Dead Outlaw
Broadway review by Adam Feldman
Elmer McCurdy wanted to be somebody. Born out of wedlock to a teenage mother in late-19th-century Maine, he grew up dreaming of infamy. ('I'm the outlaw Jesse James! Bang bang—!') He got drunk, got in fights, moved out west; he joined a gang of Oklahoma train robbers, and he died in a shootout at the age 31. But that's not where his story ended. McCurdy's corpse got embalmed and wound up traveling the country as a ghoulish sideshow attraction. ('There's something 'bout a mummy that everybody needs.') It changed hands for decades before winding up in a California amusement-park ride, painted DayGlo red and hanging naked from a noose. In 1976, a crewman on TV's The Six Million Dollar Man ripped an arm from it and only then discovered that this prop was once a man. Exactly which man it had been was by that point a mystery; by then it was just some body.
The weirder-than-fiction true story of McCurdy's preservation and degradation is the subject of Dead Outlaw, a rowdy and darkly hilarious picaresque musical by the team behind 2016's bittersweet The Band's Visit: book writer Itamar Moses, songwriter David Yazbek (joined here by Erik Della Penna) and director David Cromer. These two shows couldn't seem more different at first pass, but they share a deep curiosity and wry humanity; they embrace the complex and the unknown. 'No one knows if it was cuz of that he started getting into trouble,' Dead Outlaw 's Bandleader (a perfectly gruff and rascally Jeb Brown) says of McCurdy's traumatic childhood. 'Maybe he was just wired that way. Or maybe there was no reason at all.'
Dead Outlaw | Photograph: Courtesy Matthew Murphy
About one thing, though, this musical is certain: Everybody dies, no matter how famous. 'Abe Lincoln's dead / Frank James is dead,' the Bandleader sings in 'Dead,' the hard-driving rockabilly number that opens and closes the show. 'Your mama's dead / And so are you.' The song's net widens to include figures ranging from Gandhi to Zendaya. Some of those named are still alive (for now) but the implication is clear: It doesn't make much difference either way. McCurdy is killed halfway through the musical, but the actor who plays him, Andrew Durand, stays onstage for the remainder of the show, lying motionless on a table or propped up in a coffin. In every stage tableau that ensues, he serves as the memento mori.
The flip side of Dead Outlaw 's hate-to-tell-ya candor about mortality is a gimlet-eyed skepticism about the greed for attention built into American culture. The acerbic comic essayist Cintra Wilson has described celebrity as 'a grotesque, crippling disease'; Dead Outlaw extends that to fatality and beyond. The secret to McCurdy's resistance to decay is that his embalming fluid contains arsenic. Fame is laced with poison.
Dead Outlaw | Photograph: Courtesy Matthew Murphy
In a sense, the show is like an anti- Pippin, with the Bandleader as the Leading Player: the devil on the lost boy's shoulder, goading him to self-immolation in the name of glory. In the guise of a bandit named Walter Jarrett, he's the one who recruits McCurdy into his gang when the two share a jail cell. ('You can decide,' 'Decide what?' 'Whether you wanna be remembered.') And McCurdy, who is scared of a life where 'nobody knows your name'—'If I never signify, am I really here?' he sings—can't resist. He meets a pretty girl, Maggie (the excellent Julia Knitel), in small-town Kansas, and has the option of remaking himself into a decent type of fellow: 'An honest man / That you can trust / Like normal people / Who soon return to dust.' He chooses a different road.
If the thoroughly original Dead Outlaw has a resemblance to any other musicals at all, it is perhaps to the work of the late Michael Friedman, who also favored documentary material and playful pastiche Americana, and whose Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson had comparable notes of redneck boisterousness. (Moses and Friedman collaborated on 2014's The Fortress of Solitude.) But McCurdy is a more poignant figure than Jackson was. As a would-be safecracker, he's a total screw-up, a rotten yegg: He's bad at being a bad guy. When he grabs the microphone to scream out the furious 'Killed a Man in Maine,' he's just a pathetic drunk; his attempted braggadocio falls flat on its face.
Dead Outlaw | Photograph: Courtesy Matthew Murphy
Durand's performance is bisected by McCurty's demise. For the first half of Dead Outlaw, he is a highly active figure, sometimes wistful—he has a beautiful high tenor—but lit by an inner fury; he would fit right in with the violent losers of Assassins or January 6. But then: Bang bang—! His mortal thread is cut, and Durand spends the rest of the show being moved around inertly in what might be the most impressive deadpan performance in history. He's staggeringly still: You can't even catch him blink.
