Star wattage will burn bright at the 2010 Tony Awards with Denzel Washington, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Kelsey Grammer among those receiving nominations Tuesday.
Washington and Law were each cited for best actor performances in “Fences” and “Hamlet,” respectively. Zeta-Jones was nominated for best performance by a leading actress in a musical, “A Little Night Music,” and Grammer was nominated for lead actor in a musical, “La Cage aux Folles.”
“Fela!” — nominated for best musical — and “La Cage aux Folles” — nominated for the best musical revival — each received 11 nominations, followed by “Fences” with 10 nods.
Nominated for best play were “In the Next Room (or the vibrator play)” by Sarah Ruhl; “Next Fall,” by Geoffrey Nauffts; “Red,” by John Logan; and “Time Stands Still,” by Donald Margulies.
Best musical nominations went to Green Day’s “American Idiot”; “Memphis”; “Million Dollar Quartet”; and “Fela!”
Besides Washington and Law, the actor-play nominees include Alfred Molina, “Red”; Liev Schreiber, “A View From the Bridge”; and Christopher Walken, “A Behanding in Spokane.”
In the actress-play category, the nominees were Viola Davis, “Fences”; Valerie Harper, “Looped”; Linda Lavin, “Collected Stories”; Laura Linney, “Time Stands Still”; and Jan Maxwell, “The Royal Family.”
The performers competing with Zeta-Jones for the actress-musical prize were Kate Baldwin, “Finian’s Rainbow”; Montego Glover, “Memphis”; Sherie Rene Scott, “Everyday Rapture”; and Christiane Noll, “Ragtime.”
Besides Grammer, the actor-musical nominees were Sean Hayes, “Promises, Promises”; Douglas Hodge, “La Cage aux Folles”; Chad Kimball, “Memphis”; and Sahr Ngujah, “Fela!”
Nominees for featured actress in a play: Maria Dizzia, “In the Next Room (or the vibrator play”; Rosemary Harris, “The Royal Family”; Jessica Hecht, “A View From the Bridge”; Scarlett Johansson, “A View From the Bridge”; Jan Maxwell, “Lend Me a Tenor.”
Featured actor in a play nominees included David Alan Grier, “Race”; Stephen McKinley Henderson, “Fences”; Jon Michael Hill, “Superior Donuts”; Stephen Kunken, “Enron”; Eddie Redmayne, “Red.”
Redmayne said Tuesday that working in New York has been a great experience for a “newbie” British actor.
“From the beginning, I felt a sort of fear of being an impostor, of being a Brit bringing a New York play to New York,” he said. “The way it’s been embraced by people has been completely overwhelming.”
Nominees for featured actor in a musical were: Kevin Chamberlin, “The Addams Family”; Robin De Jesus, “La Cage aux Folles”;
Christopher Fitzgerald, “Finian’s Rainbow”; Levi Kreis, “Million Dollar Quartet”; Bobby Steggert, “Ragtime.”
Nominees for featured actress in a musical were: Barbara Cook, “Sondheim on Sondheim”; Katie Finneran, “Promises, Promises”;
Angela Lansbury, “A Little Night Music”; Karine Plantadit, “Come Fly Away”; Lillias White, “Fela!”
Twyla Tharp, who choreographed and conceived the dance musical “Come Fly Away,” set to Frank Sinatra songs, competes for best choreography with Rob Ashford, “Promises, Promises”; Bill T. Jones, “Fela!”; and Lynne Page, “La Cage aux Folles.”
Special Tony Awards for lifetime achievement were given to playwright Alan Ayckbourn (“The Norman Conquests,” a trilogy of three plays that won the best play revival Tony last year), and actress Marian Seldes (“A Delicate Balance,” “Three Tall Women,” “Tiny Alice”).
The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Conn., will receive the regional theater award.
Winners will be announced June 13 during a ceremony televised by CBS from Radio City Music Hall.
