Where the 2010 Tony Nominees Went to School (or Not)

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
1

<p>I used to do this every year and I’m at home watching, so why not?</p>

<p>Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
Jude Law, Hamlet - Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Alfred Molina, Red - Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Liev Schreiber, A View from the Bridge - BA Hampshire College while training at U Mass Amherst; MFA Acting, Yale School of Drama.
Christopher Walken, A Behanding in Spokane - Hofstra University (didn’t graduate), MT dance training at Washington Dance Studio, The Actors’ Studio.
Denzel Washington, Fences - Fordham University BA in Drama and Journalism; MFA Acting, ACT</p>

<p>Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
Viola Davis, Fences - BFA Juilliard Drama
Valerie Harper, Looped - No college. Former child star.
Linda Lavin, Collected Stories - BA Theatre William & Mary University. Onstage since age of 5.
Laura Linney, Time Stands Still - Northwestern University for one year; BA Theatre, Brown University; Juilliard Drama Diploma
Jan Maxwell, The Royal Family - BA, Morehead State University</p>

<p>Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical
Kelsey Grammer, La Cage aux Folles - BFA, Juilliard Drama
Sean Hayes, Promises, Promises - Studied Piano at Illinois State University, Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Douglas Hodge, La Cage aux Folles - RADA
Chad Kimball, Memphis - BFA Boston Conservatory
Sahr Ngaujah, Fela! - Dasarts, Master of Theatre in Amsterdam</p>

<p>Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play
David Alan Grier, Race - BA, University of Michigan; MFA Acting Yale
Stephen McKinley Henderson, Fences - Started in Juilliard Drama’s Group 1; BFA Drama, NCSA.
Jon Michael Hill, Superior Donuts - BFA Acting, University of Illinois
Stephen Kunken, Enron - BFA Drama, Juilliard
Eddie Redmayne, Red - Attended Eton College and studied Art History at Trinity College in Cambridge, UK.</p>

<p>Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
Maria Dizzia, In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play - ???
Rosemary Harris, The Royal Family
Jessica Hecht, A View from the Bridge - BFA Drama, NYU/Tisch. Studio?
Scarlett Johansson, A View from the Bridge - No College. American Professional Childrens’ School, Studio trained at the Lee Strasberg Institute among other places.
Jan Maxwell, Lend Me a Tenor - BA, Morehead State University</p>

<p>Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical
Kevin Chamberlin, The Addams Family - BFA Acting, Rutgers/Mason Gross
Robin De Jesús, La Cage aux Folles - No college
Christopher Fitzgerald, Finian's Rainbow - BA Theatre, Rollins College; MFA Acting, ACT
Levi Kreis, Million Dollar Quartet - No college
Bobby Steggert, Ragtime - BFA Drama, NYU/Tisch. Studio? Apparently did the RADA exchange program.</p>

<p>Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
Barbara Cook, Sondheim on Sondheim - No college
Katie Finneran, Promises, Promises - Attended CMU for one year and left to study with Uta Hagen in New York.
Angela Lansbury, A Little Night Music, Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art
Karine Plantadit, Come Fly Away - ???
Lillias White, Fela! - ???</p>

<p>Here are the old ones … <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/191291-where-2006-tony-nominees-went-school-not.html?highlight=tony+nominees%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/191291-where-2006-tony-nominees-went-school-not.html?highlight=tony+nominees&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

2

<p>Bobby Steggert’s studio at NYU/Tisch was CAP21.</p>

3

<p>I can’t believe I somehow glossed over …</p>

<p>Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical
Kate Baldwin, Finian’s Rainbow - BA, Northwestern University
Montego Glover, Memphis - BFA Musical Theatre, Florida State University
Christiane Noll, Ragtime - BFA Drama, Carnegie Mellon University
Sherie Rene Scott, Everyday Rapture - No college. Neighborhood Playhouse with Sandy Meisner
Catherine Zeta-Jones, A Little Night Music - Arts Educational Schools, West London, UK</p>

<p>That’s what I get for looking it up while watching … LOL</p>

4

<p>Ah, and I also glossed over Rosemary Harris who studied at RADA.</p>

5

<p>Jessica Hecht was at Adler.</p>

6

<p>Actually, I am pretty sure Christiane Noll was vocal performance at Carnegie Mellon.</p>

