Wow! No Glenda Jackson for being Lear, nor Mockingbird for Best Play! What are they thinking? Frankly, the list is good and thoughtful, and pleasing for a critic who studies the scene, and wonders from some reviews, did they see the same play as I did?

First, Annette Bening in All My Sons, brilliant! And the play, nominated for Best Revival, is explosive. What makes it so great is her characterization as a woman who willfully pretends a truth about the death of her son in war. Arthur Miller’s play questions the high-minded motives for putting young men and women in harm’s way when governments wage war. The truth: industrialists win. For her to acknowledge this reality splits her in two. And it takes an actress at the level of Bening to get both sides of that personality. As director Jack O’Brien said, “There was no word for bipolar in the 1950’s.” That said, Janet McTeer deserves her Tony nod too, Sarah Bernhardt playing Hamlet.

Then, The Ferryman, Hadestown, Beetlejuice, The Prom, Kiss Me Kate and Oklahoma! All of these were great nights of theater, all deserving awards. For Best Musical Revival, it will be hard to choose between Kiss Me Kate (Kelli O’Hara is just wonderful) and Oklahoma!, reimagined, modernized. Then again, they do serve a hot chili and corn bread at intermission!

Regina Weinreich

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