A surprise nomination for Best Musical has the producers of “Leap of Faith” (above) searching for money to keep the show open. The musical’s star preacher, Raúl Esparza, was snubbed. (Joan Marcus (2))
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Here’s what theater insiders are gossiping about after yesterday’s Tony Award nominations:
* Be careful what you wish for. It could cost you another $2 million.
That’s the situation facing the producers of “Leap of Faith,” which yesterday scored an unexpected nomination for Best Musical.
The $12 million show got nothing else: not for book, score, design. Nothing, even, for leading man Raúl Esparza, who almost always gets nominated when he appears on Broadway.
Most of the critics savaged the show last Friday, and it’s been bleeding money: a quarter of a million last week alone.
That one nod isn’t going to turn the box office around. Nominations mean something only “if you get a bevy of them,” says a veteran producer.
As for winning the Tony, “Leap” doesn’t have, well, a prayer. It can’t even be considered a contender against the other nominees — “Once,” “Newsies” and “Nice Work If You Can Get It.”
“Leap” slipped in, it seems, because the Tony nominators simply couldn’t stomach voting for “Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark.”
Any sane person would look at the situation and say: Thanks for the nomination, now here’s the closing notice.
But we’re talking about Broadway producers, many of whom have only a passing familiarity with sanity, especially around Tony time.
And so yesterday the 30-odd producers of “Leap” were running around trying to raise more money — about $2 million, I hear — to keep the show going at least until the Tony telecast on June 10.
A fool’s errand if ever there was one.
“What are they hoping to get out of this?” asked an incredulous theater executive. “A touring production? Are they going to play revival tents around the country?”
My hunch is that “Leap” goes the way of another show that was nominated solely for Best Musical — “Leader of the Pack” in 1985. It ran for a bit and then closed at a loss.
But while they’re waiting for the end, the producers of “Leap” will have a chance to do what they do best — attend meetings.
There is, in fact, a big one scheduled for today. Knock yourselves out, kids!
* Another Tony surprise yesterday was the snub of “One Man, Two Guvnors” as Best Play. The producers tried to present the London import as a revival (it’s based on a classic Goldoni comedy), since it would have had a better chance of winning in that category.
But the Tony administration committee rejected the request.
The sense around Broadway is that the nominators found such gaming distasteful, and so gave the fourth spot to “Venus in Fur.”
Or, to put it as bluntly as one producer did yesterday, “They f – – ked themselves out of a nomination.”
I also think the nominators lean toward American plays, since the British have been winning everything in sight the past few years.
* The nominators must have hated “Evita.” It picked up a Best Revival nomination, but only because “Godspell” was worse. But they snubbed its leading lady, Elena Roger, who’s only playing one of the musical theater’s greatest female roles.
The nominators also stuck it to director Michael Grandage, passing him over for Jeff Calhoun of “Newsies.”
* Another British director who got it in the neck this year was Matthew Warchus. He’s been nominated five times and won once — for “God of Carnage.”
This time, however, he was passed over for his work on “Ghost the Musical,” which received three nominations, though not for Best Musical. Warchus is a talented guy, but he did himself no favors on opening night with a curtain speech that reeked of desperation.
“Don’t listen to the naysayers,” he implored the crowd. “And if you like the show, tell your friends.”
Maybe he should have added: “And if you’re a Tony nominator, surely we’re not as bad as ‘Leap of Faith!’ ”
* And, finally, everybody’s chuckling over the Special Tony Award for Hugh Jackman. Not that he doesn’t deserve it. I’d nominate him in every category. But the award isn’t for his wonderful show, “Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway.” It’s just for him. That’s because his producers decided not to give out 1,400 free tickets to Tony voters, which meant the show could not be Tony-eligible.
“We’d rather have the money,” one of them told me at the time.
But the Tonys need Hugh, especially since the telecast is going to be devoid of star power.
And so they jiggered a special award for just being Hugh Jackman. At least that’ll get him on the telecast.
Maybe he can perform a song from “Spider-Man.”