7

<p>5 nominees were from University of Michigan. GO BLUE!</p>

<p>Andrew Lippa, BM ‘87, Best Original Score for Addams Family
David Alan Grier, BA ’78, Best Performance in a Play for Race
Martin Pakledinaz, MFA ’75, Best Costume Design, Lend me a Tenor
Wendy Goldberg, BA '95, Regional Theatre Tony Award, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center
Marcia Milgrom Dodge, BA '77, Best Director for a Musical for Ragtime</p>

8

<p>thank you for posting this, fishbowl!! It is so important that students remember that there is no BFA that guarantees success in this very, very crowded field (or in any other field!) Get a great education, the one that’s best for you-- then walk into life and do your work well. There’s a lot of satisfaction right there.</p>

9

<p>Good to see you in print again, Fishbowl! And thanks for posting this. </p>

<p>I’m pleased and proud to announce that this year’s winning musical, MEMPHIS, was nurtured from its infancy and produced on Broadway by Randy Adams, who received a B.A. in Speech and Theatre from Otterbein College in 1976. It’s worth reading the mission statement for his company, Junkyard Dog Productions here: [Junkyard</a> Dog Productions](<a href=“http://www.jydprod.com/]Junkyard”>http://www.jydprod.com/)</p>

<p>We need more producers like Randy!</p>

10

<p>Doctorjohn, first, a congrats to one of your graduates on his success with Memphis! </p>

<p>Thanks for sharing that producer’s mission statement. I enjoyed reading it. My MT daughter was remarking to me about an article on Sunday in the NYTimes (I did not see it myself) about the dirth of new musical scores this year. Even in the musical score category, I believe two of the five nominations were for plays. Many of the musicals did not have original scores. Memphis was one of the exceptions. The writer of the article she read talked about the need for more new musicals. My D was excited to read that and agrees (as do I) and she has written and composed an original musical which happens to be in workshop as I type this. I don’t know how far her musical will go. So far, so good. I’m happy to read of producers like Randy and will keep that name in mind should my D end up shopping for producers!</p>

11

<p>Here is the link to the NYTimes article Soozievt mentioned in post #10 – [Tony</a> Nominations Prove the Musical Has Lost Its Voice - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/theater/13isherwood.html]Tony”>Tony Nominations Prove the Musical Has Lost Its Voice - The New York Times)</p>

<p>AND to another interesting in the style section this past Sunday – [Cultural</a> Studies - The Glee Generation - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/fashion/13Cultural.html]Cultural”>The Glee Generation - The New York Times) – this one provoked an interesting discussion amongst my students on facebook :)</p>

<p>congrats Dr. John to Otterbein alum, Randy Adams!</p>

12

<p>KatMT, thanks for the first link which is the article my D was telling me about but I had not seen previously. </p>

<p>The second article I had seen and had sent to HER! That one happens to mention quite a bit about Stagedoor Manor where my D attended for eight summers. But another reason I sent it to her is because toward the end of that article, it talks about this generation of young MTers and the hope that they will create new musical theater works. Since she is doing that, I found it quite apropos.</p>

13

<p>I remember hearing that Scarlett Johannson attended SUNY Purchase very briefly (maybe only a year) but did not graduate.</p>

14

<p>Other UNC School of the Arts alumnus nominated include Paul Tazewell (Best Costume Design for the musical MEMPHIS), Tom Hulce (one of the producers of the musical AMERICAN IDIOT featuring Drama alumna Rebecca Naomi Jones), and Edwin Schloss (one of the producers of the rival of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES).</p>

<p>It’s also interesting to note that if you are familiar with the Linklater voice technique, based on Scarlett Johansson’s “hum ma ma” at the beginning of her acceptance speech, she most definitely studied it.</p>

<p>[YouTube</a> - Scarlett Johansson Tony Speech](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p23sp9eIoo]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p23sp9eIoo)</p>

15

<p>haha I’m familiar with Linklater and I didn’t catch that! I noticed the sound but I didn’t associate it with Linklater.</p>