#Tony Nominations: Oscar Isaac, Danielle Brooks, ‘Ain’t No Mo,’ ‘1776’ Among Snubs and Surprises

The 2023 Tony Awards nominations featured a number of snubs and surprises, including an unexpected six nods for Ain’t No Mo, which closed shortly before the end of 2022 despite a star-studded effort to keep it going.

It seems Tony voters well remembered this fall’s productions, handing out five nods for Cost of Living, which closed in November, and three for KPop, which closed in December.

Another surprise was the strong showing by corn-centric musical Shucked, which landed nine nods.

But Tony voters surprisingly left out a few stars in more recently opened productions: Oscar Isaac wasn’t nominated for his starring role in The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, and Danielle Brooks wasn’t nominated for The Piano Lesson, with director LaTanya Richardson Jackson not nominated for directing.

Other well-known stars not nominated include Laura Linney, not nominated for her role in Summer, 1976; The Good Place and Barry star D’Arcy Carden, not nominated for her role in The Thanksgiving Play, which was shutout; New York, New York director Susan Stroman; and Hamilton alums Phillipa Soo, up this year for her roles in Into The Woods and Camelot) and Tony winner Thomas Kail (up for directing the Sweeney Todd revival that earned eight nominations).

Speaking of the American Revolution, 1776 was an unexpected shutout from the nominations announced this morning. Legendary composer Andrew Lloyd Webber also missed out on a best original score nomination for Bad Cinderella.

Almost Famous, based on Cameron Crowe’s Oscar winning film, which received mixed reviews and closed on Jan. 8, landed a surprising score nod.

Ahead of Tony Nominations day, the Tony Awards administration committee deemed New York, New York ineligible for best original score. The score features songs by John Kander and Frank Ebb, some of which were written for the 1977 film, some for other musicals, as well as new material by Kander, with additional lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. To qualify for best original score, the Tony Awards Administration Committee asks productions to approximate what percentage of the material was newly written for this production and what percentage comes from other sources, but there is no hard-and-fast rule on what those percentages need to be. 

While Life of Pi and Prima Facie received five and four nominations respectively, neither landed the best play nod some experts expected the shows to receive. And the latest revival of Death of a Salesman, often a popular production among Tony voters, only landed two nods, one for Wendell Pierce and one for lighting design. But the Pulitzer Prize winner was left out of other top categories with stars André De Shields and Sharon D. Clarke also failing to land nods.

Caitlin Huston contributed to this story.