NEW YORK — Two strikingly different musicals, “Fela!” and “La Cage aux Folles,” dominated the star-laden 2010 Tony Awards nominations.
“Fela!” — the innovative Afro-beat biography of Nigerian superstar Fela Anikulapo-Kuti — and “La Cage aux Folles” — a revival of the classic Jerry Herman-Harvey Fierstein musical celebrating family — each received 11 nods Tuesday as Jeff Daniels and Lea Michele announced the nominees for the 64th annual awards.
They were followed by the revival of August Wilson’s “Fences,” with 10 nominations and the musical “Memphis,” with eight.
For the top musical prize, “Fela!” will go up against “Memphis,” an interracial romance set against the backdrop of the 1950s rhythm ‘n’ blues explosion; “American Idiot,” Green Day’s tale of disaffected slackers; and “Million Dollar Quartet,” a celebratory jam session involving Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash.
Best play nominations went to “Red,” John Logan’s incisive look at an artist — Mark Rothko — at work; “Time Stands Still,” Donald Margulies’ examination of a photojournalist’s intense commitment to her craft; Geoffrey Nauffts’ “Next Fall,” a story of belief and nonbelief; and Sarah Ruhl’s “In the Next Room (or the vibrator play),” a comedy about female liberation of a specific kind.
The critically maligned “Addams Family,” based on the New Yorker cartoons, was one of the most anticipated musicals of the season. It managed only two nominations, for Andrew Lippa’s music and lyrics, and for featured actor Kevin Chamberlin, who plays Uncle Fester in the show.
“Addams” stars Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth were among the notable omissions for nominations. Also missing in action were Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, stars of Keith Huff’s police melodrama “A Steady Rain,” the big box-office sensation of last fall. And so were the star, John Gallagher Jr., and director, Michael Mayer, of “American Idiot.”
Best play nominations went to “Red,” John Logan’s incisive look at an artist — Mark Rothko — at work; “Time Stands Still,” Donald Margulies’ examination of a photojournalist’s intense commitment to her craft; Geoffrey Nauffts’ “Next Fall,” a story of belief and non-belief; and Sarah Ruhl’s “In the Next Room (or the vibrator play),” a comedy about female liberation of a very specific kind.
“Red” received seven nominations. Among its nominees was Alfred Molina, who portrays Rothko. He will compete in what is perhaps the starriest Tony category — actor-play. His challengers: Denzel Washington, who plays an embittered sanitation worker with dashed dreams of baseball glory in “Fences”; Liev Schreiber, an obsessive Brooklyn longshoreman in “A View From the Bridge”; Christopher Walken, a peculiar fellow seeking revenge in “A Behanding in Spokane”; and Jude Law as the melancholy Danish prince in “Hamlet.”
“What a great honor,” Law said. “Bringing our production of Hamlet to New York will always be one of the highlights of my career and to receive this recognition amongst these other brilliant actors only makes this experience sweeter.”
Washington said that being on Broadway again — he last appeared in 2005 in “Julius Caesar” — was “like coming home again for me, and sharing a Tony nomination for ‘Fences’ with so many wonderfully talented people associated with this play makes it seem like one big family reunion.”
For the top musical prize, “Fela!” will go up against “Memphis,” an interracial romance set against the backdrop of the 1950s rhythm ‘n’ blues explosion; “American Idiot,” Green Day’s tale of disaffected slackers; and “Million Dollar Quartet,” a celebratory jam session involving Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash.
Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury were nominated — in different categories — for their roles in “A Little Night Music,” a musical revival nominee against “La Cage” and two shows that already have closed, “Finian’s Rainbow” and “Ragtime.”
“What a thrill to be nominated,” said Zeta-Jones, who plays the amorous Desiree Armfeldt in the Stephen Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler musical. “The experience of doing this incredible show and working every night with such a talented group of people has truly been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. And now to be nominated for a Tony, in my dreams, I couldn’t imagine a better way to make my Broadway debut.”
Zeta-Jones faces Kate Baldwin, “Finian’s Rainbow”; Montego Glover, “Memphis”; Christiane Noll, “Ragtime”; and Sherie Rene Scott, “Everyday Rapture.” In the featured actress-musical category, Lansbury goes up against Barbara Cook, “Sondheim on Sondheim”; Katie Finneran, “Promises, Promises”; Karine Plantadit, “Come Fly Away,” and Lillias White, “Fela!”
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.”
“I am so happy to be back ‘home’ again on stage, in this play, with these actors and to be recognized is icing on the cake,” said theater veteran Davis, who portrays Washington’s stoic, understanding wife in “Fences.”
“I am very, very grateful!”
Harper said her nomination was “bittersweet” because “Looped” had closed. “That was sad and disappointing but boy does this sweeten the pot,” she said. “And we have a 10-week commitment in Toronto. So there is an afterlife for the play, and that’s exciting.”
The two stars of “La Cage” — Kelsey Grammer and Douglas Hodge — will compete against each other for the actor-musical prize. Their competition will be Sean Hayes, the ambitious young executive in “Promises, Promises”; Chad Kimball, the soul-drenched disc jockey in “Memphis”; and Sahr Ngaujah, the title character in “Fela!”
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