Tony Award Nominations: Scarlett Johansson + Sigourney Weaver ‘Snubbed’

Tony Awards: ‘Lucky Guy’ with Tom Hanks.

Tony Awards 2013: Tom Hanks, Nora Ephron & Cicely Tyson among nominees

April 30 update: The Tony Awards 2013 nominations were announced earlier today. Missing in action is a whole array of film celebrities, though a few managed to be included in this year’s shortlist.

Two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks (Philadelphia, Forrest Gump) is in the running for Best Actor in a Play for Lucky Guy, which is also up for the Best Play Tony Award. Written by Nora Ephron, who directed Hanks and Meg Ryan in two of their biggest box office hits, Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, Lucky Guy traces the rise, fall, and rebirth of New York tabloid columnist Mike McAlary. Ephron, among whose other film credits include the Meryl Streep / Amy Adams comedy Julie & Julia and, as a screenwriter, the Billy Crystal / Meg Ryan hit When Harry Met Sally…, died of cancer last year.

Tom Hanks’ fellow Best Actor in a Play contenders are Nathan Lane (The Birdcage) for The Nance, David Hyde Pierce (Nixon) for Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike, Tom Sturridge (On the Road, Effie, Waiting for Forever) for Orphans, and Tracy Letts for the latest Broadway revival of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (in the role that earned Richard Burton a Best Actor Academy Award nomination in 1966).

Tony Awards: Cicely Tyson vying for Best Actress in a Play

Cicely Tyson, a 1972 Best Actress Academy Award nominee for Martin Ritt’s drama Sounder, was shortlisted for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the revival of Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful. Tyson stars as an old woman who yearns to return to her old hometown, a role that earned Geraldine Page an Academy Award in early 1986. Tyson’s co-stars are Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr (Tom Cruise’s pal in Jerry Maguire) and Vanessa L. Williams (most recently seen on screen in Tyler Perry’s Temptation).

Cicely Tyson’s Best Actress in a Play competitors are Kristine Nielsen for Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike; Laurie Metcalf (Toy Story movies) as a neurologist on the brink in The Other Place; Holland Taylor as former Texas governor Ann Richards in Ann; and Amy Morton for Who’s Afraid in Virginia Woolf?, in the role that earned Elizabeth Taylor a Best Actress Oscar in early 1967.

Other Tony Awards nominations

Besides Lucky Guy, the other three contenders for Best Play are Colm Tóibín’s controversial The Testament of Mary, which curiously didn’t earn a nod for star Fiona Shaw; Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike; and Richard Greenberg’s The Assembled Parties.

Up for Best Revival of a Play are Clifford Odets’ Golden Boy, made into a movie in 1939, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and William Holden; The Trip to Bountiful; Lyle Kessler’s Orphans; and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. A 1987 movie adaptation of Orphans starred Albert Finney, Matthew Modine, and Kevin Anderson.

The Best Musical Tony Award nominees are Bring It On: The Musical, based on the 2000 movie starring Kirsten Dunst; Kinky Boots, based on the 2005 movie starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Joel Edgerton, and with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper; A Christmas Story, The Musical; and Matilda The Musical.

Up for Best Revival of a Musical are Annie, which became a 1982 movie directed by John Huston, and featuring Albert Finney and Carol Burnett; The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which was turned into a now largely forgotten 1935 movie starring Claude Rains and David Manners; Pippin, from the immensely popular ’70s musical directed by Bob Fosse (Cabaret); and Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella.

In the running for Best Actor in a Musical are Bertie Carvel for Matilda The Musical; Santino Fontana for Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella; Rob McClure for his incarnation of silent film legend Charles Chaplin in Chaplin (Iron Man 3‘s Robert Downey Jr was nominated for an Oscar for playing Chaplin in Richard Attenborough’s movie of the same name); and Billy Porter and Stark Sands for Kinky Boots.

