Referring back to the Great-Big Summary Chart of the Major Awards of the 2001-2002 Season we attempt to draw conclusions, some rather pointless, some not. All conclusions are based on this year's five major awards (Drama Desk, Drama League, NY Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle,Tony Awards) and do not pretend to be predictions of future results.
Cluster Bomb
In keeping with years past, this year nominations went out to 55 different shows (57 in 2001, 59 in 1999 and 54 in 1998; in 2000 invitations were sent to a whopping 67!). Most of these went to a core group of six: Urinetown (with 17 nominations, or 5.4% of the total nominations), Morning's at Seven (19 noms, 6%), Sweet Smell of Success (23 noms, 7.3%), Into the Woods (24 noms, or 7.6%), Oklahoma (26 noms, 8.2%), and Thoroughly Modern Millie (32 noms, 10%). Of these only Thoroughly Modern Millie was a clear leader in wins, with 12 or 17% of the total awards given. Of the others, only a few managed to reap as many wins as the middling pack: Morning's (1 win), Sweet Smell (3), Woods (5), and Oklahoma! (8), vs. Fortune's Fool (6 wins out of 9 noms), The Goat or Who is Sylvia? (5 for 9), The Last 5 Years (2 for 8), Metamorphosis (6 for 9), Noises Off (3 for 8), Private Lives (6 for 14), tick, tick... BOOM! (1 for 8) and Urinetown! (7 for 17). (For what it's worth, if Urinetown! had played had been eligible for the awards this year that its off-Broadway incarnation was nominated for last year, its total nominations would have ballooned to 26, but its total wins would have remained the same (7).)
Lords of the Revivals
Slightly less than half of the nominated shows (24, or 43.6%) were revivals (or adaptations/translations of older plays). These shows garnered slightly more than half of the nominations (165, or 52%), and slightly more than half of the awards (39, or 55.7%). Of the 165 nominations received by these 24 revivals, 97 of them went to just 5 shows: The Crucible (14), Into the Woods (24), Morning's at Seven (19), Oklahoma! (26) and Private Lives (14). Of the 39 total wins awarded to revivals, 31 (or 79.5%) went to only 5 as well, but two of them did not even appear in that "most-nominated-revival" group: Fortune's Fool (6), Into the Woods (5), Metamorphoses (6), Oklahoma! (8), and Private Lives (6). This accounts for 44.3% of the total number of awards given!
All in the Title
- The Tony "Q" Curse is broken! In the two previous years you could not expect to win a Tony if your title
