Since 2018, I've been doing a series on this website titled 'And the Tony Almost Went to...', where I take a deep dive into a show that (likely) came in second for Best Musical in any previous Tony Awards year. While there are some years where the runner-up seems obvious, there are others where they don't appear to be as much. So something I've decided to do is a new series where I focus on a musical that might've finished in third place at best, but people argue could've been in second. For the 2019 edition of 'And the Tony Almost Went to...', I settled on Tootsie as the runner-up to Hadestown. Though today, we're going to look into whether or not it could've actually been The Prom.
The Prom follows four down on their luck Broadway performers who are in desperate need of career revivals. Drama Desk winner Barry Glickman and two-time Tony winner Dee Dee Allen just closed a fictional new musical titled Eleanor: The Eleanor Roosevelt Musical on opening night; Trent Oliver is a Juilliard graduate who had previously starred on his own television sitcom and recently booked a non-Equity tour of Godspell; and Angie Dickinson just quit her 20-year long job as a chorus girl in the Broadway revival of Chicago due to her never going on as Roxie Hart. Meanwhile in a small Indiana town, Emma Nolan, a lesbian high school student, is forbidden from bringing her girlfriend, Alyssa Green, to prom. When Barry, Dee Dee, Trent, and Angie hear about this cause, they decide to use it as a stage to provide some celebrity activism, hoping to give Emma a night where she can truly celebrate who she is.
The idea for this musical originally came from theatre producer Jack Viertel. It was inspired by a controversy that took place in Itawamba County, Mississippi back in 2010 where a young lesbian student named Constance McMillen was refused permission to take her girlfriend to her high school prom. This led to worldwide media attention, with several celebrities such as Lance Bass, Cat Cora, and Green Day rallying together via social media to show their support for Constance. They also agreed to sponsor a prom for her to attend with her girlfriend without any homophobic backlash.
After having had its world premiere in Atlanta, Georgia in the late summer of 2016, The Prom opened on November 15th, 2018 at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. The original cast included Caitlin Kinnunen as Emma Nolan, Brooks Ashmanskas as Barry Glickman, Beth Leavel as Dee Dee Allen, Christopher Sieber as Trent Oliver, Angie Schworer as Angie Dickinson, Isabelle McCalla as Alyssa Greene, Michael Potts as Principal Tom Hawkins, Courtenay Collins as Mrs. Green, and Josh Lamon as Sheldon Saperstein.
The production received 7 Tony Award nominations for Best Musical, Best Lead Actor in a Musical (Brooks Ashmanskas), Best Lead Actress in a Musical (Caitlin Kinnunen; Beth Leavel), Best Direction of a Musical (Casey Nicholaw), Best Book of a Musical (Bob Martin & Chad Beguelin), and Best Original Score (Matthew Sklar & Chad Beguelin).
So where do I think The Prom finished in the final rankings of the 2019 Best Musical nominees?
On the One Hand...According to the New York Times' Tony voter survey, Hadestown apparently benefited from the absence of a consensus alternative. However, they did mention that the show with the strongest shot of overtaking it appeared to have been The Prom. Though Tootsie and Ain’t Too Proud were reportedly not far behind. New York Post columnist Michael Riedel mentioned in his predictions that Tootsie is "a fun show, but some say it doesn’t quite live up to its reviews. 'The songs are clever, like Gilbert and Sullivan, but there are no great tunes,' one voter says." He went on to add that "The spoiler here is The Prom. It’s original, delightful, and the underdog."
