The 5 Biggest Tony Award Snubs

This revival of John Guare's 1966 play has had a rough time of it. Directed by David Cromer, whose work includes the much lauded (and rightly so) 2009 Off-Broadway production of Our Town, it's a great play and features a star-studded cast including Jennifer Jason Leigh and Edie Falco. But while the always remarkable Falco received a nomination for Best Actress in a Featured Role for her turn as unstable wife Bananas, the production was passed over for everything else. It was a risk for Stiller in particular to take on the role of struggling musician Artie Shaughnessy; he's widely known as a comic actor, and this was a chance for him to show more range. But while The House of Blue Leaves could have been a perfect vehicle for him to stretch his comitragic wings, the equal parts funny-sad play ended up being mostly just sad.

Stephen Adly Guirgis’s play fared significantly better than The House of Blue Leaves: It garnered six nominations, including Best Play, Best Direction of a Play for Anna D. Shapiro, and acting nominations for Bobby Cannavale, Yul Vázquez, and Elizabeth Rodriguez in their roles as recovering druggies. But Chris Rock, in a Broadway debut noted as "solid" by critics, was snubbed; notably, he is also the only cast member who is a relative newcomer to the stage. It's possible that his lack of nomination in favor of the stage veterans stems partly from backlash of last year's Tonys.

Bengal Tiger is an interesting case. I know a lot of people who have seen it and hated the play itself, but thought the production was remarkable; and as these are people who really know their theatre, their judgment is usually pretty sound. Rajiv Joseph's play functions as a microcosm of Baghdad after the invasion of Iraq, and its form is unique enough to make it an important piece of theatre. Robin Williams plays the titular tiger-- and yes, by tiger, I do mean the large stripey creature that goes "rawr!" We know Williams has got chops-- he was a Jullliard boy, so he's not just a comedian-- but even though he was well received, no nominations were forthcoming. It's also interesting to me that Moises Kaufman wasn't nominated for Best Direction of a Play; Bengal Tiger was described by New York Times critic Charles Isherwood as directed "with gorgeous finesse", which is a hallmark of Kaufman's work (he's known largely for his work with the Tectonic Theatre Project, which brought us I Am My Own Wife and The Laramie Project).

Rob Ashford's revival of the classic musical How to Succeed seems to be quite polarizing: People either love it or hate it, but rarely feel "meh" about it. The same goes for Daniel Radcliffe, who surprised everyone by a) being able to carry a tune and b) proving himself to be quite a capable dancer. The production cleaned up as far as nominations went, though, earning nods for Direction and Choreography (both for Rob Ashford), Lighting, Costumes, and Acting. But while both Radcliffe's co-stars John Larroquette and Tammy Blanchard took nominations for their featured performances, Radcliffe himself had none. I run hot and cold on Radcliffe as an actor (sometimes I just want to yell at him to plant his damn feet and use his knees), but he surprised me in Equus a few years ago, and I respect and admire his choices of projects-- he's generally making very wise career moves, and he genuinely wants to learn as much as he can about the craft in as many different ways as possible.

Benjamin Walker may not be a household name yet, but he's getting ready for his big moment as another butt-kicking president in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Walker was also
originally set to play Dr. Hank "Beast" McCoy in X-Men: First Class, he dropped out to make the Broadway transfer for Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. After an extremely successful Off-Broadway run at the Public Theatre, it's unclear why the Broadway transfer did so poorly; Walker in particular was noted as a performer to keep your eye on. But hey, he seems to be doing pretty well in spite of it, so as long as he keeps making presidents sexy, more power to him.