Tony Awards 2023: Ranking the best musical nominees

CBS presents THE 76TH ANNUAL TONY AWARDS.

June 11, 2023 10:42 AM PT

The five contenders for best musical this year offer a diverse portfolio. For some the divide will be between artistic independence and commercial pleasure. But audience appeal is ultimately in the eye (and ear) of the beholder. One theatergoer’s mindless fluff is another theatergoer’s inspired caprice.

Few would call this a bumper crop. But the yield reminds us that inventiveness isn’t a function of the source material. Movies, music catalogs and plays, even forgotten old TV shows, are fair game. It makes no difference whether the starting point is a classic or a piece of pop candy. What matters is what’s done with the inspiration — the depth and vigor of the creative transformation.

Rankings are no more justifiable for works of art than award contests, but competition has been part of the theater since the ancient Greeks started doling out prizes for plays at dramatic festivals. In that spirit, I give you my numerical order of those new musicals that have risen to the top of this award season.

Several people in suits, dresses and work clothes face the sun between buildings in "New York, New York" on stage.

5. ‘New York, New York,’ St. James Theatre

Expectations were running high for this musical adaptation of Martin Scorsese’s 1977 film starring Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli. And how could they not be with a score by living legend John Kander (supplemented with lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda) and a production directed by five-time Tony winner Susan Stroman?

Unfortunately, the overflow of talent has resulted in a show with more good intentions than can be contained in a single coherent musical. Full of breathtaking showmanship, choreographic pizzazz and the visual dazzle of postcard sets, “New York, New York” is held back by an overstuffed, under-dramatized book that wears its earnestness on its sleeve.

Set in the height of post-World War II optimism, the show indulges in old New York nostalgia but from a contemporary political lens. History is sentimentalized, making the sketchy story lines seem even more contrived. The numbers carry their own momentum, but few are dramatically earned. Still, when Anna Uzele (who stars opposite Colton Ryan) rises up at the end for a powerhouse version of “New York, New York,” the song that Minnelli knocked out of the park in the film and that Frank Sinatra made the city’s unofficial anthem, the musical becomes a tourist’s dream come true.

Eight men stand together on stage in 'Some Like It Hot" at the Shubert Theatre.

4. ‘Some Like It Hot,’ Sam S. Shubert Theatre

The show with the most nominations (13), “Some Like It Hot” offers an updated take on Billy Wilder’s classic 1959 comedy. The setup of two men disguising themselves as women so that they can hide out on the road with an all-female band to escape the ire of angry gangsters is tastily familiar, but the handling of gender and identity issues is refreshingly new.

The book by Matthew López (author of the Tony-winning play “The Inheritance”) and Amber Ruffin updates the tale with sensitivity, but the complexity that’s achieved owes everything to the magnetic performance of J. Harrison Ghee (one of two nonbinary actors nominated this year), whose character finds true authenticity through what began as a Shakespearean charade.

One half of a buddy comedy that also stars a game Christian Borle, “Some Like It Hot” has a score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (the Tony-winning team behind “Hairspray”) that strenuously works to give the audience a brassy good time. Unfortunately, the big band sound has a generic quality that the rousing female vocalists in the cast (NaTasha Yvette Williams, Adrianna Hicks) must work overtime to redeem.

A few of the early songs seem like they’ve been pulled off an assembly line. It’s not until the second act that the songwriting connects more intimately to the characters — Ghee’s Daphne, most of all, but also Kevin Del Aguila as Osgood, the millionaire hotel proprietor who falls in love with the glorious, gorgeous human formerly known as Jerry, now called Daphne. The message of love is love is put to the farcical test, but Casey Nicholaw’s direction and choreography have no trouble keeping pace with the madcap high jinks.

Three women face off against a man in "& Juliet" at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.

3. ‘& Juliet,’ Stephen Sondheim Theatre

I kissed a jukebox musical and I liked it. The Katy Perry song can’t help running through my head as I reflect on the surprisingly good time I had at this reworking of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” set to the pop treasures in producer Max Martin’s music vault. (Perry’s hits figure prominently.)