While the show sadly went home empty-handed, something I decided to do was take a look at the 6 other nominations The Prom received, and speculate where it might've been the runner-up. For Best Lead Actor in a Musical, Riedel mentioned in his predictions to look out for Brooks Ashmanskas as a potential upset there. He said "Yes, Santino Fontana is terrific in Tootsie and is likely to win. But Ashmanskas, who’s made voters laugh since his first Tony nod (for Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me) in 2007, is beloved. As one voter said, 'Santino is going to win, but I voted for Brooks.'” For Best Lead Actress in a Musical, I think it's plausible Beth Leavel could've been the runner-up in that category to Stephanie J. Block for The Cher Show. I remember some people were actually predicting the former to win as a way to award the show overall. It would've been really clever if Beth became a two-time Tony-winning actress (she's a previous winner for The Drowsy Chaperone in 2006) herself for playing a character who happened to have been a two-time Tony-winning actress. Fellow nominee Caitlin Kinnunen may have been the heart and soul of The Prom, but she was never really considered to be competitive for the win at all (I also don’t know how much vote-splitting between her and Beth Leavel may have been a factor). For Best Direction of a Musical, I doubt Casey Nicholaw was the runner-up there to Rachel Chavkin for Hadestown. I'm leaning more towards Daniel Fish for his radical reimagining of Oklahoma!, which was the Best Musical Revival winner that year. Those who have long been familiar with the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic should've easily been able to notice that the production was all 100% his vision.
For Best Book, it is debatable what could've won if Tootsie wasn't there. On paper, Hadestown would make sense since it was not only the Best Musical winner, but also the most awarded production of the night. Then again, given how that show is mostly sung-through, there is the question of how many voters still think the book of a musical is basically the dialogue. It's pretty much the argument people were having leading up to the 2016 Tony Awards where they questioned "How can Hamilton win Book? There's like barely any talking in it at all." That's because the book of a musical isn't just the dialogue, it's the overall structure. Every musical has one as we've seen sung-through shows win Book before such as Evita, Les Misérables, Falsettos, Rent, and even Cats. Though if a majority of voters in 2019 knew that, I think it's possible they felt that Hadestown was more of an achievement through its music than its script, so they might've thought that creator Anaïs Mitchell would be better taken care of in Best Original Score. Meanwhile, The Prom was the one nominee that crafted a completely original story from top to bottom. It wasn't adapted from a popular 1980s movie like Beetlejuice and Tootsie, it wasn't inspired by an ancient Greek myth like Hadestown, and it wasn't recounting historical events with a pre-existing song catalogue like Ain't Too Proud. So I think it's possible The Prom was the runner-up for Best Book of a Musical. As for Best Original Score, I think it likely came in second there. David Yazbek had just won this award for The Band's Visit the year before, and his work on Tootsie wasn't nearly as well-regarded. So if voters were looking for a more tuneful alternative to Hadestown, I think they likely would've turned to The Prom first since that was much more liked for its score than Tootsie. After having gone through all of this, it looks like this show might've been the runner-up in 4 major categories. If it had prevailed in each of them, that would suggest that The Prom is winning Best Musical, right?
On the Other Hand...The Prom sadly never really took off at the box office (even after getting nominated for Best Musical). We’ve seen in the past how Tony voters don’t usually like to waste any major awards on a production that’s been struggling because even if they did, it likely wouldn't make much of a difference. With Tootsie, it was not only one of the last shows to have opened in the 2018-19 Broadway season, but it was also peaking at just the right time with some pretty strong buzz, especially for Santino Fontana's performance as well as how the creative team completely rethought and updated the plot of the original movie. Plus, winning two major above the line awards for Lead Actor and Book (where it even beat both Hadestown and The Prom) is absolutely nothing to sneeze at. Then again, those two categories were pretty much the only ones the show was very competitive for the win going into the Tonys.
