By Chip Chandler — Digital Content Producer
Hamilton, the once-in-a-generation Broadway sensation, notched another milestone Tuesday by scoring a record-breaking 16 nominations for the 2016 Tony Awards.
The musical —which melds hip-hop, Broadway and pop musical traditions to tell the story of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton — was nominated in virtually every eligible category and broke the record of 15 nominations held by both The Producers and Billy Elliot.
The Lin-Manuel Miranda-penned musical, which won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama last month, will compete for best new musical against Bright Star, a bluegrass musical by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell; School of Rock, a stage adaptation by Andrew Lloyd Webber of the 2003 film; Waitress, an adaptation of the 2007 film featuring music by Sara Bareilles; and Shuffle Along, Or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, a musical that examines a groundbreaking musical written and directed by African-Americans 95 years ago.
Shuffle Along received 10 nominations — though, in a surprise, lead actress Audra McDonald did not receive a nomination for what could have been her seventh Tony. A revival of She Loves Me scored eight nominations.
Hamilton earned seven acting nominations: Miranda (Alexander Hamilton) and Leslie Odom Jr. (Aaron Burr) for lead actor; Phillipa Soo (Eliza Hamilton) for lead actress; Daveed Diggs (Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson), Jonathan Groff (King George) and Christopher Jackson (Geore Washington) for featured actor; and Renee Elise Goldsberry (Angelica Schuyler) for featured actress.
It also earned nominations for scenic design, costumes, lighting design, direction, choreography, orchestrations, best book and best original score.
She Loves Me will compete against three other strongly reviewed shows for best musical revival: The Color Purple, Fiddler on the Roof and Spring Awakening, a production that uses deaf and hearing actors.
Best new play nominees include Eclipsed, written by actress Danai Gurira of The Walking Dead; The Father by Florian Zeller; The Humans by Stephen Karam; and King Charles III by Mike Bartlett. Best play revival nominees are Blackbird, Long Day's Journey into Night, Noises Off, and The Crucible and A View from the Bridge, two Arthur Miller plays reinterpreted by Belgian director Ivo van Hove.
Other prominent names nominated for Tonys include Gabriel Byrne, lead actor in Long Day's Journey; Jeff Daniels, lead actor in Blackbird; Frank Langella, lead actor in The Father; Jessica Lange, lead actress in Long Day's Journey; Laurie Metcalf, lead actress in Misery; Lupita Nyong'o, lead actress in Eclipsed; Michelle Williams, lead actress in Blackbird; Zachary Levi, lead actor in She Loves Me; Laura Benanti, lead actress in She Loves Me; Michael Shannon, featured actor in Long Day's Journey; Megan Hilty and Andrea Martin, featured actresses in Noises Off; Jane Krakowski, featured actress in She Loves Me; and Danielle Brooks, featured actress in The Color Purple.
A full roundup of nominees is available here.
The Tony Awards will air at 7 p.m. June 12 on CBS, hosted by James Corden, host of "The Late Late Show" and a 2012 Tony Award winner for "One Man, Two Guvnors."
* Chip Chandler is a digital content producer for Panhandle PBS. He can be contacted at Chip.Chandler@actx.edu, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and at www.facebook.com/chipchandlerwriter on Facebook.
