Enough with the debates over who will win and who should win at Sunday night’s Tony Awards. People of faith ask, “Who does God want to win?”
Yes, some might argue God has more important things to care about than Broadway, but for the purposes of this column these people will be ignored.
Brett and Carol Younger
I address this important question not as an actual expert, but as someone who sits in the cheap seats on weekdays and has lots of opinions. I have seen everything nominated for Best Musical and Best Play, except for John Proctor is the Villain, which stubbornly insists that I pay full price. My analysis will not include the technical categories that shallow theater-goers ignore.
Best Musical
Buena Vista Social Club
Dead Outlaw
Death Becomes Her
Maybe Happy Ending
Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical
Who will win: Maybe Happy Ending will win because people love robot love stories, even when these future, decommissioned androids are, like human beings my age, facing obsolescence.
Who God wants to win: Dead Outlaw is about a young man in his early 30s who is killed by the authorities. Surprisingly, his death is not the end of his story. Sound familiar?
Best Play
English
The Hills of California
John Proctor is the Villain
Oh, Mary!
Purpose
Scene from “Oh, Maryt!”
Who will win: A demented Mary Todd Lincoln dreams of becoming a cabaret star. Mary asks, “Why would I throw an entire woman down the stairs? Because it’s hilarious?”
Who God wants to win: Purpose explores the hypocrisy within a prominent African American minister’s family. Solomon Jasper is an “I-used-to-kick-it-with-Rosa-Parks reverend!” Jesse Jackson might have a case to sue the writer, but Purpose takes the role of the church seriously, which cannot be said of Oh, Mary!
Best Revival of a Play
Eureka Day, Jonathan Spector
Romeo + Juliet, William Shakespeare
Thornton Wilder’s Our Town
Yellow Face, David Henry Hwang
Who will win: Eureka Day is the favorite. Apparently, people are tired of Shakespeare. He had a good run.
Who God wants to win: Our Town is about seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. The most famous line is: “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? — every, every minute?” Preachers should quote this every, every year.
Best Revival of a Musical
Floyd Collins
Gypsy
Pirates! The Penzance Musical
Sunset Blvd.
Who will win: Neither Floyd Collins nor any pirates need to be in the auditorium when the winner is announced.
Who God wants to win: Gypsy is about a stage mother and a lot of strippers. God has a soft spot for these women.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Laura Donnelly, The Hills of California
Mia Farrow, The Roommate
LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Purpose
Sadie Sink, John Proctor is the Villain
Sarah Snook, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Patti LuPone and Mia Farrow in “The Roommate.”
Who will win: Sarah Snook plays all 26 roles in Oscar Wilde’s story. Being able to name all 26 roles would be impressive enough.
Who God wants to win: Mia Farrow is 80 years old. God loves old people.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck
Cole Escola, Oh, Mary!
Jon Michael Hill, Purpose
Daniel Dae Kim, Yellow Face
Harry Lennix, Purpose
Louis McCartney, Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Who will win: Cole Escola’s unhinged performance would confuse Abe, Mary and every member of the Union Army. Ken Burns may not be amused, but most people are.
Who God wants to win: God loved Denzel Washington in Othello, but the Tonys did not. George Clooney is breaking box office records with Good Night, and Good Luck, but God has mixed feelings about Hollywood movie stars — not Denzel who did Shakespeare in Central Park in 1979 — showing up on Broadway to win awards. God likes Jon Michael Hill, the preacher’s kid in Purpose. Preachers’ kids are underrepresented at awards shows.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
Megan Hilty, Death Becomes Her
Audra McDonald, Gypsy
Jasmine Amy Rogers, BOOP! The Musical
Nicole Scherzinger, Sunset Blvd.
Jennifer Simard, Death Becomes Her
Who will win: Nicole Scherzinger’s Norma Desmond is supposed to be a washed-up aging star fighting for her career, but Nicole is 46 years old and looks younger in the slinky black slip she wears throughout the show. God thinks old people should be played by old people.
Who God wants to win: God loves a good upset and would find it amusing if Jasmine Amy Rogers won for playing a charming Betty Boop in a musical no one was clamoring for. God clearly loves Audra McDonald, who holds the record for the most Tony Awards by an actor with six wins. She stopped needing any more nickel-plated medallions long ago, but somebody up there likes her.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
Darren Criss, Maybe Happy Ending
Andrew Durand, Dead Outlaw
Tom Francis, Sunset Blvd.
Jonathan Groff, Just in Time
James Monroe Iglehart, A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical
Jeremy Jordan, Floyd Collins
Who will win: Darren Criss plays a retired robot companion that deals with his feelings of love for a less obsolete version through song. He helps us find our inner robot.
Who God wants to win: Despite being propped up in a casket on stage for the last half of the show and spending 65 years as a corpse, Andrew Durand makes this musical about the afterlife come alive.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
Tala Ashe, English
Jessica Hecht, Eureka Day
Marjan Neshat, English
Fina Strazza, John Proctor is the Villain
Kara Young, Purpose
Who will win: Fina Strazza is a favorite, but, again, John Proctor is the Villain’s lack of inexpensive tickets would cost them my vote if I had a vote. Strazza is only 19 years old, so she can wait until she is in a production that reaches out to cheap fans.
Who God wants to win: God is for Tala Ashe and/or Marjan Neshat for English, a highly regarded albeit less tourist-friendly play, about intelligent Iranian students in a frustrating English class. God loves it when people try hard to talk to each other.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
Glenn Davis, Purpose
Gabriel Ebert, John Proctor is the Villain
Francis Jue, Yellow Face
Bob Odenkirk, Glengarry Glen Ross
Conrad Ricamora, Oh, Mary!
Glenn Davis and LaTanya Richardson Jackson in “Purpose”
(Photo: Marc J. Franklin)
Who will win: Conrad Ricamora’s gay Abraham Lincoln is different enough from Daniel Day-Lewis’ Lincoln to grab attention.
Who God wants to win: God is not particularly concerned with cursing, but there are 137 versions of the f-word in Glengarry Glen Ross, which seems like a lot. Glenn Davis plays the other preacher’s kid in Purpose. Two wins for preachers’ kids feels like a long overdue correction.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical
Natalie Venetia Belcon, Buena Vista Social Club
Julia Knitel, Dead Outlaw
Gracie Lawrence, Just in Time
Justina Machado, Real Women Have Curves: The Musical
Joy Woods, Gypsy
Who will win: Justina Machado plays a powerhouse Puerto Rican mom who hugs everyone. Her role is rooted in family, identity and resilience, all of which God supports. Natalie Venetia Belcon plays a legendary Cuban singer and dancer who makes the Pentecostal in us want to get up and dance.
Who God wants to win: God loves joy that overcomes despair and thinks either Natalie or Justina would be a fine choice.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical
Brooks Ashmanskas, SMASH
Jeb Brown, Dead Outlaw
Danny Burstein, Gypsy
Jak Malone, Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical
Taylor Trensch, Floyd Collins
Who will win: Taylor Trensch may win for playing Skeets Miller, a reporter telling the story of a spelunker trapped underground. Floyd Collins includes yodeling, so it has that going for it.
Who God wants to win: When Jak Malone sings “Dear Bill,” a love letter from a frightened young woman to her soldier fiancé, the people around me were crying — both times. God loves that.
The Tony Awards will be presented on Pentecost, the day on which the church celebrates the ways in which God helps us understand one another. That happens in sacred moments in the theater. God wins.
Brett Younger serves as senior minister at Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, N.Y.