With Best Featured Actor in a Musical, Andy Grotelueschen may have been the only nominee there who was not up against a co-star (the rest of the category consisted of André De Shields and Patrick Page for Hadestown as well as Jeremy Pope and Ephraim Sykes for Ain't Too Proud), he was never really considered a factor in the race at all. Not to mention that his nomination to a number of people was seen as a huge surprise. The producers of Hadestown were smart enough to keep the focus of their two contenders in this category on André De Shields, which really payed off. With Best Featured Actress in a Musical, that race was always between Amber Gray for Hadestown (who was the only nominee there that wasn't up against a co-star) and Ali Stroker (who managed to overcome a possible vote-split with Mary Testa) for Oklahoma!. So therefore, neither Lilli Cooper nor Sarah Stiles were considered threats to win. With Best Choreography, Warren Carlyle was the frontrunner going into the night for Kiss Me, Kate, but Sergio Trujillo ended up winning for Ain't Too Proud instead. So Denis Jones wasn't a factor in that race. With Best Orchestrations, that race was always between Hadestown (our winner), which brought Anaïs Mitchell's folk jazzy blues score to life with an onstage orchestra, and Oklahoma!, which literally created a more country, bluegrass sound for the beloved Rodgers & Hammerstein score, as performed by a small seven-piece band. So I doubt Simon Hale came any close to winning.
As for Best Costume Design, William Ivey Long actually had an additional bid in that category. Both Beetlejuice and Tootsie were these big stage musical adaptations of classic comedy films from the 1980s that updated their plots to the 2010s. I can see the cases for both of them as to which might've had a better shot of winning. With Tootsie, some of the costumes for the main character of Michael Dorsey helped Santino Fontana physically transform himself into his female alter ego, Dorothy Michaels. Not to mention that there was some period clothing that had to be created for the fictional Broadway musical, Juliet's Nurse, that was being put on over the course of the show. With Beetlejuice, that was based on a Tim Burton movie, so that allowed more room for creativity as they were crafting such a gothic visual style, especially for the characters. So I can see how William Ivey Long might've split his support, although Bob Mackie probably still would've won for The Cher Show even if that wasn't a factor.
In the End...I think it was probably very close to what might've finished in second behind Hadestown. There are certainly cases to be made for The Prom and Tootsie as both shows did have their pros and cons. I will say that Best Musical in 2019 probably would've at least been more of a race between them if Hadestown wasn't there. Which would've been interesting given how they were both these musical comedies centered on Broadway performers. Though with that being said, I am glad I settled on Tootsie as the runner-up in the first place due to both of its major wins.
As for The Prom, a couple months after the Tony Awards, the Broadway production ended up closing at a loss of $13,500,000 on August 11th, 2019 after 309 performances. Although the musical has since been introduced to a wider audience with its recent movie adaptation released on Netflix in December of 2020. While the film did receive mixed reviews from critics, it at least proved to be very commercially successful as it placed at #7 in the top ten SVOD movie debuts of 2020 (according to Screen Engine's count). Not to mention that a U.S. national tour is currently set to launch in Cleveland, Ohio this November. After that, the show should go on to have a pretty good afterlife with productions being produced by schools, community, and regional theatres all over the world.
The idea for this musical originally came from theatre producer Jack Viertel. It was inspired by a controversy that took place in Itawamba County, Mississippi back in 2010 where a young lesbian student named Constance McMillen was refused permission to take her girlfriend to her high school prom. This led to worldwide media attention, with several celebrities such as Lance Bass, Cat Cora, and Green Day rallying together via social media to show their support for Constance. They also agreed to sponsor a prom for her to attend with her girlfriend without any homophobic backlash.
After having had its world premiere in Atlanta, Georgia in the late summer of 2016, The Prom opened on November 15th, 2018 at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. The original cast included Caitlin Kinnunen as Emma Nolan, Brooks Ashmanskas as Barry Glickman, Beth Leavel as Dee Dee Allen, Christopher Sieber as Trent Oliver, Angie Schworer as Angie Dickinson, Isabelle McCalla as Alyssa Greene, Michael Potts as Principal Tom Hawkins, Courtenay Collins as Mrs. Green, and Josh Lamon as Sheldon Saperstein.
The production received 7 Tony Award nominations for Best Musical, Best Lead Actor in a Musical (Brooks Ashmanskas), Best Lead Actress in a Musical (Caitlin Kinnunen; Beth Leavel), Best Direction of a Musical (Casey Nicholaw), Best Book of a Musical (Bob Martin & Chad Beguelin), and Best Original Score (Matthew Sklar & Chad Beguelin).
