OF course, Bernadette Peters, the occasional star of “Gypsy,” was going to get a Tony Award nomination. She’s a beloved Broadway icon who won a Tony for being miscast in “Annie Get Your Gun.”
And there was never any doubt that “Gypsy” would be nominated.
What was going to edge it out?
“The Boys From Syracuse?”
“Flower Drum Song?”
But if the Tony nominators were really that impressed with the $8.5 million revival, you’d think they would have nominated its director, Sam Mendes.
That they snubbed him is a clear sign that support for “Gypsy” within the theater industry is nowhere near as strong as the New York Times would have us believe.
Thus, the stage is set for a fierce battle for Best Revival of a Musical, pitting “Gypsy” against “Nine.”
If yesterday’s nomination tallies are any indication, the momentum is clearly behind “Nine.”
It picked up eight nods (including one for its director, David Leveaux), while “Gypsy” garnered only four.
This must have come as a blow to the producers of “Gypsy,” who only a week and a half ago were strutting around town, patting themselves on the back because they’d pocketed an unexpected rave from Ben Brantley in the Times – a rave that, they believed, put to rest all the nasty buzz that plagued the show in previews.
But what the producers could not possibly have foreseen was how badly the Times would overplay its hand.
Its report about how Mendes had turned “Gypsy” around in previews implied that all the reviews were raves when in fact several major papers – Newsday, the Daily News, Variety and the Star-Ledger – had panned the production.
To many on Broadway, that report smacked of typical Timesian arrogance.
The Times then continued on its high-handed way by virtually ignoring Peters’ frequent absences, even stating at one point that she had returned to the show when in fact she had not.
(Who knew Jayson Blair was overseeing the Times’ “Gypsy” coverage?)
The Times tried to correct things over the weekend with a snarky piece about Peters’ string of missed performances, but it was too little, too late.
A backlash, stirred up by the Times’ arrogance and Peters’ spotty attendance record, has set in against the show.
Even some of the Tony nominators, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were put off by the Times’ over-the-top shilling for the show.
And Variety this week is questioning whether the $8.5 million production can ever return its investment, lumping it in with such failed revivals as “Oklahoma!” and “Into the Woods.”
All this doesn’t mean “Gypsy” still can’t beat “Nine” (there may be a backlash against the backlash). Or that Peters won’t win her third Tony Award (though if she misses any more performances, she might as well personally present the award to Marissa Jaret Winokur of “Hairspray”).
But a few more puffy pieces about “Gypsy” from the Times, and the folks at “Nine” will have plenty to smile about on Tony night.
A few Tony nomination odds and ends:
* There was a tie between “Life x 3” and “Say Goodnight, Gracie” on the first round of balloting. “Gracie” won on the second round.
* There was also a tie between Melissa Errico (“Amour”) and Jenn Colella (“Urban Cowboy”), and Errico pulled it out on the second ballot.
* Joey Parnes, a Tony Award official, ordered the nominators not to speak to the press about the nomination process – “especially to your friends at the New York Post,” he added.
His speech annoyed the nominators and, as you can see, proved spectacularly ineffective.