Columbia Theatre Artists Nominated for 76th Annual Tony Awards; Winners Announced
The results of the 2023 Tony Awards have been announced, and several projects worked on by Columbia theatre artists are among the winners.
New musicals Shucked, Kimberly Akimbo, and New York, New York all took home honors on Broadway’s biggest night. Shucked’s Alex Newell was awarded the Tony for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical. Professor and Stage Management Concentration Head Michael Passaro serves as the production stage manager on Shucked, a musical about life in Cobb County, a corn-devoted midwestern county whose inhabitants face disaster when their corn crops start inexplicably dying.
Former Adjunct Assistant Professor Jeanine Tesori (BC '83) received the Tony Award for Best Original Score for her work on Kimberly Akimbo, which also won Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical, and Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical. Kimberly Akimbo follows the story of teenager Kimberly Levaco, who suffers from a disease similar to progeria that causes her to age four times as fast as her classmates.
New York, New York won the honor of Best Scenic Design of a Musical. Thomas Swayne ’20 and Playwriting alumnus Santino DeAngelo ’18 are both producers of this spectacular new musical. Set in 1946, the war is over, and a resurgent New York is beginning to rebuild. As steel beams swing overhead, a collection of artists has dreams as big and diverse as the city itself.
Parade, the revival of the 1998 musical based on the true story of the trial, imprisonment, and lynching of Leo Frank in Atlanta, Georgia, took home the Tony for Best Revival of Musical as well as Best Direction of a Musical. The revival was worked on by many Columbia theatre artists, including Dramaturgy student Cami Rose Hancock (Dramaturg and Assistant to book writer Alfred Uhry), Adjunct Assistant Professor Justin Scribner (Production Stage Manager), Adjunct Assistant Professor Sarah Harris (Stage Manager), former Adjunct Assistant Professor Manoel Felciano (starring as Tom Watson in the show); Joel Glassman ’18 (Company Manager), Adjunct Assistant Professor Cody Renard Richard (Producing Team), Adjunct Assistant Professor Rachel Sussman, and Theatre Management and Producing alumnus David Manella ’18 (co-producers).
Hal Luftig ’84 served as the lead producer of Life of Pi, the stage adaptation of Yann Martel’s Man Booker Prize winning novel. The play won the Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Play, Best Lighting Design of a play, and Best Sound design of a Play. Life of Pi follows a 16 year-old boy named Pi stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with the most unlikely of companions: a Royal Bengal tiger.
The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window was awarded the honor of Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play. Arminda Thomas ’96 served as the dramaturg for the play, which takes place in 1960s Greenwich Village, where loudly proclaimed progressive dreams wage war with reality. This razor-sharp tragicomical satire of “astonishing force” (The Chicago Tribune) invites us into the apartment of Sidney and Iris Brustein and the diverse and passionate social circle that inhabits it.
Read through the complete list of this year’s winners here, and read more about the productions below.
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Original: May 11, 2023
The nominations for the 76th Annual Tony Awards were announced on Tuesday, May 2, 2023, and many projects worked on by Columbia faculty and alumni are among the nominees.
Directing alumnus Saheem Ali ’07, who made his Broadway debut as the director of Fat Ham, is nominated for a Tony for Best Direction of a Play. Acting alumnus Marcel Spears ’15 made his Broadway debut in the production as well, currently starring in the lead role of Juicy, and Directing student Marina Montesanti works on the production as co-producer. The production received five nominations in total, for Best Play, Best Featured Actress in a Play, Best Costume Design of a Play, Best Lighting Design of a Play, and Ali’s Best Director nomination. Fat Ham, a reinvention of Shakespeare’s Hamlet by playwright James Ijames, won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The story follows Juicy, a young Black man learning to cope with his queerness and identity, after the ghost of his father comes to him at his mother’s backyard barbeque wedding reception and demands revenge.
Into the Woods, for which Adjunct Assistant Professor Justin Scribner served as the production stage manager and Adjunct Assistant Professor Cody Renard Richard worked as the production supervisor, received six total nominations: Best Revival of a Musical, Best Actor in a Musical, Best Actress in a Musical, Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Best Sound Design of a Musical, and Best Direction of Musical. The 2022 Broadway revival, which transferred to Broadway after a successful run at New York City Center’s Encores!, was directed by former Adjunct Assistant Professor Lear deBessonet. The musical originally premiered in 1987 and features music and lyrics by Steven Sondheim. The show tells the stories of many overlapping Brothers Grimm fairytale characters as they navigate love and family—and disrupt their familiar narratives in the process.