So where do I think The Prom finished in the final rankings of the 2019 Best Musical nominees?
On the One Hand...According to the New York Times' Tony voter survey, Hadestown apparently benefited from the absence of a consensus alternative. However, they did mention that the show with the strongest shot of overtaking it appeared to have been The Prom. Though Tootsie and Ain’t Too Proud were reportedly not far behind. New York Post columnist Michael Riedel mentioned in his predictions that Tootsie is "a fun show, but some say it doesn’t quite live up to its reviews. 'The songs are clever, like Gilbert and Sullivan, but there are no great tunes,' one voter says." He went on to add that "The spoiler here is The Prom. It’s original, delightful, and the underdog."
While the show sadly went home empty-handed, something I decided to do was take a look at the 6 other nominations The Prom received, and speculate where it might've been the runner-up. For Best Lead Actor in a Musical, Riedel mentioned in his predictions to look out for Brooks Ashmanskas as a potential upset there. He said "Yes, Santino Fontana is terrific in Tootsie and is likely to win. But Ashmanskas, who’s made voters laugh since his first Tony nod (for Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me) in 2007, is beloved. As one voter said, 'Santino is going to win, but I voted for Brooks.'” For Best Lead Actress in a Musical, I think it's plausible Beth Leavel could've been the runner-up in that category to Stephanie J. Block for The Cher Show. I remember some people were actually predicting the former to win as a way to award the show overall. It would've been really clever if Beth became a two-time Tony-winning actress (she's a previous winner for The Drowsy Chaperone in 2006) herself for playing a character who happened to have been a two-time Tony-winning actress. Fellow nominee Caitlin Kinnunen may have been the heart and soul of The Prom, but she was never really considered to be competitive for the win at all (I also don’t know how much vote-splitting between her and Beth Leavel may have been a factor). For Best Direction of a Musical, I doubt Casey Nicholaw was the runner-up there to Rachel Chavkin for Hadestown. I'm leaning more towards Daniel Fish for his radical reimagining of Oklahoma!, which was the Best Musical Revival winner that year. Those who have long been familiar with the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic should've easily been able to notice that the production was all 100% his vision.
For Best Book, it is debatable what could've won if Tootsie wasn't there. On paper, Hadestown would make sense since it was not only the Best Musical winner, but also the most awarded production of the night. Then again, given how that show is mostly sung-through, there is the question of how many voters still think the book of a musical is basically the dialogue. It's pretty much the argument people were having leading up to the 2016 Tony Awards where they questioned "How can Hamilton win Book? There's like barely any talking in it at all." That's because the book of a musical isn't just the dialogue, it's the overall structure. Every musical has one as we've seen sung-through shows win Book before such as Evita, Les Misérables, Falsettos, Rent, and even Cats. Though if a majority of voters in 2019 knew that, I think it's possible they felt that Hadestown was more of an achievement through its music than its script, so they might've thought that creator Anaïs Mitchell would be better taken care of in Best Original Score. Meanwhile, The Prom was the one nominee that crafted a completely original story from top to bottom. It wasn't adapted from a popular 1980s movie like Beetlejuice and Tootsie, it wasn't inspired by an ancient Greek myth like Hadestown, and it wasn't recounting historical events with a pre-existing song catalogue like Ain't Too Proud. So I think it's possible The Prom was the runner-up for Best Book of a Musical. As for Best Original Score, I think it likely came in second there. David Yazbek had just won this award for The Band's Visit the year before, and his work on Tootsie wasn't nearly as well-regarded. So if voters were looking for a more tuneful alternative to Hadestown, I think they likely would've turned to The Prom first since that was much more liked for its score than Tootsie. After having gone through all of this, it looks like this show might've been the runner-up in 4 major categories. If it had prevailed in each of them, that would suggest that The Prom is winning Best Musical, right?