Usually in these kinds of shows the famous songs are shoehorned into a book that doesn’t sweat the dramatic details. Logic and plausibility are held in abeyance to pave the way for the next juicy pop number. That’s not the case here, thanks to David West Read’s clever script, which finds a flexible frame for the neo-Shakespearean fun and games.

Anne (a blazing Betsy Wolfe) has a few notes for husband Shakespeare (Stark Sands) on his new script. What if Juliet doesn’t die? What if he were to finally write a young female character who’s actually empowered? What if instead of staying in the tomb, she skedaddled with a posy to the Renaissance club scene in Paris and found a new love?

The spirit of “& Juliet” is so welcoming and open-minded that it’s easy to accept whatever new nutty wrinkle is introduced to this post-tragedy comedy. The glorious singing, which rivals the vocal tracks on the gold record originals, makes it all go down so easily. I cared about the romantic fate of Lorna Courtney’s Juliet and the love interests of her traveling party, but mostly I just want to join them on the dance floor. Directed by Luke Sheppard and choreographed by Jennifer Weber, the production turns a clever musical comedy into a joyfully irresistible rave.

People on stage form a semicircle around a person with their hands stretched up and out standing on a crate in "Shucked."

2. ‘Shucked,’ Nederlander Theatre

A musical about corn? With a book by Robert Horn and a score by Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, “Shucked” is not only the year’s most hilarious musical. The topnotch production, directed by Jack O’Brien, is also the most charming. Imagine the old “Hee Haw” TV variety show in a post-“Book of Mormon” world. Horn, who won a Tony for his book for the musical “Tootsie,” is without a doubt one of the funniest musical theater writers working today.

The corny setup for “Shucked” involves a crop crisis. Maizy (Caroline Innerbichler), engaged to Beau (a winning Andrew Durand), makes a pilgrimage to Tampa, Fla., to consult with a corn expert named Gordy (John Behlmann), who’s nothing more than a good-looking conman. Romantic chaos ensues, narrated by a pair of genially ironic observers (waggishly played by Ashley D. Kelley and Grey Henson) and featuring standout supporting work from Alex Newell and Kevin Cahoon, both of whom received Tony nominations for the way they wear their hayseed characterizations with a dignified difference.

The story is overstretched, but the fresh country music of Clark and McAnally more than picks up the slack — especially when Durand is in full flight and Newell is in showstopper mode. “Shucked,” the year’s sprightliest musical, has harvested a new bounty of Americana that‘s nicer and naughtier than in the past. This reborn version of “Hee Haw” might just bring a fractured America together for a much-needed laugh.

Victoria Clark, Justin Cooley and Steven Boyer sit next to each other in "Kimberly Akimbo."

1. ‘Kimberly Akimbo,’ Booth Theatre

“Kimberly Akimbo,” David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori’s musical adapted from Lindsay-Abaire‘s 2001 play, is the year’s critical darling. This offbeat show has a sharp satiric surface that exposes the casual cruelty and hypocrisy of family life and the torturous mind games of high school. But its tender interior brings an acute awareness of life’s ephemeral nature, the fluctuating tide of joy and sorrow and the inevitability of loss.

The best of the five nominated shows by virtue of its puckish and poetic originality, “Kimberly Akimbo” is built around a towering lead performance by Victoria Clark, who plays the teenage title character, who suffers from a genetic condition that is rapidly turning her into an elderly woman. Time is literally speeding forward for Kimberly, whose emotional maturity already surpasses that of her parents, who, like the other adults in the musical, still seem stuck in adolescence. Yet youth is no barrier to wisdom, as Kimberly discovers through her friendship with Seth (Justin Cooley, in an unforgettable Broadway debut), her one classmate who sees her radiant soul underneath her wizened appearance.

This is a small show that probably should have been smaller — at two acts, it seems prolonged. The theatrical hype machine needs a winner, but let’s not hold the way “Kimberly Akimbo” has been overpraised against it. The musical, which features a pastiche score with Tesori’s made-to-measure versatility, is best appreciated as an unexpected lark — a mischievous, companionable delight, deepened by mortal shadows that encourage the unlocking of eternity in a passing moment of shared contentment.