Special Reports

Predictions: What Will Win the Best Revival Tony Awards in 2019?

Will voters go for tried-and-true or radical reinvention?

| Broadway |

June 6, 2019

Our penultimate list of Tony Awards predictions considers the Best Revival of a Play and Best Revival of a Musical categories. You can read our earlier predictions about female actors, male actors, and directors here.

Don't forget to mark your own predictions for Best Revival of a Play and Best Revival of a Musical here. We'll check back on Monday and see how we all did.

The revivals of The Boys in the Band and The Waverly Gallery are both closed, but could one of them win the Tony for Best Revival of a Play anyway?
The revivals of The Boys in the Band and The Waverly Gallery are both closed, but could one of them win the Tony for Best Revival of a Play anyway?
(© Joan Marcus / Brigitte Lacombe)

Best Revival of a Play

THE NOMINEES:
All My Sons
The Boys in the Band
Burn This
Torch Song
The Waverly Gallery

David Gordon:
Will win: The Boys in the Band
Should win: All My Sons
Tony voters were some of the only theater industry types invited to see The Boys in the Band, and I suspect they'll reward it. It was a very good production.

Hayley Levitt:
Will win: The Waverly Gallery
Should win: The Waverly Gallery
There's no clear front-runner in the Revival of a Play category, but my money is on The Waverly Gallery. It featured excellent performances across the board (yes, Elaine May, but don't forget about Lucas Hedges and Joan Allen) and marked an auspicious Broadway debut for rising-star director Lila Neugebauer. Her next gig is directing a Jennifer Lawrence movie, so voters might need to give her a reason to stick around Broadway.

Zachary Stewart:
Will win: The Waverly Gallery
Should win: The Boys in the Band
It looks like we're all in agreement that a closed show will win this category, but will it be one that closed in January (The Waverly Gallery), or one that closed last August (The Boys in the Band)? The North remembers, but do Tony voters?


This category is a jumping contest between Kiss Me, Kate and Oklahoma!
This category is a jumping contest between Kiss Me, Kate and Oklahoma!
(© Joan Marcus / Little Fang Photo)

Best Revival of a Musical

THE NOMINEES:
Kiss Me, Kate
Oklahoma!

David Gordon:
Will win: Kiss Me, Kate
Should win: Oklahoma!
Daniel Fish's divisive revival of Oklahoma! is one of the best shows I've ever seen, and one of the most daring productions to ever play on Broadway. But it pisses a lot of people off, especially musical-theater purists. That's why I think the prize will go to Kiss Me, Kate, the more traditionally crowd-pleasing take on a canonical classic.

Hayley Levitt:
Will win: Oklahoma!
Should win: Oklahoma!
It's a two-horse race between Oklahoma! and Kiss Me, Kate this year, and Daniel Fish's reinvention of a classic is set to outshine Scott Ellis's beautiful but traditional Cole Porter revival. Fish breathed new life and meaning into Rodgers and Hammerstein's first collaboration, and voters will reward him and his ensemble for that risk.

Zachary Stewart:
Will win: Oklahoma!
Should win: Oklahoma!
Oklahoma! has lost every revival category of the other theater awards this year, but it won't be competing against the excellent Yiddish revival of Fiddler on the Roof (winner of both the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards) on Sunday. So this ballsy reinvention of a classic will win the Tony — as it deserves to.


Those are our predictions for Best Revival of a Play and Best Revival of a Musical. Tell us yours here.

For the complete list of Tony nominees, click here.

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