The Best Actress in a Musical contenders are Stephanie J. Block for The Mystery of Edwin Drood; Carolee Carmello as an Aimee Semple McPherson-like evangelist in Scandalous, with book and lyrics by television host Kathie Lee Gifford (Jean Simmons played a Semple McPherson-like evangelist in Richard Brooks’ 1960 drama Elmer Gantry); Valisia LeKae in Motown the Musical; Patina Miller in Pippin; and Laura Osnes in Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella.

Contenders in the various supporting categories include Carrie Coon for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, in the role that earned Sandy Dennis an Academy Award; veteran Keith Carradine (Nashville) in the musical Hands on a Hardbody; Will Chase in The Mystery of Edwin Drood; and Judith Ivey in The Heiress, in the old Miriam Hopkins (1949) and Maggie Smith (1997) roles.

Among the movie celebrities who could have been nominated but weren’t, are The Avengers’ Scarlett Johansson and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter‘s Benjamin Walker for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (made into a 1958 movie directed by Richard Brooks, and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman); and two-time Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain (The Help, Zero Dark Thirty) for The Heiress (in the role that earned Olivia de Havilland an Oscar).

Here are a few more: Alien and Avatar‘s Sigourney Weaver for Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike; Bette Midler for John Logan’s I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers, about the powerful Hollywood agent whose clients ranged from Barbra Streisand to Tatum O’Neal; and Paul Rudd (Prince Avalanche) and Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road) for Grace.

The Tony Awards 2013 ceremony will be held at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 9. In the United States, it’ll be broadcast live on CBS.

Best Play
The Assembled Parties
Lucky Guy
The Testament of Mary
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Best Musical
Bring It On: The Musical
A Christmas Story, The Musical
Kinky Boots
Matilda The Musical

Best Revival of a Play
Golden Boy
Orphans
The Trip to Bountiful
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Best Revival of a Musical
Annie
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Pippin
Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
Tom Hanks, Lucky Guy
Nathan Lane, The Nance
Tracy Letts, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
David Hyde Pierce, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Tom Sturridge, Orphans

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Laurie Metcalf, The Other Place
Amy Morton, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Kristine Nielsen, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Holland Taylor, Ann
Cicely Tyson, The Trip to Bountiful

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
Bertie Carvel, Matilda
Santino Fontana, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella
Rob McClure, Chaplin
Billy Porter, Kinky Boots
Stark Sands, Kinky Boots

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
Stephanie J. Block, The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Carolee Carmello, Scandalous
Valisia LeKae, Motown the Musical
Patina Miller, Pippin
Laura Osnes, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
Danny Burstein, Golden Boy
Richard Kind, The Big Knife
Billy Magnussen, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Tony Shalhoub, Golden Boy
Courtney B. Vance, Lucky Guy

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
Carrie Coon, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Shalita Grant, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Judith Ivey, The Heiress,
Judith Light, The Assembled Parties
Condola Rashad, The Trip to Bountiful

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical
Charl Brown, Motown the Musical
Keith Carradine, Hands on a Hardbody
Will Chase, The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Gabriel Ebert, Matilda the Musical
Terrence Mann, Pippin

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical
Annaleigh Ashford, Kinky Boots
Victoria Clark, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella
Andrea Martin, Pippin
Keala Settle, Hands on a Hardbody
Lauren Ward, Matilda the Musical

Best Book of a Musical
Joseph Robinette, A Christmas Story, The Musical
Harvey Fierstein, Kinky Boots
Dennis Kelly, Matilda the Musical
Douglas Carter Beane, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theater
A Christmas Story, The Musical (Music and Lyrics: Benj Pasek and Justin Paul)
Hands on a Hardbody (Music: Trey Anastasio and Amanda Green; Lyrics: Amanda Green)
Kinky Boots (Music and Lyrics: Cyndi Lauper)
Matilda the Musical (Music and Lyrics: Tim Minchin)

Best Direction of a Play
Pam MacKinnon, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Nicolas Martin, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Bartett Sher, Golden Boy
George C. Wolfe, Lucky Guy

Best Direction of a Musical
Scott Ellis, The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Jerry Mitchell, Kinky Boots
Diane Paulus, Pippin
Matthew Warchus, Matilda the Musical

Best Choreography
Andy Blankenbuehler, Bring It On: The Musical
Peter Darling, Matilda the Musical
Jerry Mitchell, Kinky Boots
Chet Walker, Pippin

Best Orchestrations
Chris Nightingale, Matilda The Musical
Stephen Oremus, Kinky Boots
Ethan Popp and Bryan Crook, Motown the Musical
Danny Troob, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella

Best Scenic Design of a Play
John Lee Bailey, The Nance
Santo Loquasto, The Assembled Parties
David Rockwell, Lucky Guy
Michael Yeargan, Golden Boy

Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Rob Howell, Matilda The Musical
Anna Louizos, The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Scott Pask, Pippin
David Rockwell, Kinky Boots

Best Costume Design of a Play
Soutra Gilmour, Cyrano de Bergerac
Ann Roth, The Nance
Albert Wolsky, The Heiress
Catherine Zuber, Golden Boy

Best Costume Design of a Musical
Gregg Barnes, Kinky Boots
Rob Howell, Matilda The Musical
Dominique Lemieux, Pippin
William Ivey Long, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella

Best Lighting Design of a Play
Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer, Lucky Guy
Donald Holder, Golden Boy
Jennifer Tipton, The Testament of Mary
Japhy Weideman, The Nance

Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Kenneth Posner, Kinky Boots
Kenneth Posner, Pippin
Kenneth Posner, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella
Hugh Vanstone, Matilda The Musical

Best Sound Design of a Play
John Gromada, The Trip to Bountiful
Mel Mercier, The Testament of Mary
Leon Rothenberg, The Nance
Peter John Still and Marc Salzberg, Golden Boy

Best Sound Design of a Musical
Jonathan Deans and Garth Helm, Pippin
Peter Hylenski, Motown The Musical
John Shivers, Kinky Boots
Nevin Steinberg, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella

Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater
Bernard Gersten
Paul Libin
Ming Cho Lee

Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theater
Career Transition for Dancers
William Craver
Peter Lawrence
The Lost Colony
The four actresses who played Matilda in Matilda The Musical on Broadway: Sophia Gennusa, Oona Laurence, Bailey Ryon and Milly Shapiro

Regional Theatre Award
Huntington Theatre Company

Isabelle Stevenson Award
Larry Kramer

April 29

Sigourney Weaver in ‘Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike.’

Tony Award nominations: Broadway-Hollywood connections include Sigourney Weaver, Tom Hanks & Bette Midler

The 2013 Tony Award nominations will be announced tomorrow, April 30. Among this year’s potential Tony nominees are a number of film-related performers, ranging from Academy Award nominees and winners such as Sigourney Weaver, Tom Hanks, and Jessica Chastain to The Avengers’ Scarlett Johansson, Our Idiot Brother and Dinner for Schmucks’ Paul Rudd, and Tom Cruise’s ex-wife Katie Holmes.

Two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks (Philadelphia, Forrest Gump) may be up for a Best Actor in a Play Tony Award for Nora Ephron’s Lucky Guy. Ephron, who died last year, directed Hanks in two of his biggest box office hits: Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You’ve Got Mail (1998), both co-starring Meg Ryan.

Another potential Best Actor nominee is David Hyde Pierce (Nixon, Down with Love) for Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, co-starring potential Best Actress nominee Sigourney Weaver. Weaver is a three-time Oscar nominee whose movie credits range from Ridley Scott’s Alien and James Cameron’s Aliens and Avatar to Mike Nichols’ Working Girl and Michael Apted’s Gorillas in the Mist.

