The Broadway musical adaptation of the classic movie comedy "Some Like It Hot" has received 13 Tony Award nominations, the most of any show this year. The musical tells the story of two musicians who dress up as women to escape the mob, and in doing so, confront societal norms and prejudices.
With songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman and starring Christian Borle and J. Harrison Ghee, who all got nominations, the show follows two musician friends who disguise themselves as women and join an all-girl band to flee Chicago after witnessing a mob hit.
Three shows tied with nine nominations each: "& Juliet," which reimagines "Romeo and Juliet" and adds some of the biggest pop hits of the past few decades, "New York, New York," which combined two generations of Broadway royalty in John Kander and Lin-Manuel Miranda, and "Shucked," a surprise lightweight musical comedy studded with corn puns.
Betsy Wolfe, in her eighth Broadway show, earned her first nomination in "& Juliet," playing Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare's wife. The actor had just dropped her daughter, almost three, off at ballet class on Tuesday morning. "I hope she addresses me properly now when I see her," she joked.
In the musical, playwright David West Read took an original story using "Romeo and Juliet" as a launch pad and mixed in hits by Swedish super-producer Max Martin, including Brittney Spears’ "Oops! ... I Did It Again," Katy Perry’s "Roar" and Bon Jovi’s "It’s My Life." The musical imagines a happier ending for Juliet after a journey of self-discovery.
The critical musical darling "Kimberly Akimbo," with Victoria Clark playing a teen who ages four times faster than the average human, rounds out the best musical category, and earned a total of eight nominations.
Clark, who was nominated for best lead actress in a musical, hopes to add a second Tony to her trophy case, having previously won one in 2005 for "The Light in the Piazza." But more than that she hopes more attention will be paid to her show, which she calls a "little under the radar."
In the best new play category, nods were distributed to Tom Stoppard’s "Leopoldstadt," which explores Jewish identity with an intergenerational story, and "Fat Ham," James Ijames’ Pulitzer Prize-winning adaptation of Shakespeare’s "Hamlet" set at a Black family’s barbecue in the modern South.
The rest of the category is made up of "Ain’t No Mo,’" the short-lived but critically applauded work by playwright and actor Jordan E. Cooper, Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Between Riverside and Crazy" and "Cost of Living," parallel stories of two caretakers and their respective patients.
"Ain’t No Mo,’" which earned six nominations, begins with the United States government emailing every Black citizen with the offer of a free plane ticket to Africa, and each scene explores how various personalities respond to the offer.
Cooper learned he's been nominated twice – as the best playwright and as the lead actor – while visiting his childhood home in Texas. He and his family learned of his triumph in the living room where, as a six-year-old, he put on his first plays.
"Parade," a doomed musical love story set against the real backdrop of murder and lynching in Georgia in pre-World War I, earned six nods, including for Platt, hoping to win a second Tony after his triumph in 2017 with "Dear Evan Hansen," and rising star and first-time nominee Micaela Diamond.
Jessica Chastain, an Oscar-winner for "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," got her first Tony nomination for a stripped-down version of "A Doll’s House" and Wendell Pierce, who won a Tony for producing "Clybourne Park," earned his first nomination as an actor on Broadway for a blistering revival of "Death of a Salesman."
Jodie Comer, the three-time Emmy nominated star of "Killing Eve" earned a nomination in her Broadway debut – although her play, "Prima Facie," did not get a best new play nod – and Audra McDonald, who has won six Tony Awards can extend her reign if she beats Comer as best leading actress in a play for "Ohio State Murders." The last slot in the category went to Jessica Hecht, starring in the play "Summer, 1976."
Another show that closed quickly nevertheless picked up nominations – "KPOP," which put Korean pop music on Broadway for the first time. "KPOP" got three – including the best original score.
Andrew Lloyd Webber's frothy and widely panned "Bad Cinderella" earned zero nods, as did "A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical," a stage biography of the singer-songwriter who has had dozens of top-40 hits. Hollywood's Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan in "The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window" were left off the list of nominees, but Samuel L. Jackson earned his first Tony nod for "August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson."
Two well-received revivals from the late Stephen Sondheim – "Sweeney Todd" with Annaleigh Ashford and Josh Groban, and a star-studded "Into the Woods," were recognized. "Sweeney Todd" received eight nominations including for Groban and Ashford, and "Into the Woods" earned six, including for Brian d’Arcy James and Grammy Award-winning Sara Bareilles, her third Tony nomination.
"Almost Famous," the stage adaptation of Cameron Crowe’s autobiographical coming-of-age story, earned just one nomination - for music by Tom Kitt and lyrics by Crowe and Kitt. And choreographer Jennifer Weber had two reasons to smile Tuesday: Weber earned nominations for "& Juliet" and "KPOP," her first Broadway shows.
Among the haul for "Some Like It Hot" was a nomination for Ghee for best actor in a musical. Ghee and Alex Newell, who got a best supporting actor nod for "Shucked," both became the first nonbinary actors nominated for a Tony. (Last year, composer and writer Toby Marlow became the first out nonbinary nominee, going on to win for "Six.")
Ariana DeBose will host the June 11 awards celebration from New York City's United Palace theater live on CBS and on Paramount+. It is her second-straight stint as host.