That same level of commitment extends to all of Dead Outlaw. The writing is piquant and sly, the songs have verve and resonance, and every element of Cromer's production seems to fit exactly in place. The show premiered last year as part of Audible Theater's Off Broadway programming, which is apt. The whole project has the spirit of a serial podcast, branching off whenever it likes to explore some fascinating tangent with help from Cromer's protean supporting players: Knitel, Eddie Cooper, Dashiell Eaves, Ken Marks, Trent Saunders and crowd favorite Thom Sesma (as a Tinseltown coroner turned crooner). These very fine performers, along with Brown and the onstage band, revolve around Durand's extremely stable center. The 2024–25 season has been strangely full of cadavers; things to do on Broadway when you're dead this year include faking out Nazis in Operation Mincemeat, narrating yourself in Sunset Blvd., getting a makeover in Death Becomes Her and feeding your friends in Swept Away. But Durand takes rigor mortis to new levels of morbid rigor. He's the hardest-working stiff on Broadway.
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Scottish Sun
08-05-2025
- Scottish Sun
‘Jerry Garcia was my soulmate… we relied on each other,' says Grateful Dead founding member Bobby Weir
Find out why Bob Weir says he needs 100 iPads to bring the Dead back to life STILL TRUCKIN' 'Jerry Garcia was my soulmate… we relied on each other,' says Grateful Dead founding member Bobby Weir 'What a long, strange trip it's been' for the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir – or Bobby Weir, as he goes by these days. As Deadheads among you will know, that immortal line comes from one of their best loved songs, Truckin'. 6 Legendary Grateful Dead co-founder Bobby Weir, 77, brings a symphonic spin to his music – and he's finally back on a London stage Credit: Todd Michalek 6 Weir with Grateful Dead, including his late soulmate, guitarist Jerry Garcia Credit: Redferns A Weir co-write with Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and lyricist Robert Hunter, the bluesy, steady-rolling shuffle has been recognised by the United States Library Of Congress as 'a national treasure'. The same accolade applies to Weir himself. It was he who took lead vocals on the song which references a drugs raid at the band's hotel on Bourbon Street, New Orleans, in 1970. At 77, he is chief keeper of the Dead's flame, performing their music as leader of two bands, Dead & Company and Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros. It is the second of these offshoots that us British Deadheads (yes, I count myself among them) are getting excited about. On June 21, Weir is heading to the UK for the first time in 22 years, the last time being with another of his post-Dead bands, RatDog. He and Wolf Bros — Don Was (bass), Jeff Chimenti (piano) and Jay Lane (drums) — are taking to the Royal Albert Hall's hallowed stage with the 68-piece Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. They will present reimagined songs from what Weir describes as 'the Dead songbook' and a sprinkling of compositions from his solo career. And that's the reason why I'm on a video call to one of America's most intriguing and long-serving musicians. It's a fine spring evening in London and an equally balmy lunchtime on the West Coast, where a clear blue sky frames Weir's distinctive, distinguished features. 'A sense of being' His swept-back grey/white hair with matching walrus moustache and beard, as well as his piercing brown eyes, give him the air of one of rock's elder statesman. But, before we get stuck into his symphonic London show, it's time for a Grateful Dead recap. It's important to note that they were not just a band but also a way of life. They fostered unrivalled community spirit, putting themselves and the original Deadheads at the forefront of the counterculture movement in the late Sixties. They were a rallying point for all those pot-smoking folks with tie-dyed clothes, beaded necklaces, sandals and long hair. They were — to borrow hippie parlance — far out, man! When I first heard rock and roll, I realised I had something of a calling. I was seven, eight, nine years old when Elvis Presley was a big star. He had an energy about him that I related to. Being part of a giant family gave the Dead 'a sense of being and a sense of purpose', decides Weir. At just 16, he had hooked up with Jerry Garcia, five years his senior, in the Californian city of Palo Alto to become the Dead's youngest founder member, beginning his 'long strange trip' playing the band's music. 'Number one, it's the only thing I'm equipped to do,' he tells me, choosing his words carefully. 'I'm dyslexic in the extreme, so an academic career was never a move on the board for me. 'When I first heard rock and roll, I realised I had something of a calling. 'I was seven, eight, nine years old when Elvis Presley was a big star. He had an energy about him that I related to. 