Gentleman's Guide to the Tonys

“A GENTLEMAN’S Guide to Love and Murder”, a musical comedy set in Edwardian England, leads the competition with 10 nominations for the Tony Awards, the highest honours in US theatre.
Recent Tonys host Neil Patrick Harris earned his first nomination for his acclaimed turn as an East German transgender singer in the revival of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”, which earned a total of eight nods.
The 68th Tony Awards will be presented in New York on June 8.
Four musicals are in the running for the top prize: “Gentleman’s Guide”, “Aladdin” adapted from the hit Disney animation, “After Midnight” with its celebration of the Jazz Age, and “Beautiful – The Carole King Musical”.
Competing for the best play award are “Act One”, “All The Way” starring Bryan Cranston of TV’s “Breaking Bad” as former US president Lyndon Johnson, “Casa Valentina”, “Mothers and Sons” with Tyne Daly, and the romantic comedy “Outside Mullingar”.
Cranston is nominated as best actor in a play, along with Irish actor Chris O’Dowd in “Of Mice and Men” and British actor Mark Rylance in “Richard III”. Rylance is also nominated for best performance in a featured role, as Olivia in “Twelfth Night”.
Several Hollywood A-list stars taking a turn on Broadway were snubbed, including Daniel Radcliffe, starring in “The Cripple of Inishmaan”, Denzel Washington for “A Raisin in the Sun”, James Franco in “Of Mice and Men” and Michelle Williams in “Cabaret”.
Five-time Tony winner Audra MacDonald was nominated for best actress for her work as Billie Holiday in “Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill”. If she wins she will be the first performer to achieve six Tonys for acting, and the first person to win in each of the four acting categories – a Tony grand slam.
She faces stiff competition in Daly, LaTanya Richardson Jackson in “A Raisin in the Sun”, Cherry Jones in “The Glass Menagerie” and Estelle Parsons in “The Velocity of Autumn”.