The Who's Tommy - Tony winner: 1993 Best Original Score

[bwaylyric]

Posted: 5/3/24 at 12:12pm

How was this eligible for best original score considering there was the 1975 film adaptation?

[theatreguy]

Posted: 5/3/24 at 12:20pm

The rules were different then. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/3/24 at 12:24pm

The Tonys had extremely lenient rules back then. It's an insane win.

Other similarly crazy Best Score nominations or wins include:

• Rodgers & Hammerstein being nominated for STATE FAIR, long after their deaths, for songs written for a movie.
• T.S. Eliot winning Best Score for his "lyrics" to CATS (again, 20 years after his death)
• Jelly Roll Morton being nominated for JELLY'S LAST JAM
• Noel Gay & Douglas Ferber being nominated for ME AND MY GIRL in the 1980s for a musical written in the 30s. (also, that show was considered "new" by the Tonys when nowadays we'd probably call it a Revisal)
• JOSEPH nominated in 1982 for its Broadway premiere (it was written in 68 and produced subsequently)
• Eubie Blake & his lyricists nominated for EUBIE! (a revue)
• Scott Joplin (died 1917) getting nominated for Treemonisha in 1976

Updated On: 5/3/24 at 12:24 PM

[theatreguy]

Posted: 5/3/24 at 12:46pm

Adding to Ermengarde's list, T.S. Eliot also won Best Book for Cats which is wild. That award should have gone to Trevor Nunn and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

And, for State Fair, the Tonys also decided that only the songs Driving at Night, You Never Had It So Good, When I Go Out Walking With My Baby and Boys and Girls Like You and Me were eligible for consideration. The voters had to just ignore the majority of the score (not that it had a chance of winning over Rent). The following season they instituted the rule that as long as 50% of the score is new, the whole thing is eligible for consideration. Scores containing less than 50% new material are ineligible.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/3/24 at 12:56pm

theatreguy said: "And, for State Fair, the Tonys also decided thatonly the songs Driving at Night, You Never Had It So Good, When I Go Out Walking With My Baby and Boys and Girls Like You and Me were eligible for consideration. The voters had to just ignore the majority of the score (not that it had a chance of winning over Rent). The following season they instituted the rule that as long as 50% of the score is new, the whole thing is eligible for consideration. Scores containing less than 50% new material are ineligible."

The "50% new" rule has always been a little odd, because there's no way to enforce it. And then on shows like Beauty, Mermaid, and Aladdin, Howard Ashman was nominated, when he had no role in the new material. Now, I don't think anyone's mad about Howard having posthumous nominations, but it's weird that he would be included on the nomination roster when technically the nominators were not allowed to consider his work.

[Broadway61004]

Posted: 5/3/24 at 3:58pm

theatreguy said: "Adding to Ermengarde's list, T.S. Eliot also won Best Book for Cats which is wild. That award should have gone to Trevor Nunn and Andrew Lloyd Webber."

Actually, that award SHOULD have gone to literally anything other than Cats. But yes, if they were awarding that abomination of a show, Trevor Nunn and ALW should have been the recipients.

[LYLS3637]

Posted: 5/3/24 at 4:07pm

To be fair, a huge chunk of the 1975 lyrics did not make it to the musical. Nor did the songs specifically written for the film.