Best Actress in a Play: Fonda vs. Feldshuh vs. a Pair of Queens

The Outer Critics and the Drama Desk have announced their nominations and we are fast approaching the Tony noms which will be given out less than a week from now on Tues. May 5. I don't count the Drama League because all you have to do is show up at the luncheon to get one of their noms. There are some interesting differences between the DD and the OCC. In the Best Actress in a Play race, the OCC snubbed two of the front-runners, Tovah Feldshuh in Irena's Vow and Jane Fonda in 33 Variations, while the DD included Fonda, but not Feldshuh--which is weird because the DD has long been a supporter of Feldshuh, honoring her with several nominations and two awards (Featured Actress for Lend Me a Tenor and Solo Performance for Golda's Balcony).

Another interesting divergence occured with how they handled the two leads in Mary Stuart. Both groups cited Janet McTeer in the title role, while the DD froze out Harriet Walter as Elizabeth I (who gave the subtler, more compelling performance in my opinion). Both OCC and DD combine on and Off-Broadway acting categories, so Off-Broadway headliner Saidah Arrika Ekulona of the Pulitzer Prize winner Ruined is included in both lists. The DD managed to squeeze in perennial favorite Jan Maxwell--They couldn't very well have nominated her for the abysmal To Be or Not to Be, so she is up for Scenes from an Execution which played Atlantic Theatre 2 for three weeks last July.   

I think McTeer will win both the OCC and DD awards. It's a very intense, showy turn. She gets to run around in the rain and everything. As for the Tonys, both McTeer and Walter will be nominated. I think they'll include Fonda for her star power--she was OK, but not particularly compelling as the dying musicologist. Feldshuh should make the grade since she is a trooper and has never won a Tony before. That leaves the fifth slot which will go to either Marcia Gay Harden in God of Carnage or Kristin Scott Thomas in The Seagull. Both are movie stars which always helps, but The Seagull has flown the Broadway coop, so Harden will get to go to the Tony nominees party. Though she already has all three prizes for A Doll's House, McTeer will make it a triple crown win again.

Photo of Mary Stuart: Joan Marcus   

--David Sheward