There will be three productions vying for this year's Best Revival of Musical at the 75th Annual Tony Awards on June 12: Caroline, Or Change and Company, both transferring from their pre-pandemic runs in London's West End, and the Hugh Jackman-Sutton Foster led The Music Man. Only one other musical revival, Funny Girl, was eligible for this season's honors but garnered only a single nomination for Jared Grimes in the Featured Actor category.
Playbill takes a look at how this year's nominated revivals compare to their previous productions. Read on to see which of these plays has taken home a trophy or two in years past, and check out our side-by-side comparisons of the nominated play revivals here.
Caroline, Or Change
The 2021 Roundabout production, a transfer of the 2018 West End staging, is the first revival of the Jeanine Tesori-Tony Kushner musical since its 2004 Broadway premiere. Set in 1963 Louisiana, the musical focuses on Caroline, a maid working in the sweltering basement of the Gellman household and her relationship with eight-year-old Noah Gellman. Its three Tony nominations this season—Best Revival, Best Leading Actress for title star Sharon D Clarke, and Best Costume Design for Fly Davis—mirror its three 2019 Olivier nominations. Clarke did win the Olivier for her portrayal of Caroline, and fun fact, she won again in 2020 for Death of a Salesman, which will also be transferring to Broadway next season with Clarke reprising her performance.
The original Broadway run was nominated for six Tony Awards: Best Musical, Best Book (Kushner), Best Original Score (Tesori and Kushner), Best Direction (George C. Woolf), Best Leading Actress (Tonya Pinkins as Caroline), and its sole winner, Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Anika Noni Rose as Emmie Thibodeaux.
Company
Another West End transfer, the currently running revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's Company, under the direction of Marianne Elliot, flips the gender of the turning-30 protagonist. Katrina Lenk stars as Bobbie (originally written as Bobby) in the musical about dating and marriage. In addition to its Best Revival nod, Company has received nominations for performances by Patti LuPone as Joanne, Matt Doyle as Jamie (previously known as Amy), and Jennifer Simard as Sarah; scenic design by Bunny Christie, sound design by Ian Dickinson, and lighting design by Neil Austin; new orchestrations by David Cullen, and for Elliot's direction.
The musical premiered in 1970 and received 14 Tony nominations (the record for most nominations until broken by The Producers in 2001). It won six awards at the 1971 ceremony including Best Musical, Best Book for George Furth, Best Music and Best Lyrics (now jointly Best Original Score, the award was split at the time) for Stephen Sondheim, Best Direction for Harold Prince, and Best Scenic Design for Boris Aronson. It was nominated for six performance awards (including lead Larry Kert and Elaine Stritch as Joanne), but did not take home any performance trophies that year.
A short-lived 1995 revival starring Boyd Gaines garnered nominations for Best Revival and for Veanne Cox as Amy, but went home empty-handed; and a 2006 production took home a Best Revival award. It was also nominated for John Doyle's direction and its Bobby, Raúl Esparza.
The Music Man
The fourth revival of the Meredith Willson Golden Age standard, now running at the Winter Garden Theatre, is nominated in six categories this season, including nods for the show two star leads Hugh Jackman as con man-band leader Harold Hill and Sutton Foster as Marian the librarian. The classic crowd-pleaser is also nominated for Best Choreography for Warren Carlyle and Best Costume Design for Santo Loquasto, as well as a performance nomination for Jayne Houdyshell as Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn.
The Music Man made its Main Stem debut in 1957, led by Robert Preston (who would reprise his roll as Harold Hill for the 1962 film) and Barbara Cook, both earning Tony Awards for their performances (Best Actor for Preston, Best Featured Actress for Cook), along with David Burns for Best Featured Actor as Mayor Shinn. In addition to the three performance awards, the premiere run took home Best Musical, as well as two awards that are no longer presented: Best Stage Technician, won by Sammy Knapp, and Best Conductor and Musical Director for Herbert Greene. The production was also nominated for Onna White's choreography and Morton Da Costa's direction, and Iggie Wolfington received a nom for Best Featured Actor as Marcellus Washburn.
A 1980 revival starring Dick Van Dyke and Meg Bussert ran for less than a month at City Center and received no Tony nominations, although the Bussert was nominated for Brigadoon that same year. The musical fared better with eight nominations for its 2000 revival, including Best Revival and performance nods for stars Craig Bierko and Rebecca Luker. Although director-choreographer Susan Stroman (currently represented on Broadway with POTUS) was nominated in both categories for The Music Man, she was ALSO nominated in both categories for Contact, the year's controversial Best Musical winner. She took home a Tony for Contact's choreography.
Following last year's two-part broadcast shared by CBS and Paramount+, the 2022 Tony Awards will include an hour of exclusive programming streaming on Paramount+ June 12 from 7 PM ET, followed by the three-hour awards ceremony airing live on CBS and streaming simultaneously on Paramount+ (for premium-level subscribers only) from 8 PM ET, making this year's ceremony the first in Tony Awards history to be available live nationwide. The broadcast will also be available to stream on demand on Paramount+ for all membership tiers following the live stream.
For more Tony Awards coverage, visit Playbill.com/Tonys.
