
Violet

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Tyne Daly, Mothers and Sons
LaTonya Richardson Jackson, A Raisin in the Sun
Cherry Jones, The Glass Menagerie
Audra McDonald, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill
Estelle Parsons, The Velocity of Autumn

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
Samuel Barnett, Twelfth Night
Bryan Cranston, All The Way
Chris O'Dowd, Of Mice and Men
Mark Rylance, Richard III
Tony Shalhoub, Act One

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
Mary Bridget Davis, A Night With Janis Joplin
Sutton Foster, Violet
Idina Menzel, If/Then
Jessie Mueller, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Kelli O'Hara, The Bridges of Madison County

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
Neil Patrick Harris, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Ramin Karimloo, Les Misérables
Andy Karl, Rocky
Jefferson Mays, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder
Bryce Pinkham, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
Sarah Greene, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Celia Keenan-Bolger, The Glass Menagerie
Sophie Okonedo, A Raisin in the Sun
Anika Noni Rose, A Raisin in the Sun
Mare Winningham, Casa Valentina

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
Reed Birney, Casa Valentina
Paul Chahidi, Twelfth Night
Stephen Fry, Twelfth Night
Mark Rylance, Twelfth Night
Brian J. Smith, The Glass Menagerie

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical
Linda Emond, Cabaret
Lena Hall, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Anika Larsen, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical
Adriane Lenox, After Midnight
Lauren Worsham, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical
Danny Burstein, Cabaret
Nick Cordero, Bullets Over Broadway
Joshua Henry, Violet
James Monroe Iglehart, Aladdin
Jarrod Spector, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical

Best Director of a Play
Tim Carroll, Twelfth Night
Michael Grandage, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Kenny Leon, A Raisin in the Sun
John Tiffany, The Glass Menagerie

Best Director of a Musical
Warren Carlyle, After Midnight
Michael Mayer, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Leigh Silverman,Violet
Darko Tresnjak,A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder

Best Book of a Musical
Chad Beguelin, Aladdin
Douglas McGrath, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Woody Allen, Bullets Over Broadway
Robert L. Freedman, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics)
Alan Menken, music, and Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Chad Beguelin, lyrics, Aladdin.
Jason Robert Brown, music and lyrics, The Bridges of Madison County
Steven Lutvak, music, and Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak, lyrics, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder
Tom Kitt, music, and Brian Yorkey, lyrics, If/Then

Best Choreography
Warren Carlyle, After Midnight
Steven Hoggett and Kelly Devine, Rocky
Casey Nicholaw, Aladdin
Susan Stroman, Bullets Over Broadway

Best Orchestrations
Doug Besterman, Bullets Over Broadway
Jason Robert Brown, The Bridges of Madison County
Steve Sidwell, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Jonathan Tunick, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder

Best Scenic Design of a Play
Beowulf Boritt, Act One
Bob Crowley, The Glass Menagerie
Es Devlin, Machinal
Christopher Oram, The Cripple of Inishmaan

Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Christopher Barreca, Rocky
Julian Crouch, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Alexander Dodge, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder
Santo Loquasto, Bullets Over Broadway

Best Costume Design of a Play
Jane Greenwood, Act One
Michael Krass, Machinal
Rita Ryack, Casa Valentina
Jenny Tiramani, Twelfth Night

Best Costume Design of a Musical
Linda Cho, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder
William Ivey Long, Bullets Over Broadway
Arianne Phillips, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Isabel Toledo, After Midnight

Best Lighting Design of a Play
Paule Constable, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Jane Cox, Machinal
Natasha Katz, The Glass Menagerie
Japhy Weideman, Of Mice and Men

Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Kevin Adams, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Christopher Akerlind, Rocky
Howell Binkley, After Midnight
Donald Holder, The Bridges of Madison County

Best Sound Design of a Play
Alex Baranowski, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Steve Canyon Kennedy, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill
Dan Moses Schreier, Act One
Matt Tierney, Machinal

Best Sound Design of a Musical
Peter Hylenski, After Midnight
Tim O’Heir, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Mick Potter, Les Misérables
Brian Ronan, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

The 2014 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater will be presented to costume designer Jane Greenwood, while President and CEO of The Actors Fund Joe Benincasa, photographer Joan Marcus and general manager Charlotte Wilcox will receive this year's Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theater.

