Certain of Broadway's commendable performances and productions were bound to be overlooked with the season's major success of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton.
While Hamilton earned a record-breaking 16 nominations, theater fans have noted particular nominative exclusions -- namely, Jennifer Hudson's star turn in The Color Purple and Duncan Sheik's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho.
Hudson briefly reacted to the brush-off in a since-deleted tweet. Speaking to Time Out at the start of her tenure in The Color Purple, the Oscar and Grammy winner spoke of her early aspirations to perform on Broadway:
"Broadway is, and has always been, a dream I've had. Back before I got Dreamgirls, I wanted to play Effie on Broadway. But God always gives you a little more than you asked for, and I ended up in the film." [...] "To me, there is no more frightening world to walk into than Broadway, because it's probably the industry I've always respected the most."
Psycho's Sheik, a hit songwriter, talked to Billboard about his involvement in the intensive casting process for the musical based on Ellis' novel and subsequent Christian Bale thriller:
"I'm in the room every day during casting. This was a particularly difficult group in terms of coming to consensus on the casting because we're very diverse and we all have our different aesthetic ideas and agenda, frankly. I respect my creative team enormously, but we're all unique individuals with an enormous amount of head butting to come up with this cast."
Other perceived slights from the Tony Awards Nominating Committee include their omission of nominations for Broadway stalwart Audra McDonald's part in Shuffle Along, Alexander Dinelaris' On Your Feet! (earning only one nomination for choreography) and Tuck Everlasting.
CBS will air the 70th Annual Tony Awards live on June 12 from the Beacon Theatre.
Below, watch Jennifer Hudson and The Color Purple cast's tribute to artist Prince upon his untimely death last month. Let us know what you think of the impromptu memorial in the comments section below.
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