'Soon, there was only one thing I was really interested in — making that kind of music.' Weir says the arrival in the US of The Beatles, as leaders of the 'British Invasion', also had a profound effect. 'The Beatles looked like they were having a lot of fun — they were bright, they worked well together and their music reflected that. 'It's pretty apparent that in three or four hundred years, people will still be talking about them. Maybe if we [the Grateful Dead] are lucky, we'll also make that cut!' Weir's imposing rock vocals and richly textured rhythm guitar provided the perfect foil to Garcia's ethereal delivery and intricate lead guitar. They conjured up a transcendent fusion of rock, country, jazz, gospel, ragtime, you name it, and were masters of improvisation on extended jams involving tracks such as the epic Dark Star. Today, Weir admits that never a day goes by when he doesn't think about Garcia, who died in 1995 aged 53, effectively ending the Grateful Dead (if not live performance of their music). 'Jerry and I were soulmates,' he says. 'I did stuff that he didn't do and he did stuff that I didn't do. We relied on each other. 'The whole deal was that we would keep doing it for as long as we were having fun — and we did.' Weir also has bassist Phil Lesh on his mind, a fellow founder member who died last October aged 84. Back in the day, when we were playing these songs, this [orchestrated sound] is basically what was going on in our heads. 'I've thought about him a lot lately and I haven't come up with any greater clarity other than he was a friend of mine — he taught me a lot and I like to think I taught him a lot. 'He was a musical mentor but, at the same time, my way was not his way. I had to sort the catfish from the trout, as they say, when ideas came up. 'Now, I'm just going to let that all pass.' It's a full 60 years since The Grateful Dead formed and 30 since Garcia's death but Weir is still pushing on by bringing his special concert to the Albert Hall, a venue he's never played before. 'I've only heard about it in songs but I'm looking forward to it for sure,' he says, surely in reference to The Beatles' A Day In Life with its line, 'now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall'. 6 Jerry Garcia was a founding member of the band Grateful Dead and died in 1995 6 Weir pictured with Wolf Bros The event follows similar outings by Weir in the States and he believes the addition of a full orchestra is not as strange as it seems. 'Back in the day, when we were playing these songs, this [orchestrated sound] is basically what was going on in our heads,' he says. 'We were hearing a much fuller representation than our instruments allowed us to play. 'So, we imagined how songs could sound and we reached for those timbres. This is an opportunity to actually do it.' For an artist so defined by improvisation, I'm intrigued by the prospect of him playing with an orchestra and all the attendant constraints. When I mention this, Weir latches on to the theme and says: 'This is the point I wanted you to remind me of. 'Right now, we have to stick to a given arrangement. What's on the paper is what's going to get played BUT that's not where we're taking this. 'What's afoot is trying to get it so the orchestra can improvise relatively freely.' 'I'll need 100 iPads' Weir explains his plans for a team of 'improv leaders' sorted into 'various sections of the orchestra with a multiple choice of riffs'. 'I'm probably going to need Apple to give me a hundred iPads to make it work,' he adds with a wry smile. 'But if it works for us, it will work for any of the composers. I'm thinking of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony — the start of the second movement. You could employ this kind of thing until hell won't have it no more!' Weir returns to matters in hand, namely the Albert Hall show and what the audience can expect — ie the unexpected as is the Grateful Dead way. He says: 'We've got a couple of dozen songs orchestrated. Right now, it comes out at roughly five and a half hours of music. We're already at the point where you don't know what you're going to hear. 'That's how we've done things all along and that's how I intend to go on. That said, there will be new additions for the London performance because they're up and ready.' Weir senses that his audience will be open-minded about orchestral arrangements and prepared to 'get with it' on this latest sonic adventure. 'This is for the folks who want to hear something that's a step beyond where it's been — and this is surely that!' he exclaims. So, are we likely to see the cosmic Dark Star, which once ran to 43 minutes but usually clocks in at about 20. 'Dark Star is orchestrated,' replies Weir. 'I won't say I'm taking requests but I'll take it into consideration. We haven't got there with the setlist yet.' When I was 15, I decided on a terribly romantic thing to do — run off and be a cowboy. I guess we'll have to wait and see if he'll play his most cherished Dead co-writes — Sugar Magnolia, Playing In The Band, Estimated Prophet, Hell In A Bucket, Throwing Stones or, of course, Truckin'. While Garcia forged an intuitive songwriting partnership with Robert Hunter, yielding Uncle John's Band, Ripple, Stella Blue and other classics, Weir fell out with Hunter when creating crowd pleaser One More Saturday Night. He confesses: 'There was a lot of tension because I write lyrics too and Hunter was not real good with that. He liked to play it closer to the vest.' So Weir turned to his pal, the late John Barlow, for collaborations. 'Barlow and I went to school together,' he says. 'We grew up together. 'When I was 15, I decided on a terribly romantic thing to do — run off and be a cowboy. 'I worked on Barlow's parents' ranch in Wyoming. Over the years, we would live out there in a little log cabin and write. 'And I'll tell you this — we're just starting to crack the nut on some of our compositions with the orchestral work.' In this free-ranging interview, full of unexpected twists and turns, a bit like a Grateful Dead live set, I ask Weir about his early visits to England. He recalls the 1972 Bickershaw Festival, near Wigan, a doomed venture partly organised by late TV host Jeremy Beadle. The Dead played a five-hour set to the mud-covered crowd and Weir says: 'I remember it well. It was a rainy occasion!' During that tour of Europe, they also did two nights at Wembley Arena (then called Empire Pool) and a four-night stand at London's Lyceum. Weir says they were a band at the peak of its powers, celebrated by the live triple album, Europe '72. 'We were young and strong but jet lag was a serious business,' he adds. 'We took it into consideration in '72 and held off for a few days. 'But we were in a phase when the band was high and we delivered the goods.' This year, Weir has also been delivering for Dead & Company (with John Mayer on lead guitar) at the state-of-the-art Sphere in Las Vegas. The venue projects moving images on to the inside of the huge spherical auditorium but, says Weir, it's still not fully prepared for the Dead's freewheeling attitude. 'Mind-blowing as it is, it's still a work in progress because a great deal of technological development needs to be done before content people can be faster on their feet. 'When that work is done, it's going to surpass opera in terms of what you can deliver from one stage.' As for this restless soul Weir, he believes that his musical journey is only just 'coming to fruition'. 'It's been complicated so it was always going to take a while,' he admits. 'I'm not sure I totally understand what it is that I'm up to but I have a handle on it now to take the next steps forward.' It seems that this line from Truckin' could have been written for Bobby Weir. 'Sometimes the light's all shinin' on me.' 6 Weir says 'Jerry (right) and I were soulmates, I did stuff that he didn't do, and he did stuff that I didn't do. We relied on each other. Credit: Redferns
BreakingNews.ie
01-05-2025
- BreakingNews.ie
Death Becomes Her and Maybe Happy Ending lead Tony Award nominations
Three Broadway shows — Buena Vista Social Club, Death Becomes Her and Maybe Happy Ending — each earned a leading 10 Tony Award nominations on Thursday, as nominators spread out the joy and gave nods to George Clooney, Sarah Snook and Bob Odenkirk in their debuts. Twenty-nine shows got at least one nomination across the 26 Tony categories, even long-closed shows like A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical and Swept Away. Advertisement James Monroe Iglehart, who played Armstrong in his musical, wasn't expecting the nomination and woke to his phone blowing up. View this post on Instagram A post shared by A Wonderful World Broadway (@awonderfulworldbway) 'I was like, 'What's going on? Is everything OK?' And then I was, 'OK! How cool is that?' he said. 'I'm just really excited to be a part of this crop of amazing performers.' Buena Vista Social Club, which takes its inspiration from Wim Wenders's 1999 Oscar-nominated documentary on the making of the album of the same name, will face off for best musical crown with Death Becomes Her, based on the 1992 cult classic film about frenemeies who seek a magic eternal youth and beauty potion. Advertisement The category also includes Maybe Happy Ending, a rom-com musical about a pair of androids that crackle with humanity, and Dead Outlaw, a musical about a real life alcoholic drifter who was shot dead in 1911 and whose afterlife proved to be stranger than fiction as he was displayed at carnivals for decades. A second show with a corpse, the British import Operation Mincemeat, also made it, the improbably true story about a British deception operation designed to mislead Nazi Germany about the location of the Allied landing at Sicily. Buena Vista Social Club has also earned 10 nominations at this year's Tony Awards (Matthew Murphy/Polk & Co. via AP) 'What I think is so cool about this year is that the shows are so widely different and I love that for Broadway,' says Christopher Gattelli, the choreographer and first-time director of Death Becomes Her, who earned nods for both jobs. 