Tony Awards: Diverse group of shows up for top musical prizes
NEW YORK -- The Tony Awards are Sunday night, and CBS2's Dave Carlin has a look at the shows vying for two of the top prizes -- Best Musical and Best Revival of a Musical.
Leading the way is "A Strange Loop" by Michael R. Jackson with a total 11 Nominations, and "MJ" and "Paradise Square" have ten nominations each. All three have Black writers creating the book in a Broadway season with inclusive, innovative offerings.
"A Strange Loop" star Jaquel Spivey is Tony-nominated for his Broadway debut in the Pulitzer Prize-winning show about the gay Black experience and searching for creative inspiration and love.
"Are you getting that from people who come up to you and say, thank you for this unique thing that speaks to everyone but speaks to some specific folks, too?" Carlin asked.
"People are hurting, people are not feeling accepted, people want love, people want to feel affirmed by other people, their own communities," Spivey said.
"it feels like, having taken the amount of time that I took was worth it," Jackson said.
Lynn Nottage is Tony-nominated for Best Book for "MJ."
"We were going to tell the story of just two days in his life when he's making one of his great concerts," she said.
In "MJ," first-time Tony nominee Myles Frost plays Michael Jackson.
"I take none of this for granted," Frost said.
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"Paradise Square" is written by Christina Anderson along with Craig Lucas and Larry Kirwin. It tells the story of the New York City draft riots of 1863.
"It's an important story that needs to be told," Anderson said.
Joaquina Kalukango is the show's Tony-nominated star.
"It's an epic, original story about a community in the Five Points between the Irish and the Black community and how they drifted apart," she said.
"Girl From the North Country," with the songs of Bob Dylan, is set in a board house in the Depression. It stars Mare Winningham, who is nominated for Best Leading Actress in a Musical.
"I've been a Dylan fan my whole life," Winningham said.
In the show, Winningham performs Dylan's hit song "Like a Rolling Stone."
"Singing the most iconic song ever and doing it so beautifully, did you always know you could?" Carlin asked.
"The one time that it was nerve-wracking was when [Bob Dylan] was there. And I said to him actually, when I got to meet him, he said, 'You had to sing 'Rolling Stone.'' I said, 'Yeah, I had to sing 'Rolling Stone' in front of you,'" Winningham said.
"Six," with book, music and lyrics by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, is a dazzling look at the wives of King Henry VIII that feels like a concert.
"It's all true, except that they're not a pop group. That's the only thing that's not true," Moss said.
Billy Crystal is back on Broadway with the show he wrote, "Mr. Saturday Night," based on his hit movie.
"Well, it's tremendously exciting. You know, after my first experience was '700 Sundays,' to be back in a musical, at the age of 74 to make my musical comedy debut. The audiences have been phenomenal," he said.
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The same year we lost the great Stephen Sondheim, the revival of his landmark musical "Company" arrived back on Broadway, earning nine nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical.
The revival of "Caroline, or Change" stars leading actress Tony nominee Sharon D. Clarke, her first time on Broadway.
"To be so welcomed and have such generosity from the Broadway community ... is wonderful," she said.
Finally, the revival of "The Music Man" earned six nominations overall. Its star Hugh Jackman is a Tony nominee this year.
"Being back on Broadway in a show as big and bold and bright and effervescent as this is just a dream," he said.
His co-star Sutton Foster is also nominated.
"You can pretty much choose among a lot of things now, and you chose this one. Why? Did you feel like you needed to be happy every night and do some dancing and... why 'The Music Man' and not something else?" Carlin asked.
"I was intrigued about being a part of something that was really joyful," Foster said.
These musicals with a wide array of topics and themes -- joyful, innovative and moving -- are being celebrated at the Tonys.
Coverage of the Tony Awards begins at 7 p.m. with an hour of exclusive content streaming on Paramount+, then at 8 p.m., the 75th Annual Tony Awards airs live on CBS2 and streaming on Paramount+.