Two-time Oscar nominee Bette Midler (The Rose, For the Boys) may receive a Tony Award nomination for John Logan’s I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers. The Broadway-Hollywood connection here goes further than Midler, as Sue Mengers was a powerhouse Hollywood agent, among whose clients were Barbra Streisand, Burt Reynolds, Ryan O’Neal, and Tatum O’Neal. (Shelley Winters played a crass, Sue Mengers-like lesbian agent in Blake Edwards’ S.O.B.) Also, John Logan has written / co-written several screenplays, including those for Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator and Hugo, Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Sam Mendes’ Skyfall.

Fiona Shaw, whose movie credits include Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, Brian De Palma’s The Black Dahlia, and the blockbuster Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, could be shortlisted for Colm Tóibín’s The Testament of Mary, which has been considered blasphemous by certain ardent Christians while earning enthusiastic praise from theater critics.

Tony Awards 2013 potential acting nominees: From Scarlett Johansson to Debra Winger

Here are a few more potential 2013 Tony Award nominees in the acting categories: Three-time Oscar nominee Debra Winger (An Officer and a Gentleman, Terms of Endearment, Shadowlands) in David Mamet’s The Anarchist; Batman Begins’ Katie Holmes in Dead Accounts; Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter‘s Benjamin Walker, former Woody Allen muse Scarlett Johansson, and Munich‘s Ciarán Hinds in a revival of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which was made into a 1958 movie directed by Richard Brooks, and starring Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, and Burl Ives; and two-time Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain (The Help, Zero Dark Thirty) and 2005 Best Actor Oscar nominee David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck.) in The Heiress, whose 1949 movie version directed by William Wyler earned Olivia de Havilland a Best Actress Oscar.

Also: Oscar nominee Alec Baldwin (The Cooler), Ben Foster (The Messenger), and Tom Sturridge (On the Road) in Orphans; Douglas Hodge in Cyrano de Bergerac, which earned José Ferrer a Best Actor Oscar in 1950 and Gérard Depardieu a Best Actor Oscar nomination in 1990; and Paul Rudd (This Is 40) and Oscar nominee Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road) in Grace.

And finally, Nathan Lane (The Birdcage) for The Nance, Alan Cumming (Any Day Now) for Macbeth, and Jim Parsons (The Muppets) for Harvey. Back in 1950, James Stewart, Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Josephine Hull, and the titular invisible giant rabbit were all featured in Henry Koster’s enjoyable comedy Harvey.

Now, there’s no guarantee any of those Big Movie Names will get shortlisted for the 2013 Tony Awards. There have been a number of “Hollywood Snubs” in the last few years, including those of Daniel Radcliffe, Angela Bassett, Kim Cattrall, Hugh Jackman, Rachel Griffiths, James Earl Jones, Ben Stiller, Brendan Fraser, Robin Williams, Kathleen Turner, Daniel Craig, Patrick Stewart, Samuel L. Jackson, Alan Rickman, and Matthew Broderick.

Tony Awards 2013: Stage-Movie connection ranges from Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Kinky Boots to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (image: Emilia Clarke, Cory Michael Smith in Breakfast at Tiffany’s)

Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, possibly up for a 2013 Tony Award in the Best Revival of a Play category, was made into an Academy Award-nominated movie in 1966. Mike Nichols directed Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis, from a screenplay by Ernest Lehman. Taylor and Dennis won Oscars as, respectively, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. In this latest Broadway revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the stars are Tracy Letts, Amy Morton, Madison Dirks and Carrie Coon.

Peter Masterson’s 1985 film version of Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful, another possible Best Revival nominee, earned Geraldine Page a Best Actress Academy Award – Page’s first and only win after eight nominations. This year, Cicely Tyson, a Best Actress Oscar nominee for Martin Ritt’s Sounder (1972), is a likely Tony Award nominee for her performance in the old Geraldine Page role.

