24 Hours To Go!

In anticipation of tomorrow's Tony Awards nominations announcement, the Outer Critics Circle announced their winners today. The big shocker was that despite leading the pack with 11 noms, Mary Poppins came away empty handed. That's right, not even a single technical award. All the technical awards went to Coast of Utopia, which was the night's big winner (although in a shocker, Frank Langella beat out Brian F. O'Byrne for best actor in a play for Frost/Nixon). Now, there are enough potential nominees that the Tony committee may decide to split the technical awards into musical and play categories, which they have done in the past when there have been numerous strong nominees in both categories. However, if they don't, it seems the wind is out from under Poppins' umbrella. Spring Awakening has solidified it's leading contender status, winning Best Broadway Musical (In The Heights won Best Off-Broadway musical, and will not be eligible at tomorrow's announcement) and Best Director (beating out John Doyle who nevertheless saw his Company take Best Revival). The other big shocker was Donna Murphey taking Best Actress in a musical for Lovemusik. Now granted, she has two Tony Awards (and while the legitimacy of her second win is open to debate, the 1995-96 season was what it was and the end result is still that she's a two-time Tony winner), but Audra was suddenly the woman of the hour, and this could put a big dent in her momentum, opening up the Tony race for Christine Ebersole again. As expected, Raul Esparza got Best Actor (sorry, I don't agree with this one) and in a somewhat lesser surprise, but a pleasant one, Karen Ziemba got Best Featured Actress, preventing Curtains from coming away empty handed. The other big loser of the night was Legally Blonde, coming away empty handed. Lovemusik racked up a second win with Best Featured Actor. Now, tomorrow, there are two confounding variables: Grey Gardens and Deuce, both of which were ineligible, for various reasons, for most preliminary awards, and while Deuce is not going to hurt Utopia, Grey Gardens could put a dent in Spring Awakening's armour, and the leading ladies of both are still the favorites to win, although a lot could change between then and now, just ask Patti.