Tony Award Nominations Announced, Projection Designers Included in Lighting Category

The nominations for this year's Tony Awards were announced this morning. The design nominees are listed below. One of the oddities of this year's nominations has to do with projection design, a discipline that the Tony Awards Administration Committee has so far declined to recognize. This year, Jan Versweyveld and Tal Yarden, the lighting designer and projection designer, respectively, of Network, are nominated in the lighting design category. Similarly, lighting designer Kenneth Posner and projection designer Peter Nigrini, both of Beetlejuice, are nominated as lighting designers. These nominations are sure to provoke conversation.

Going by the numbers, the most nominated shows are Hadestown, 14 nods; Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations, with 12; Tootsie, with 11; The Ferryman, with nine; To Kill a Mockingbird, with nine; Beetlejuice, with eight; Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, with eight; Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, with seven; and The Prom,, with seven. Interestingly, neither Network and To Kill a Mockingbird -- both of them critically acclaimed and box-office blockbusters - were nominated, perhaps signaling a lack of interest in adapted works by the nominators.

The full list of nominees can be seen at the URL listed below. The design nominees are:

Best Scenic Design of a Play
Miriam Buether, To Kill a Mockingbird
Bunny Christie, Ink
Rob Howell, The Ferryman
Santo Loquasto, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus
Jan Versweyveld, Network

Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Robert Brill and Peter Nigrini, Ain't Too Proud -- The Life and Times of the Temptations
Peter England, King Kong
Rachel Hauck, Hadestown
/Laura Jellinek, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma!
David Korins, Beetlejuice

Best Costume Design of a Play
Rob Howell, The Ferryman
Toni-Leslie James, Bernhardt/Hamlet
Clint Ramos, Torch Song
Ann Roth, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus
Ann Roth, To Kill a Mockingbird

Best Costume Design of a Musical
Michael Krass, Hadestown
William Ivey Long, Beetlejuice
William Ivey Long, Tootsie
Bob Mackie, The Cher Show
Paul Tazewell, Ain't Too Proud -- The Life and Times of the Temptations

Best Lighting Design of a Play
Neil Austin, Ink
Jules Fisher + Peggy Eisenhauer, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus
Peter Mumford, The Ferryman
Jennifer Tipton, To Kill a Mockingbird
Jan Versweyveld and Tal Yarden, Network

Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Kevin Adams, The Cher Show
Howell Binkley, Ain't Too Proud -- The Life and Times of the Temptations
Bradley King, Hadestown
Peter Mumford, King Kong
Kenneth Posner and Peter Nigrini, Beetlejuice

Best Sound Design of a Play
Adam Cork, Ink
Scott Lehrer, To Kill a Mockingbird
Fitz Patton, Choir Boy
Nick Powell, The Ferryman
Eric Sleichim, Network

Best Sound Design of a Musical
Peter Hylenski, Beetlejuice
Peter Hylenski, King Kong
Steve Canyon Kennedy, Ain't Too Proud -- The Life and Times of the Temptations
Drew Levy, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma!
Nevin Steinberg and Jessica Paz, Hadestown