'We have chamber pieces and really small intimate shows and these wildly funny black box shows, and so, I love that it's been such a great scope of a year. I love that we get to add to that mix.' Advertisement Dead Outlaw — conceived by David Yazbek, who wrote the music and lyrics with Erik Della Penna — reunites Yazbek with book writer Itamar Moses and the director David Cromer, who collaborated so winningly on the Tony-winning The Band's Visit. Yazbek said that the team learned a lesson with that show that they applied to Dead Outlaw. 'If you make the thing you want to make and make it true to itself and leave the rest of it up to the fates, then you might actually get the reception that you want. And so we sort of stuck to that approach,' he said. In the best play category, English, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sanaz Toossi's look at four Iranian students preparing for an English language exam, made the cut. Advertisement Audra McDonald has received a nod for her portrayal of Rose in the Broadway musical Gypsy (Julieta Cervantes via AP) As did The Hills Of California, Jez Butterworth's look at a family gathering for the impending death of its matriarch, set in a hotel in the summer of 1976 in England. They will compete with John Proctor Is The Villain, Kimberly Belflower's examination of girlhood, feminism, the #MeToo movement and a compelling rebuttal to The Crucible, and Purpose, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's drawing-room drama about an accomplished Black family destroying itself from within. The category is completed with Oh, Mary!, an irreverent, raunchy, gleefully deranged revisionist history by Cole Escola centred on Mary Todd Lincoln, a boozy, narcissistic, potty-mouthed first lady determined to strike out of the subordinate role into which history has placed her. Jacobs-Jenkins, whose Appropriate, won best play revival last year, said that his category was filled with plays that started regionally or off-Broadway, showing the art's strength. Advertisement 'I hope people kind of see the diversity of what's happening in terms of writing for the American stages right now. It's really an amazing time,' he said. 'I think that's just the testament to how fruitful the form is.' George Clooney received a nod for his leading role in Good Night, and Good Luck (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, File) Audra McDonald, as expected, heard her name called for her turn as Rose in a hailed revival of Gypsy, a role that led to previous Tonys for the likes of Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly and Patti LuPone. McDonald, already a holder of the most Tonys by a performer with six, now vies for a seventh. She will face off against Nicole Scherzinger in Sunset Blvd, Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard in Death Becomes Her, and Jasmine Amy Rogers from Boop! The Musical. Clooney got a nod as a leading actor in a play for his retelling the story of legendary reporter Edward R Murrow in an adaptation of his 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck. Another hot ticket — a revival of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross earned Odenkirk a nod, but not for his co-stars Kieran Culkin or comedian Bill Burr. Snook, Culkin's Succession co-star, earned a nomination for playing all 26 parts in The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Stranger Things star Sadie Sink earned one for leading John Proctor Is the Villain. Stranger Things: The First Shadow, an effects-driven prequel to the Netflix hit show, earned five nods, including for lead actor Louis McCartney. Oh, Mary! earned a nod in the best play category (Emilio Madrid via AP) The news was less good for Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler, both in their Broadway debuts. Neither got nominations for their Romeo + Juliet, pitched to Generation X and millennials. Robert Downey Jr, who also made his Broadway debut in the play McNeal, also wasn't recognised. Mia Farrow earned a nomination for The Roommate, but her co-star, the Broadway diva Patti LuPone, did not. And, in a shock, an edgy Othello with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal that producers are charging north of 900 dollars for orchestra seats, got not a single nomination. Idina Menzel's return to Broadway in Redwood, a contemporary fable about trees, grief and the quest for healing, also got no nominations. Our Town, starring Jim Parsons and Katie Holmes, earned a best play revival Tony nomination, but nothing for its actors. And the Stephen Sondheim revue starring Tony Award-winners Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga came up blank. The Tony Awards will be handed out June 8 at Radio City Music Hall during a telecast hosted by Wicked star and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo.
The Herald Scotland
01-05-2025
- The Herald Scotland
Death Becomes Her and Maybe Happy Ending lead Tony Award nominations
James Monroe Iglehart, who played Armstrong in his musical, wasn't expecting the nomination and woke to his phone blowing up. 'I was like, 'What's going on? Is everything OK?' And then I was, 'OK! How cool is that?' he said. 'I'm just really excited to be a part of this crop of amazing performers.' Buena Vista Social Club, which takes its inspiration from Wim Wenders's 1999 Oscar-nominated documentary on the making of the album of the same name, will face off for best musical crown with Death Becomes Her, based on the 1992 cult classic film about frenemeies who seek a magic eternal youth and beauty potion. The category also includes Maybe Happy Ending, a rom-com musical about a pair of androids that crackle with humanity, and Dead Outlaw, a musical about a real life alcoholic drifter who was shot dead in 1911 and whose afterlife proved to be stranger than fiction as he was displayed at carnivals for decades. A second show with a corpse, the British import Operation Mincemeat, also made it, the improbably true story about a British deception operation designed to mislead Nazi Germany about the location of the Allied landing at Sicily. Buena Vista Social Club has also earned 10 nominations at this year's Tony Awards (Matthew Murphy/Polk & Co. via AP) 'What I think is so cool about this year is that the shows are so widely different and I love that for Broadway,' says Christopher Gattelli, the choreographer and first-time director of Death Becomes Her, who earned nods for both jobs. 'We have chamber pieces and really small intimate shows and these wildly funny black box shows, and so, I love that it's been such a great scope of a year. I love that we get to add to that mix.' Dead Outlaw — conceived by David Yazbek, who wrote the music and lyrics with Erik Della Penna — reunites Yazbek with book writer Itamar Moses and the director David Cromer, who collaborated so winningly on the Tony-winning The Band's Visit. Yazbek said that the team learned a lesson with that show that they applied to Dead Outlaw. 'If you make the thing you want to make and make it true to itself and leave the rest of it up to the fates, then you might actually get the reception that you want. And so we sort of stuck to that approach,' he said. In the best play category, English, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sanaz Toossi's look at four Iranian students preparing for an English language exam, made the cut. Audra McDonald has received a nod for her portrayal of Rose in the Broadway musical Gypsy (Julieta Cervantes via AP) As did The Hills Of California, Jez Butterworth's look at a family gathering for the impending death of its matriarch, set in a hotel in the summer of 1976 in England. They will compete with John Proctor Is The Villain, Kimberly Belflower's examination of girlhood, feminism, the #MeToo movement and a compelling rebuttal to The Crucible, and Purpose, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's drawing-room drama about an accomplished Black family destroying itself from within. The category is completed with Oh, Mary!, an irreverent, raunchy, gleefully deranged revisionist history by Cole Escola centred on Mary Todd Lincoln, a boozy, narcissistic, potty-mouthed first lady determined to strike out of the subordinate role into which history has placed her. Jacobs-Jenkins, whose Appropriate, won best play revival last year, said that his category was filled with plays that started regionally or off-Broadway, showing the art's strength. 'I hope people kind of see the diversity of what's happening in terms of writing for the American stages right now. It's really an amazing time,' he said. 'I think that's just the testament to how fruitful the form is.' George Clooney received a nod for his leading role in Good Night, and Good Luck (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, File) Audra McDonald, as expected, heard her name called for her turn as Rose in a hailed revival of Gypsy, a role that led to previous Tonys for the likes of Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly and Patti LuPone. McDonald, already a holder of the most Tonys by a performer with six, now vies for a seventh. She will face off against Nicole Scherzinger in Sunset Blvd, Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard in Death Becomes Her, and Jasmine Amy Rogers from Boop! The Musical. Clooney got a nod as a leading actor in a play for his retelling the story of legendary reporter Edward R Murrow in an adaptation of his 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck. Another hot ticket — a revival of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross earned Odenkirk a nod, but not for his co-stars Kieran Culkin or comedian Bill Burr. Snook, Culkin's Succession co-star, earned a nomination for playing all 26 parts in The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Stranger Things star Sadie Sink earned one for leading John Proctor Is the Villain. Stranger Things: The First Shadow, an effects-driven prequel to the Netflix hit show, earned five nods, including for lead actor Louis McCartney. Oh, Mary! earned a nod in the best play category (Emilio Madrid via AP) The news was less good for Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler, both in their Broadway debuts. Neither got nominations for their Romeo + Juliet, pitched to Generation X and millennials. Robert Downey Jr, who also made his Broadway debut in the play McNeal, also wasn't recognised. Mia Farrow earned a nomination for The Roommate, but her co-star, the Broadway diva Patti LuPone, did not. And, in a shock, an edgy Othello with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal that producers are charging north of 900 dollars for orchestra seats, got not a single nomination. Idina Menzel's return to Broadway in Redwood, a contemporary fable about trees, grief and the quest for healing, also got no nominations. Our Town, starring Jim Parsons and Katie Holmes, earned a best play revival Tony nomination, but nothing for its actors. And the Stephen Sondheim revue starring Tony Award-winners Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga came up blank. The Tony Awards will be handed out June 8 at Radio City Music Hall during a telecast hosted by Wicked star and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo.
