Tony Awards 2015: Watch clips from this year's nominated musicals
As Broadway prepares for its biggest night of the year, the Tony Awards, you can watch clips of musical performances from the shows nominated in the categories of best musical, best original score and best revival of a musical.
- Tony nominations: "An American in Paris," "Fun Home" lead the pack
- Tony Awards 2015: List of nominees
- Tonys telecast to be packed with performances
Best Musical
Some of the most luscious music ever written is heard in "An American in Paris," adapted by director Christopher Wheeldon from the Oscar-winning Gene Kelly film about romance in the City of Lights. Though the show stars Robert Fairchild, Leanne Cope, Brandon Uranowitz and Max Von Essen, the real star is the score of George Gershwin.
To watch a trailer for the show click on the embed below:
"Fun Home" was adapted from Alison Bechdel's graphic novel, a memoir of a young woman coming of age and coming out, and about her relationship with her father, who is also gay. Music by Jeanine Tesori (a Tony Award-winner for "Twelfth Night," and a nominee for "Thoroughly Modern Millie," "Caroline, or Change" and "Shrek: The Musical"); Lyrics by Lisa Kron (who was a 2006 nominee for Best Actress in a Play for "Well").
Watch video excerpts from the show by clicking on the embed below:
"Something Rotten!" parodies both Shakespeare and Broadway musicals, nowhere more snarkily than in the early number, "A Musical." The show features music and lyrics by Broadway first-timers Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick.
"The Visit," starring Chita Rivera, is based on Swiss dramatist Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 1956 drama about an aging wealthy widow who returns to her hometown seeking some cold vengeance. It features music by the legendary team of John Kander and Fred Ebb (who previously won Tonys for "Cabaret," "Woman of the Year" and "Kiss of the Spider Woman"). "The Visit" was originally staged in Chicago in 2001, but is now making its Broadway debut. (Kander is 88 years old; Ebb died in 2004.)
"Fun Home," "Something Rotten!" and "The Visit" are all each nominated for best original score, though "American in Paris" (which uses Gershwin's classic melodies) is not.
The fourth nominee for best original score is "The Last Ship" by Sting, about the upheavals felt by dockworkers and their families when a shipyard in the north of England shuts down. It is Sting's first Tony nomination.
In this video clip from PBS' "Charlie Rose," Sting performs the song, "The Last Ship." (Lyrics)
This video features excerpts from the original cast album recording sessions, interspersed with interviews with the performers:
Best Revival of a Musical
Three productions are nominated for the Tony Award for best revival of a musical.
The Rodgers & Hammerstein musical "The King and I," based on the novel "Anna and the King of Siam," was first produced on Broadway in 1951 and won five Tony Awards. A 1996 revival, starring Donna Murphy and Lou Diamond Phillips, also won the Tony Award for best revival of a musical.
Below: A montage of scenes from "The King and I," featuring Ken Watanabe and Kelli O'Hara.
Betty Comden & Adolph Green's "On the Town" bowed on Broadway in 1944, before being turned into the immortal Hollywood musical starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. The show was revived twice before the current production, starring Tony Yazbeck, Jay Armstrong Johnson and Clyde Alve as the happy-go-lucky sailors on leave in New York City.
First produced in 1978, "On the Twentieth Century" (featuring a Tony-winning score by Cy Coleman, Betty Comden and Adolph Green) tells of a desperate theatre producer trying to win over a temperamental actress to star in his show (and maybe even more).
In the video below, Kristen Chenoweth, Andy Karl, Michael McGrath and Mark Linn-Baker perform "Never."
The Tony Awards will be presented on Sunday, June 7, at 8 p.m. ET, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The show, hosted by Chenoweth and Alan Cumming, will be broadcast live on CBS (delayed PT).
For more info: