Wednesday, April 17, 2019
And The Winner ISN'T: The Biggest Tony Awards Upsets In History (PART ONE)
Theatre Nerds: You’re all dressed up for your big night. For months now you’ve been the talk of the town. The critics love you; the audiences love you, the nominators love you. You already won the Drama Desk a few weeks back, and tonight your show is nominated for more Tony Awards than anything else in the season. Everyone your parents have ever talked to are watching. You deserve this. Truly, you do.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I don't think there's ever been one awards show where everyone got what they deserved. Even now, post-award show days you can see articles entitled "Biggest Wins and Upsets of [insert award show here]." I feel like personally I see more upsets over individual nominees for Best Actress, Best Actor, etc... However, in the world of Best Musical, Avenue Q winning over Wicked is honestly shocking. I love Avenue Q with much of my whole being, but even so it's a bit unbelievable that it won Best Musical over Wicked. I think that both shows deserve a win, considering the amount of work that went into them individually, but when a show like Wicked, which had hit the mainstream incredibly fast and was bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars, boosting itself to be one of the most alluring, popular shows on Broadway, loses to a show that while is popular, with a significant cult following, it's a bit shocking. It seems like most people also thought that Wicked would win. I can personally describe the feeling of everyone thinking your name will be called when they announce the award, and then they announce someone else. Wicked may have been disappointed in that moment, but the size of its success may be recognition enough.
I think this article shows a lot about campaigning and politics of awards shows. Especially the Avenue Q vs. Wicked story. The team at Avenue Q treated the voting process like an investment (side note this seem eerily similar to a political campaign) and they won but does this really show the “Best Musical” or “the show that out the most money into it” what Avenue Q does do is it interests those who wouldn’t normally venture out to see a show or even listen to the music. Personally I was introduced to the show when my older brother was listening to it, the same older brother who is a biomedical marketing major and couldn’t care less about anything musical-esk. So that aspect of the show is very visible to me, but as to quality of theatre, I have never seen either so I can’t judge but I can only postulate.
Campaigning and politics
Post a Comment