Tony Time!

The Tony Awards Administration Committee has begun its bizarre yearly dance of adjudicating who can get nominated for what next May. Basically, because there are these silly rules about what it means to be "above the title" as opposed to below it, they always have to make exceptions for celebrity actors with top billing playing clearly "supporting" roles, and then lead actors who for one reason or another (not famous, part of an "ensemble") didn't literally have their name above the title in the opening night Playbill. There's also the question of whether every play that never technically opened on Broadway before is a "new play," as per the rules, no matter how old it is. So Oleanna has been deemed "revival" since it's been around. And so has Patrick Marber's After Miss Julie, since it's...well, basically a production of Miss Julie! (And I guess Strindberg's has been on Broadway before. Hasn't it?)