The Tony nominations are out Tuesday, but let me get a jump on things with my nomination for trouper of the year — LaTanya Richardson Jackson, who jumped in at the last minute to help salvage the hit revival of “A Raisin in the Sun.”
Jackson, who lives in Atlanta, was in New York on a shopping spree when her phone rang. Diahann Carroll had dropped out of the revival a few weeks before its first preview, and Denzel Washington wanted her to take over the role of Lena Younger. Jackson hesitated: Lena, the matriarch of the family, is onstage for most of the play, which is 140 pages long.
She called her husband, Samuel L. Jackson.
“Are you crazy?” he said. “You took it, right?”
Two days later, she was at rehearsal, script in hand. Everybody else was off book. “I would rehearse all day, and then I would study my lines at the dinner table until I fell asleep in the dinner plate with the lines in my head.”
But she pulled it off, and walked away with some of the best reviews of the season. She’s certain to be nominated Tuesday, along with co-stars Washington, Anika Noni
Rose and Sophie Okonedo.
The critics were all over the place on the quality of this year’s productions, but the season’s been rich in fine performances. Bryan Cranston will be nominated for his titanic performance as LBJ in “All the Way.”
The boys (girls?) of Harvey Fierstein’s cross-dressing “Casa Valentina” are all excellent, and I predict nods for at least two of them — Reed Birney
and Tom McGowan — along with the excellent Mare Winningham. And don’t forget Roger Rees, who was terrific in “The Winslow Boy” last fall.
As for musical performances, the male nominees will include Andy Karl (“Rocky”), Neil Patrick Harris (“Hedwig and the Angry Inch”), James Monroe Iglehart (the Genie in “Aladdin”) and Jarrod Spector (“Beautiful”).
For the ladies, it’s a crowded field. Sure bets are Jessie Mueller (“Beautiful”), Sutton Foster (“Violet”), Kelli O’Hara (“Bridges of Madison County”) and Idina Menzel (“If/Then”).
On the Best Play front, it’s been a weak season — all the entries have more detractors than fans. Charles Isherwood loved Will Eno’s “The Realistic Joneses,” but, in this case, Charles really is an island. My predictions: “All the Way,” “Mothers and Sons,” “Outside Mullingar” and “Casa Valentina.”
Finally, musicals. Only two are safe bets: “Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” and “Beautiful.” I think “After Midnight” will get in, and then it’s a fight between “Aladdin” and “If/Then” for the fourth slot.
“Bullets Over Broadway” slides on two conditions:
1. There’s a fifth slot. 2. The nominators overlook either “Aladdin,” “If/Then” or “After Midnight.”
“Rocky” will have to content itself with being the darling of heterosexual male audiences — those people who don’t give a fig about the Tony nominations.