The Tony Awards' celebration of Broadway's best theatre might seem irrelevant to Australians on the other side of the world.
But the annual love-fest of a few square blocks in midtown New York actually play a major role in what Australia's live entertainment diet will be over the coming years.
More Entertainment News Videos
Entertainment news highlights
Wonder Woman gets paid, Ariana Grande sings again, Kathy Griffin gets fired, Karl Stefanovic gets angry and Troy bites back on House Rules.
Right now in our capital cities, all but one musical on tour was nominated or won a Tony Award.
Kinky Boots and The Book of Mormon are both best musical winners, Aladdin was nominated and My Fair Lady (the original 1957 production which this incarnation is based on) also won.
The Bodyguard, currently playing in Sydney ahead of its national tour, is the only show not to have dallied in the Tonys but it also hasn't played Broadway.
Looking back at the blockbusters we have hosted in recent years, most have enjoyed some success at the Tony Awards.
Wicked, Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, Cabaret, Once, The Lion King and Matilda all won, or were nominated, for best musical.
And this year Australian producers like Michael Cassel, John Frost, Tim McFarlane and Louise Withers, this country's music theatre powerhouses, would have watched the ceremony with keen interest to see where they will direct their negotiating energy for the future.
![Ben Platt and the cast of <i>Dear Evan Hansen</i> perform at the Tony Awards.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170616003259im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/p/e/0/7/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwpdwq.png/1497326770671.jpg)
Would it be a campy Russian romp based on a few hundred pages of Tolstoy's War and Peace, an adaptation of a classic comedy film with an Australian writer, a very American musical about a group of passengers stranded in Canada after their plane was grounded in the wake of the September 11 attacks or the story of a social misfit who misguidedly deceives a family in order to fit in.
The last of those descriptions belongs to Dear Evan Hansen, the winner of this year's best musical award and the dark horse of the Broadway season.
![Josh Groban and the cast of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170616003259im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/p/e/4/h/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwpdwq.png/1497326770671.jpg)
It is part of the new wave of shows that involve small casts and contemporary writing that has absolutely captured the hearts and minds of New York's theatre scene.
The show is a phenomenon on Broadway with its star, 23-year-old Ben Platt, becoming a bonafide celebrity with magazine covers and New York Times profiles to match.
![Andy Karl, centre, and the cast of Groundhog Day The Musical.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170616003259im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/p/e/5/s/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwpdwq.png/1497326770671.jpg)
A number of Australian producers are already sniffing around the show and a bidding war is likely to break out for whoever wants to bring it here the most.
Today's Tony win ensures whoever wins that war can almost write the cheque of success on their Australian tour.
![The cast of Come From Away performing at the Tony Awards.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170616003259im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/p/e/2/k/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwpdwq.png/1497326770671.jpg)
Groundhog Day is a no-brainer for Australia. It is from the same creative team as Matilda The Musical, which was a critical and box office success here and comes with the weight of Tim Minchin behind it.
Louise Withers already has a strong relationship with Minchin and her producing partner on Matilda, Michael Coppel, is part of the producing team on Groundhog Day's Broadway team.
![Laura Dreyfuss and Ben Platt in the Pasek and Paul musical Dear Evan Hansen at the Second Stage Theatre in New York.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170616003259im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/0/s/f/r/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwpdwq.png/1497326770671.jpg)
There is little doubt the announcement of an Australian production is imminent.
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 presents a particular challenge for Australian producers. It isn't a title that sells itself and has the advantage on Broadway of a lengthy off-Broadway run before a canny producer guided it to a bigger house on the Great White Way and put Josh Groban in as the lead. You would need someone with similar international star power to launch the show in Australia because, despite being an extraordinary piece, it won't be an easy sell.
Come From Away, on paper, looks like the least likely show to make its way Down Under. The particularly emotive story for Americans about the passengers on flights stranded in Gander, Newfoundland, which resonated strongly in that market but has less connection for Australians. It was nominated for seven awards and took home one for best direction, however, so it clearly stood up as a strong piece of work.
The show also has two Australian producers, Rodney Rigby and Sam Levy, who may be eager to bring the piece to a home crowd. But its best hope is through a partnership with one of the state theatre companies who are funded to take risks on important stories, and most would agree this is one.
And it is through the state theatre companies that the other element of the Tonys importance comes into play.
Along with the various revivals that get nominated, brand new works get their moment in the sun at the awards.
Artistic directors around the country will have been watching closely to see what the Tonys' voting collegiate got excited about this year. Not many plays make it to Broadway houses, so it really is the cream of the crop (or the ones able to pull the best celebrity names) that make it to nomination.
While the state theatre companies certainly don't have the same hunger for the commercial success that the Tony Awards can bring a show. The "winner of nine Tony awards" tag certainly helps move a few tickets.
From this year's crop of Tony winners you can practically pre-book your ticket to Dear Evan Hansen, it took home six of the nine awards it was nominated for and it has a universal appeal that even hard-to-please millenials are getting behind.
Now we just have to wait and see which producer wins the bidding war that will continue in earnest tomorrow.
6 comments
New User? Sign up