The Tony Awards Administration Committee met for the last time before Monday’s nomination announcements, making some final eligibility determinations for shows including the stars of American Buffalo, Hangmen and How I Learned To Drive, among others.Among the rulings: American Buffalo actor Darren Criss will be considered eligible as a featured player in a play, apparently leaving co-stars Laurence Fishburne and Sam Rockwell to the lead category.For Hangmen, which features a large ensemble of actors with Alfie Allen in the central role of a possible killer, co-star David Threlfall, who plays one of the executioners of the title, will be eligible in the leading actor/play category.
Both Allen and Threlfall received excellent reviews.The committee also determined that How I Learned to Drive, which had previously been staged Off Broadway in 1997, will be eligible in the Best Revival of a Play category, despite not having played on Broadway prior to the current staging.
A similar ruling was made in 2019 for the Broadway premiere of The Boys in the Band, which debuted Off Broadway in 1968.For their performances as romantic interests of Debra Messing’s central character in Birthday Candles, both Enrico Colantoni and John Earl Jelks will be considered eligible in the featured actor/play category.Several of the determinations involve actors in large-cast ensemble shows (Paradise Square, The Skin of Our Teeth) and for video and projections designers (the Tonys do not have a separate category for those, so the committee generally determines that those designers will fall into set or lighting slots).Tony determinations made earlier this season can be found here, here and here.In addition to those detailed above, other
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