Parade, the revival of the 1998 musical based on the true story of the trial, imprisonment, and lynching of Leo Frank in Atlanta, Georgia, also received six Tony nominations for Best Revival of Musical, Best Actor in a Musical, Best Actress in a Musical, Best Costume Design of a Musical, Best Lighting Design of a Musical, and Best Direction of a Musical. Dramaturgy student Cami Rose Hancock works as the production’s dramaturg and the assistant to Alfred Uhry, the show’s book writer. Scribner serves as the production stage manager and Adjunct Assistant Professor Sarah Harris is the stage manager on the production. Adjunct Assistant Professor Rachel Sussman and Theatre Management and Producing alumnus David Manella ’18 co-produce the show, and Richard works on the producing team. Former Adjunct Assistant Professor Manoel Felciano stars in the production as Tom Watson, alongside showrunners Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond. Theatre Management and Producing alumnus Joel Glassman ’18 is the company manager on Parade.
New musicals Shucked, Kimberly Akimbo, and New York, New York have been nominated for Best Musical. Professor and Stage Management Concentration Head Michael Passaro serves as the production stage manager on Shucked, a musical about life in Cobb County, a corn-devoted midwestern county whose inhabitants face disaster when their corn crops start inexplicably dying. Shucked is also nominated for Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, Best Featured Actor in a Musical (two nominations), Best Scenic Design of a Musical, Best Sound Design of a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, and Best Orchestrations. The music for Kimberly Akimbo was written by former Adjunct Assistant Professor Jeanine Tesori (BC '83), and she received a Tony nomination for Best Original Score for her work. Kimberly Akimbo follows the story of teenager Kimberly Levaco, who suffers from a disease similar to progeria that causes her to age four times as fast as her classmates. The show’s other nominations include: Best Book of a Musical, Best Actress in a Musical, Best Featured Actor in a Musical, Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, and Best Orchestrations.
Thomas Swayne ’20 and Playwriting alumnus Santino DeAngelo ’18 are both producers of New York, New York, a spectacular new musical for a singular city. Set in 1946, the war is over, and a resurgent New York is beginning to rebuild. As steel beams swing overhead, a collection of artists has dreams as big and diverse as the city itself. Among them is New York native Jimmy Doyle, a brilliant but disillusioned musician looking for his “major chord” in life: music, money, love. The odds are against him getting all three until he meets Francine Evans, a young singer just off the bus from Philly, who is destined for greatness. If they can make it there, they can make it anywhere. The new musical received an astonishing nine Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Colton Ryan), Best Scenic Design, Best Costume Design, Best Lighting Design, Best Sound Design, Best Choreography, and Best Orchestrations.
Life of Pi, the colorful, puppet-filled staged production of Yann Martel’s Man Booker Prize winning novel for which Hal Luftig ’84 served as the lead producer, received five nominations: Best Scenic Design of a Play, Best Costume Design of a Play, Best Lighting Design of a Play, Best Sound Design of a Play, and Best Direction of a Play. A Christmas Carol, the most recent adaptation of Charles Dickens’s tale for which Scribner served as both the production stage manager and the associate director, received three Tony nominations. Harris also worked as the stage manager on the show. The show is nominated for Best Scenic Design of a Play, Best Lighting Design of a Play, and Best Sound Design of a Play.
Professor and Theatre Management and Producing Concentration Head Steven Chaikelson produced the revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, which received two nominations, for Best Actor in a Play and Best Lighting Design of a Play. Arminda Thomas ’96 served as the dramaturg for Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, which also received two nominations, for Best Revival of a Play and Best Featured Actress in a Play.
Alumnus Michael Leibring '18 served as Company Manager on A Doll’s House, the revival of the three-act play originally written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. This new reimaging of the play was directed by Jamie Lloyd, one of contemporary theater’s most revolutionary auteurs, and adapted by acclaimed playwright Amy Herzog. Starring Jessica Chastain, A Doll’s House received six total Tony nominations, including Best Play Revival, Best Actress (Chastain), Best Featured Actor (Arian Moayed), Best Direction, Best Lighting Design, and Best Sound Design.
The Tony Awards Administration Committee will present the 2023 Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre to three outstanding contributors to the Broadway industry. The honorees are former Adjunct Assistant Professor Lisa Dawn Cave, Adjunct Professor Victoria Bailey, and Adjunct Assistant Professor Robert Fried. Cave is a production stage manager; Bailey is the current executive director of Theatre Development Fund (TDF); Fried is a theatrical accountant.
The awards ceremony is scheduled to be held on June 11, 2023, and the full list of Tony nominees can be found here.