The Tony Awards have announced their latest nominations. And we were delighted to see many colorful faces on the nomination list. This is especially great news after the #OscarsSoWhite backlash, which sparked after no actors of color received Academy Award nominations over the last two years.
So if you have not yet been to NYC to support any of these great productions, which feature actors and actresses of color, we suggest you go out and support them ASAP.
- Eclipsed. The play has received six nominations, including one for Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play.
- Hamilton. This musical has received a record 16 nominations, including one each for Lin-Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odom, Jr., who were both nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical.
- The Color Purple. The latest run of this all-time favorite has garnered four nominations, including one for Danielle Brooks (best known for her role as Taystee on Orange is the New Black).
- Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. This production has received four nominations, including
Sophie Okonedo’s nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play (You may recall Okonedo’s rise to fame from her role oppose Don Cheadle in Hotel Rwanda).
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Shuffle Along. This musical has received 10 nominations. Actor Brandon Victor Dixon gets a Tony nod here for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical.
Read more about this year’s Tony Award diversity below:
The 2016 Tony nominations were announced Tuesday, and while the record-breaking 16 nominations for the acclaimed musical “Hamilton” is the biggest story to emerge, there was another huge winner on Broadway: diversity.
Coming just a few months after an all-white acting field earned recognition at the Academy Awards, the 14 Tony nominations for performers of color, out of the 40 selected Tuesday, is being hailed as a historic breakthrough, and a sign that that the theater world is leaps and bounds ahead of other arts industries in its emphasis on broader representation.
Read the rest at NBC BLCK.