On the Other Hand...The Prom sadly never really took off at the box office (even after getting nominated for Best Musical). We’ve seen in the past how Tony voters don’t usually like to waste any major awards on a production that’s been struggling because even if they did, it likely wouldn't make much of a difference. With Tootsie, it was not only one of the last shows to have opened in the 2018-19 Broadway season, but it was also peaking at just the right time with some pretty strong buzz, especially for Santino Fontana's performance as well as how the creative team completely rethought and updated the plot of the original movie. Plus, winning two major above the line awards for Lead Actor and Book (where it even beat both Hadestown and The Prom) is absolutely nothing to sneeze at. Then again, those two categories were pretty much the only ones the show was very competitive for the win going into the Tonys.
With Best Featured Actor in a Musical, Andy Grotelueschen may have been the only nominee there who was not up against a co-star (the rest of the category consisted of André De Shields and Patrick Page for Hadestown as well as Jeremy Pope and Ephraim Sykes for Ain't Too Proud), he was never really considered a factor in the race at all. Not to mention that his nomination to a number of people was seen as a huge surprise. The producers of Hadestown were smart enough to keep the focus of their two contenders in this category on André De Shields, which really payed off. With Best Featured Actress in a Musical, that race was always between Amber Gray for Hadestown (who was the only nominee there that wasn't up against a co-star) and Ali Stroker (who managed to overcome a possible vote-split with Mary Testa) for Oklahoma!. So therefore, neither Lilli Cooper nor Sarah Stiles were considered threats to win. With Best Choreography, Warren Carlyle was the frontrunner going into the night for Kiss Me, Kate, but Sergio Trujillo ended up winning for Ain't Too Proud instead. So Denis Jones wasn't a factor in that race. With Best Orchestrations, that race was always between Hadestown (our winner), which brought Anaïs Mitchell's folk jazzy blues score to life with an onstage orchestra, and Oklahoma!, which literally created a more country, bluegrass sound for the beloved Rodgers & Hammerstein score, as performed by a small seven-piece band. So I doubt Simon Hale came any close to winning.
As for Best Costume Design, William Ivey Long actually had an additional bid in that category. Both Beetlejuice and Tootsie were these big stage musical adaptations of classic comedy films from the 1980s that updated their plots to the 2010s. I can see the cases for both of them as to which might've had a better shot of winning. With Tootsie, some of the costumes for the main character of Michael Dorsey helped Santino Fontana physically transform himself into his female alter ego, Dorothy Michaels. Not to mention that there was some period clothing that had to be created for the fictional Broadway musical, Juliet's Nurse, that was being put on over the course of the show. With Beetlejuice, that was based on a Tim Burton movie, so that allowed more room for creativity as they were crafting such a gothic visual style, especially for the characters. So I can see how William Ivey Long might've split his support, although Bob Mackie probably still would've won for The Cher Show even if that wasn't a factor.
In the End...I think it was probably very close to what might've finished in second behind Hadestown. There are certainly cases to be made for The Prom and Tootsie as both shows did have their pros and cons. I will say that Best Musical in 2019 probably would've at least been more of a race between them if Hadestown wasn't there. Which would've been interesting given how they were both these musical comedies centered on Broadway performers. Though with that being said, I am glad I settled on Tootsie as the runner-up in the first place due to both of its major wins.
As for The Prom, a couple months after the Tony Awards, the Broadway production ended up closing at a loss of $13,500,000 on August 11th, 2019 after 309 performances. Although the musical has since been introduced to a wider audience with its recent movie adaptation released on Netflix in December of 2020. While the film did receive mixed reviews from critics, it at least proved to be very commercially successful as it placed at #7 in the top ten SVOD movie debuts of 2020 (according to Screen Engine's count). Not to mention that a U.S. national tour is currently set to launch in Cleveland, Ohio this November. After that, the show should go on to have a pretty good afterlife with productions being produced by schools, community, and regional theatres all over the world.