The four nominees for Best Musical Revival were drawn from six eligible performances: “Camelot,” “Dancin’,” “Into the Woods,” “Parade,” “Sweeney Todd,” and “1776.” Here’s what our critics had to say about the nominated productions:
Bartlett Sheard’s revival of the 1960 Lerner and Lowe musical “Camelot“,” A show based on the tales of TH White Arthur, and featured book revisions by Aaron Sorkin. Although Jesse Green believed that the production, which starred Andrew Burnab, Philippa Sue and Jordan Donica, failed to recapture the magic of the original, he wrote that it was “visually and sonically superb”, with Burnab and Sue playing “West Wing Castle banter beautifully”.
cast “Into the forest“,” Stephen Sondheim and James Labine from half a dozen Perrault and Brothers Grimm tales, among them Sara Bareilles, Julia Lester, and Phillipa Soo. In her review of the minimal production directed by Lear de Bissonnette, Alexis Sulowsky wrote, “When the lights came on, the crowd shrieked and shrieked and shrieked.” She also praised the collection, which was designed by David Rockwell. “On this mostly blank canvas,” she writes, “DeBessonet paints, with the help of playful choreography by Lauren Lataro, with rich, plentiful colors.”
“procession,“ Which moved to Broadway from New York City Center, stars Ben Platt and Michaela Diamond in a 1998 musical production about a Jewish man lynched by an antisemitic mob. In his review, Green called the revival “riveting” and “timely”, singling out Diamond, who plays the wife of a lynched man, for making Lucille Frank “our way into a story we might rather stray from”.
“Sweeney Todd“,” Thomas Kyle’s revival of Stephen Sondheim’s musical about a “demonic barber” who cuts the throats of his clients stars Josh Groban and Analeigh Ashford. Green wrote that the show, with a book by Hugh Wheeler, is “charmingly sung, deeply emotional and oddly funny”. Groban added, “Makes sure every word rings clear,” while Ashford is a “brilliant comedian” who plays Mrs. Lovett as “a brutal schemer whose cover foolishness is useful.”
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