Best Score
1.) The Bridges of Madison County (Jason Robert Brown)
2.) A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder (Steven Lutvak and Robert L. Freedman)
3.) Aladdin (Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, Tim Rice, and Chad Beguelin)
4.) If/Then (Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey)
This category is a battle between the Best Musical favorite and a show that's closed early but was lauded for its music. If the Tonys split this category into "best music" and "best lyrics" I feel confident that A Gentleman's Guide would take Lyrics while Bridges of Madison County takes music. Being the frontrunner for the top award always helps here. Steven Lutvak and Robert Freedman have created an endlessly witty and entertaining score that mirrors the madcap antics on stage. Jason Robert Brown should not be counted out however. This is actually his longest Broadway run and he has pulled off a best score win before for Parade, which had a February closing. Bridges has managed to stay open through the Summer Road Conference, where many road producers (whoa re also Tony voters) will havent gotten the chance to see it. Many of Brown's lush melodies also play well outside of context, whereas relatively few of Gentleman's Guide's tracks are ones you would typically listen to outside of seeing the show. The Bridges' marketing team has smartly been pumping the cast album to bolster this fact. I think JRB's score stays with the audience more than any other new musical this season. Its a score I cant stop listening to. And so Im going out on a limb to say the JRB manages to nab this award from the best musical winner for a second time.
Best Book
1.) A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder (Robert L. Freedman)
2.) Aladdin (Chad Beguelin)
3.) Beautiful (Douglas McGrath)
4.) Bullets Over Broadway (Woody Allen)
Robert L. Freedman seems to have this award fairly safely in the bag for A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. It will almost certainly win Best Musical, and the production who takes the big award generally takes Best Score or Best Book or both. A Gentleman's Guide boasts the most clever wordplay of any of these msuicals, and the script helps set the pacing and tone of the show immensely. Chad Beguelin could be the one to challenge here with his book for Aladdin. Voters may appreciate his penchant for humor and ability to weave in pop culture references to the story. Its a script that entertains kids and adults alike. A dark horse candidate would be Beautiful's book writer: Douglas McGrath. While many complained that the book felt a bit wooden, the musical itself has accumulated a lot of admiration, and McGrath puts i a lot of effort to make his characters well rounded. I dont think either will ultimately have the strength to pull voters away from the laugh out loud wordplay of Freedman.
Best Choreography
1.) After Midnight (Warren Carlyle)
2.) Bullets Over Broadway (Susan Stroman)
3.) Rocky (Steven Hoggett and Kelly Devine)
4.) Aladdin (Casey Nicholaw)
Its revue status may hurt After Midnight in the Best Musical race, but it could very well lead double nominee Warren Carlyle to a win for Choreography. There is A LOT of dancing in After Midnight. A lot of fantastic dancing. The format of the show, and absence of actual plot, allows for the choreography to shine in the spotlight. Fighting for the win is Susan Stroman's Bullets Over Broadway. The musical garnered mixed reactions and missed out on a best musical nomination. However, Stroman's stupidly good choreography is the best part of the show. The ensemble works their asses off to perform Sto's notoriously complicated and stunning dances. With a nomination for the top award, I think After Midnight has a slight edge and is seen in a more favorable light. Voters have also awarded Ms Stroman with the tony for her choreography four other times, so perhaps they will want to award first time nominee Carlyle instead.
Spoiler: Rocky. If there is anything that could unseat the aforementioned nominees, its the end fight in Rocky. The fight is a marvelous creation that thrills and enthralls for the final 20 minutes. Regardless of a voters thoughts on the show overall, the choreography of this epic finale usually wins everyone over at the end. It takes a while to get there, but the audiences all leave with a smile on there face, and its largely thanks to Steven Hoggett and Kelly Devine's choreography.
Best Orchestrations
1.) The Bridges of Madison County (Jason Robert Brown)
2.) Beautiful (Steve Sidwell)
3.) A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder (Jonathan Tunik)
4.) Bullets Over Broadway (Doug Besterman)
This category has only been around for 17 years. and while I am glad they give out this award, its youth makes declaring a winner this year very hard to call. Among the 17 winners: 11 were the Best Musical winner (including 2009's tie) and 3 were the Best Revival winner. Two of the remaining awards went to what was likely the Best Musical runner up (Ragtime and The Light in the Piazza) which were superior, at least musically speaking, to the Best musical Winner in their respective years. The final one went to the big name in the category (Billy Joel for Movin Out).
So. This year no revival contenders appear in the category. The one I will rule out completely is Bullets Over Broadway. It likely just squeezed into the category, with orchestrations that are nice and big but fairly standard. The remaining three all really have a shot. A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder is the current frontrunner for the top award (and boasts multiple winner Jonathan Tunik) which gives it bonus points. Voters who may not know a ton about what goes into orchestrating a musical may just tick off the box because this was their favorite show. However, as much as I loved A Gentleman's Guide..., I must admit the other two nominees stand out more as far as this category is concerned. The pop sound of Carole King's hits in Beautiful is expertly recreated to fill a Broadway house. There are a slew of classic, beloved songs here and they sound great. So a vote for Beautiful in this category is a way to vote for the music. I will go out on a limb and say that Bridges of Madison County, despite its closing, has what it takes to topple Carole King. For one it has composer Jason Robert Brown himself as the nominee. It also sounds unlike anything we've heard on Broadway recently. The lush sweeping sense of the score is brought to life through a mixture of classic orchestra instruments accompanied by guitars, strings, and percussion that all blend seamlessly. The music savvy voters (which many of them are) will likely be swayed by the most distinctive sounding new musical this season.
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