As announced a few days ago, the Signature Theatre will receive the 2014 Regional Theater Tony Award. Yes, the Signature is in New York. This is the first year that New York theaters were eligible for the Regional Tony. Why? I have no idea. The whole point of the Regional Tony was to honor theaters outside New York, after all.

A Much Different MUCH ADO with Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones

Joss Whedon's black-and-white home-grown Much Ado About Nothing has been the story of the summer, exciting Whedon fans and bringing a few new folks to Shakespeare's most romantic comedy. But last December, a very different Much Ado was announced, offering the prospect that Beatrice and Benedick, usually envisioned as a pair of mature lovers, would be very mature indeed. In this production for London's Old Vic, Beatrice and Benedick will be Vanessa Redgrave, 76, and James Earl Jones, 82.

In the Whedon movie, Beatrice in the form of Amy Acker was 40 years younger than Redgrave, while Benedick, played by Alexis Denisof, was a mere 35 years younger than Jones.

The age of this B & B has created some controversy, with The Guardian's Lyn Gardner deciding it was, after all, much ado about nothing, and age simply doesn't matter on stage, while the Evening Standard quoted director Mark Rylance as saying that this take on Beatrice and Benedick was right for the script, which involves "the callousness of youth and the wisdom of age."

Rylance himself has played Benedick -- when he was in his early 30s -- and Doctor Who's David Tennant and Catherine Tate took on the battling lovers in 2011, when both were in their 40s. You can see the Tennant/Tate Much Ado as preserved by Digital Theatre if you want to compare/contrast to Acker and Denisof. Or, of course, you can pop in the DVD from the 1993 movie directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, who played Benedick opposite his then-wife Emma Thompson in a sweeping, lyrical and lovely film set in Tuscany.

If you have a way to get to London between September 7 and November 23, you can try to get a ticket to this new Much Ado at the Old Vic. Based on the poster art shown above, I'm guessing that Rylance's production will set up Beatrice and Benedick's first love affair, the one that didn't end well and contributes to the tension (and the sparks) between them now, as having occurred during World War II. That would also suggest (given Redgrave and Jones' current ages) that when they meet up again, they haven't seen each for quite some time. Maybe 50 years or so. That's a big gap to hold a grudge. And since Jones is American while Redgrave is British, perhaps the back story will be that he was an American GI who simply never returned to his English girlfriend after the war. Of course, shoehorning that interpretation into Shakespeare's existing words which set the action in Messina, Italy, when Benedick (among others) celebrates after a successful battle, might be a bit tough. Surely an 80-year-old Benedick ought to be higher up the ranks by now and not out engaging in combat alongside Spanish princes. Or maybe the poster indicates it is World War II now, when the action commences, and that's an image of Hero and Claudio, the younger lovers in the piece, as they appear right this minute, as opposed to a picture of B & B in the past. It's fun to speculate, but we'll find out for sure what conceit Rylance has constructed when the show opens in September.

Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones in Driving Miss Daisy

Redgrave and Jones have been paired for this project after performing Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy on Broadway and in London in 2010-11, a production that showed off their chemistry as well as their stage chops. If anyone can make a senior citizen Much Ado work, it's those two.

For this Old Vic production, Beth Cooke will play Hero, the sweet young thing whose honor is besmirched by evil Don John, while Lloyd Everitt will be her Claudio. James Garnon has been cast as Don Pedro, the Spanish prince mentioned above, with Danny Lee Wynter as Don John, his half-brother and the villain in the piece, and Michael Elwyn as Leonato, Hero's dad and the host to the extended party at the center of the action.

American actor Kevin Spacey has been the artistic director of the Old Vic since 2004, and he has announced he will stay in that position until 2015. Speculation continues that he will be succeeded by none other than Kenneth Branagh, the famous film Benedick, who recently played Macbeth at the Manchester International Festival opposite Alex Kingston.