Jodie Comer has been nominated for a Tony award for her debut performance on Broadway in Prima Facie. The Killing Eve star won best actress at the Olivier awards in London for the one-woman play, which transferred to New York in April. It stars Comer as a barrister who defends men charged with rape who is then assaulted herself.
In the best actress category, Comer is up against Audra McDonald (Ohio State Murders), who has won more Tony awards than any other performer; Jessica Hecht (Summer, 1976) and Jessica Chastain, recognised for her performance in A Doll’s House, which opened on Broadway in March after its London run was scuppered by Covid.
Prima Facie, written by Suzie Miller, missed out on a nomination for best play. In that category, Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt will compete against Ain’t No Mo’ by Jordan E Cooper, Between Riverside and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis, Cost of Living by Martyna Majok and Fat Ham by James Ijames. Three British directors were nominated for best direction of a play – Jamie Lloyd for A Doll’s House, Patrick Marber for Leopoldstadt and Max Webster for Life of Pi – with Saheem Ali (Fat Ham), Jo Bonney (Cost of Living) and Stevie Walker-Webb (Ain’t No Mo’) also in the running.
Both stars of Suzan-Lori Parks’ two-hander Topdog/Underdog are nominated for best actor in a play. Corey Hawkins and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II share that category with Sean Hayes (Good Night, Oscar), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Between Riverside and Crazy) and Wendell Pierce (Death of a Salesman).
The musical Some Like It Hot, inspired by Billy Wilder’s 1959 film of the same name, garnered the highest number of nominations (with 13) including for Matthew López and Amber Ruffin’s book, Marc Shaiman’s music and (with Scott Wittman) lyrics, and Casey Nicholaw’s choreography and direction. It is up for best musical alongside & Juliet, Shucked and New York, New York (all of which received nine nominations each) and Kimberly Akimbo (which had eight nominations). The musical Bad Cinderella, a reboot of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s West End show Cinderella, received no nominations, and neither did A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is up against another Stephen Sondheim classic, Into the Woods, for best revival of a musical (with Camelot and Parade also nominated). Two of Some Like It Hot’s stars, Christian Borle and J Harrison Ghee, were recognised in the category for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical alongside Josh Groban (Sweeney Todd), Brian d’Arcy James (Into the Woods), Ben Platt (Parade) and Colton Ryan (New York, New York). Lorna Courtney, star of the jukebox musical & Juliet, which is powered by super-producer Max Martin’s hits, will take on Annaleigh Ashford (Sweeney Todd), Sara Bareilles (Into the Woods), Victoria Clark (Kimberly Akimbo) and Micaela Diamond (Parade) for best performance by an actress in a leading role in a musical.
Two of Emilio Sosa’s costume designs for plays (for Ain’t No Mo’ and Good Night, Oscar) were nominated, as were two of Scott Pask’s scenic designs for a musical (Shucked and Some Like It Hot). Some Like It Hot and Sweeney Todd both brought Natasha Katz nominations for best lighting design of a musical while Britain’s Ben and Max Ringham had two nods in the category of best sound design of a play (for A Doll’s House and Prima Facie). Jennifer Weber has nominations for best choreographer for both & Juliet and Kpop.
The nominations were announced on Tuesday by actors Lea Michele and Myles Frost. The awards take place on 11 June, hosted by the Oscar-winning star Ariana DeBose.
