NEW YORK (AP) — Four days before the Tony Awards, an administrative panel has made some decisions that
will have a powerful effect on who walks away with trophies.
The panel ruled Friday that “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill,” in which Audra McDonald performs
about a dozen Billie Holiday songs, isn’t a musical at all, and can only be considered eligible in the
Best Revival of a Play category.
That puts the show, which has just a 27-page script and stars only McDonald, a three-piece band and a
dog, in the ill-fitting position of competing with bigger, longer plays like “All the Way” with Bryan
Cranston, John Patrick Shanley’s “Outside Mullingar” and “The Realistic Joneses” with Michael C. Hall,
Toni Collette, Marisa Tomei and Tracy Letts.
The panel also ruled that “The Cripple of Inishmaan,” making its Broadway debut starring Daniel
Radcliffe, will be considered eligible in the Best Revival of a Play category. The decision was expected
since the Martin McDonagh play had been seen in New York before — in 2008 at the Atlantic Theater
Company and in 1998 at the Public Theater.
The same logic holds true for two other shows — “Violet” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” which are both
now considered musical revivals even though they are making their maiden voyage on Broadway this season.

“Violet,” staring Sutton Foster and featuring music by Jeanine Tesori, was mounted off-Broadway in 1997,
while “Hedwig,” now starring Neil Patrick Harris, was a cult off-Broadway hit in 1998.
The last big decision was to make Alan Cumming ineligible for a lead acting musical prize in the revival
of “Cabaret” that opened Thursday since he’s already won the award for the same role in 1998. The panel
also ruled that “Cabaret” will be eligible as Best Revival of a Musical, but none of the production
elements will be eligible since they were carried over from the previous revival.
The other big nominee in the best musical revival category will be “Les Miserables.” Nominations for the
Tony Awards will be announced Tuesday morning.