Clifford Odets’ potential Best Revival nominee Golden Boy became a 1939 movie directed by Rouben Mamoulian, and starring Barbara Stanwyck, William Holden, and Adolphe Menjou. Though based on a Fannie Hurst story previously adapted to the screen in 1920, the 1946 version of Humoresque, with Joan Crawford and John Garfield (who lost to Luther Adler the lead in the Broadway production of Golden Boy), has a number of similarities with Clifford Odets’ tale about boxing, music, and class distinctions. Not coincidentally, Odets co-wrote the Humoresque screenplay.

Tony Awards 2013: Plays featuring Oscar winners Al Pacino and Ellen Burstyn among top contenders

David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross became an all-star 1992 movie drama, earning Al Pacino a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination. Others found in the prestigious James Foley-directed movie were Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, and Jonathan Pryce. Pacino also starred in the 2012 Broadway revival of Glengarry Glen Ross, now cast in the old Jack Lemmon role; Bobby Cannavale brought to life on stage Pacino’s old movie character.

Other potential Best Play or Best Revival of a Play contenders include Richard Greenberg’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, with Emilia Clarke (TV’s Game of Thrones) and Cory Michael Smith; Clifford Odets’ The Big Knife, with Bobby Cannavale (Lovelace); Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, starring Richard Thomas (TV’s The Waltons); and William Inge’s Picnic, featuring Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn (Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore), Maggie Grace (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2), Sebastian Stan (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), and Oscar nominee Mare Winningham (Georgia).

Hollywood-to-Broadway (and/or vice-versa) connections: Audrey Hepburn was a Best Actress Academy Award nominee for Blake Edwards’ Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). The Big Knife, which has a Hollywood setting, was made into a movie in 1955, directed by Robert Aldrich, and starring Jack Palance, Rod Steiger, Ida Lupino, and Shelley Winters. The George Schaefer-directed film version of An Enemy of the People became a little-seen star vehicle for Steve McQueen in 1978. Directed by Joshua Logan, Picnic (1955) was both a major box office hit and a Best Picture Academy Award nominee; William Holden, Kim Novak, Rosalind Russell, and Cliff Robertson starred.

Tony Awards 2013: Potential Best Musical contenders include Kinky Boots, Bring It On, Annie revival

A couple of potential Best Musical Tony Award 2013 nominees have had previous incarnations as movies: Julian Jarrold’s Kinky Boots (2005) and Peyton Reed’s Bring It On (2000). The former starred Chiwetel Ejiofor as a transvestite who helps to save Joel Edgerton’s failing shoe factory, while the latter featured Kirsten Dunst taking part in a cheerleading competition.

Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin, and Thomas Meehan’s Annie is a possible Best Musical Revival nominee. A 1982 film version directed by veteran John Huston (The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo, The African Queen) starred Aileen Quinn, Albert Finney and Carol Burnett. An announced remake is to feature Beasts of the Southern Wild‘s Quvenzhané Wallis.

Cinderella, another possible Best Revival of a Musical Tony Award nominee, has had several movie versions in various forms, most notably Disney’s 1950 animated feature. Based on Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood was turned into a movie in 1935, directed by Stuart Walker, and starring Claude Rains and David Manners as Drood.

Needless to say, possible Best Revival of a Musical Tony nominee Jekyll and Hyde has had countless (non-musical) screen versions – mostly as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Chiefly notable among those are the features starring John Barrymore (1920), Oscar winner Fredric March (1931), and Spencer Tracy (1941). For the record, the unlucky women in the aforementioned movies were, respectively, Martha Mansfield and Nita Naldi, Rose Hobart and Miriam Hopkins, and Lana Turner and Ingrid Bergman. Also respectively, John S. Robertson, Rouben Mamoulian, and Victor Fleming directed.

Tomorrow morning, Sutton Foster and Jesse Tyler Ferguson will announce the nominations for the 2013 Tony Awards. The Tony Awards ceremony will be held on June 9.

Emilia Clarke, Cory Michael Smith in Breakfast at Tiffany’s photo via tonyawards.com.

Sigourney Weaver in the Broadway play Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike image: T. Charles Erickson via wqrx.org.