2012 Tony Award Nominations-

Some say it was a lackluster year for Broadway. It certainly was for musicals. This includes both original Broadway productions and revivals. It was a fairly good year for plays, however. In both categories there was major snubs as major stars were casually overlooked.

Among shut-outs were the darling of the Tonys, Angela Lansbury also Blair Underwood, starring in A Streetcar Named Desire, Ricky Martin in Evita, Elaine Page in her show stopping performance in the revival of Follies, Matthew Broderick in Nice Work if You Can Get It and just about everyone from Gore Vidal’s The Best Man and Alan Rickman in Seminar. Oh yeah and Harry Connick Jr. in On a Clear Day You can See Forever.

There seems to be some debate on whether Spider Man – Turn off the Dark was snubbed. Some say it wasn’t eligible until next year, yet it did receive two nominations. The official opening date isn’t until June, so it does seem odd that it received two Tony nominations.

Two of the three shows I saw this year received nominations; the play Other Desert Cities by John Rabin Baitz and the revival of the musical Follies, I thought both of them were terrific. Stockard Channing’s performance as the conservative matriarch of a family with secrets was great in Other Desert Cities. The play, which unfolds like a great novel is so structurally sound, it feels like it was written in a different time in American Theater, even though it is contemporary. Too often today, plays are cinematic in structure and really don’t have endings.

Follies was one of the best shows I have seen in a long time on Broadway. Although I prefer plays over musicals, this show was amazing and had resonance and fantastic performers, including both Elaine Page and Bernadette Peters, who were both not nominated. However the impressive Jan Maxwell was nominated.

The Tony Awards air live right here on CBS on June 10^th, Sunday at 8pm.

Here is a complete list of nominees.