Last June after a season where not a single female playwright was produced on Broadway it was announced that there would be at least five women with plays in the just ended 2011–2012 season. Four of the expected plays opened: The Mountaintop by Katori Hall, Stick Fly by Lydia R. Diamond, Relatively Speaking co-written by Elaine May and Seminar by Theresa Rebeck.
In the Tony Award nominations which were announced yesterday, none of the plays written by women received a best new play nomination, and in fact out of all those plays there was only one nomination for best supporting actress for Condola Rashad for Stick Fly.
The good news is in the area of women directors where 50% of the nominees for best direction of a muscial were women. Diane Paulus was nominated for the revival of Porgy and Bess and Kathleen Marshall was nominated for Nice Work if You Can Get It. Ms. Marshall also received a nomination for her choreography of the same show. Pam MacKinnon received a nomination for her direction of the Pulitzer Prize winning play Clybourne Park.
Margaret Edson received a nomination for the revival of Wit, and Cynthia Nixon was nominated for her work in that show.
Other female nominees:
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE IN A PLAY
Nina Arianda, Venus in Fur; Tracie Bennett, End of the Rainbow; Stockard Channing, Other Desert Cities; Linda Lavin, The Lyons; Cynthia Nixon, Wit
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE IN A MUSICAL
Jan Maxwell, Follies; Audra McDonald, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess; Cristin Milioti, Once; Kelli O’Hara, Nice Work If You Can Get It; Laura Osnes, Bonnie & Clyde
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A FEATURED ROLE IN A PLAY
Linda Emond, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman; Spencer Kayden, Don’t Dress for Dinner; Celia Keenan-Bolger, Peter and the Starcatcher; Judith Light, Other Desert Cities; Condola Rashad, Stick Fly
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A FEATURED ROLE IN A MUSICAL
Elizabeth A. Davis, Once; Jayne Houdyshell, Follies; Judy Kaye, Nice Work If You Can Get It; Jessie Mueller, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever; Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Ghost the Musical
BEST COSTUME DESIGN OF A PLAY: Paloma Young, Peter and the Starcatcher
BEST COSTUME DESIGN OF A MUSICAL: Eiko Ishioka, Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark
BEST LIGHTING DESIGN OF A MUSICAL
Natasha Katz, for both Follies and Once
Bernadette Peter will also receive the Isabelle Stevenson Tony award
