“And the Tony Award goes to…” (Watch the video, how many faces do you recognize?)
These will be the final words dozens of nominees hear tonight before: hearts’ break, dreams’ shatter and the realization sets in that they lost the American theater’s highest honor to someone else.
While everyone says, “It’s an honor just to be nominated,” no one believes that BS line.
However, time has shown that winning a Tony Award doesn’t make one a star, it’s the audience who makes that judgment call. To those who will lose tonight, I’d like to console them with two actresses’ stories who confirm that it is the performance, not the accolades, that history ultimately remembers.
Wouldn’t It Be Loverly – 1957 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical
Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolitte in 1956’s My Fair Lady.
It’s hard to believe that Julie Andrews has never won a Tony Award, especially given that her name is synonymous with one of Broadway’s masterpiece’s My Fair Lady. She was only 21 when the show opened in 1956, and a relative unknown, but her performance of cockney-flower girl Eliza Doolittle earned her cheers from audiences and critics. Although, not from Tony Award voters who gave the 1957 Best Actress in a Musical Award to Judy Holliday for Bells Are Ringing.
What’s remarkable is that even though she lost the Tony, and even the film role to Audrey Hepburn, no actress has ever been to escape Andrews’ shadow as Eliza. Many actresses have tried, but none have come close. Fortunately for us, Andrews’ performance as Eliza was preserved on My Fair Lady’s original Broadway and London cast albums.
While a Tony Award for Andrews would have been great, it must be especially loverly knowing that 58 years onward, people are still cheering her performance!
Don’t Rain on My Parade – 1964 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical
How does one justify the fact that Barbra Streisand won an Oscar for her portrayal as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, but lost the Tony Award for Best Actress in 1964 for that very same role? In reality, despite giving a knockout performance, Streisand had the misfortune of being nominated against another iconic actress/role, Carol Channing as Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! History though had other plans!
Streisand was Funny Girl, and till this day her performance is still talked about! Don’t believe me, give the YouTube clip a list and prepare to be blown away!
Yes, this is aided by her performance in the 1968 film adaption of Funny Girl. But since the original Broadway production of Funny Girl closed in 1967, no actress has ever come close to matching Streisand. So great is the memory of Streisand’s performance, than many potential Broadway revivals have failed to materialize simply because of the memory of her. Quite simply put, don’t rain on Streisand’s parade!
A word to the nominees
Yes, it stinks to lose. But Julie Andrews and Barbra Streisand’s examples demonstrates that history and the audience will ultimately judge who was the best that season. Great actors don’t let awards define them; they allow their performance to do just that.
As for yours truly, I am a 2009 Tony Award holder. And yes, the Tony medal feels great to carry!
Marquee Politics 