Blog 37 – TONY Awards

Well, now that the TONY Awards have been announced and HAMILTON has been officially anointed (and rightfully so) scoring 16 nominations, I thought it was time for a little Tony trivia…..

Three people have won Tony Awards in FOUR different categories – Harvey Firestein, Tommy Tune and Trey Parker.

PASSION (one of my personal favorites) holds the distinction of being the Tony Award winner running the least amount of time on Broadway (280 performances) – by the way, you can now see Marin Mazzie in KING AND I on Broadway. And RAGS was the Tony nominated Best Musical with the fewest regular performances (6). BUT in that same year, 1987, we Tony Award viewers got to see Judy Kuhn sing two roles on the telecast. She belted the title song from RAGS, then quickly changed costumes and came back to the show (this time as a soprano) as Cosette in LES MISERABLES.

Here are some more:
– In 1967 CABARET lost the Tony to a show called WALKING HAPPY.

– The youngest Tony winner is Frankie Michaels in 1966 for his role in MAME.

– Angela Lansbury has been on Broadway many times, in starring roles and in other roles. She has also hosted the telecast five times (more than any other host). But she has made more money (LOTS more money) on her beloved television series “Murder, She Wrote”.

– RENT and NEWSIES, both Tony award winners, each contained songs with the title “Santa Fe”.

– There is only one third generation nominee – Adam Guettel (LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA). His grandfather is Richard Rogers (SOUND OF MUSIC, CAROUSEL, etc.) and Mary Rogers (ONCE UPON A MATTRESS) is his mother.

What is some of your favorite trivia? Do you know something about the Tony Awards that nobody else knows? Please share….

Larry Little
Producer