The Broadway Internet all but broke on May 3 when the Tony Award nominations were announced. The reason? Lin-Manuel Miranda's smash hit musical Hamilton swept all categories. The Ham-centric list of nominees produced the trending Twitter hashtag #Hamiltonys. That witty wordplay reveals a wider problem: Other smaller but worthy shows were shut out by the Hamilton sweep.
As much as I loved it, Hamilton is not the only show out there. If anyone dares to express this simple fact online, there's an immediate and intense reaction. Ham-fans are insulted that anyone dares not to be head over heels for the first Treasury Secretary. I get it: Sometimes you love a show so much you can't bear to hear someone criticize it.
But all the buzz and praise that Hamilton has earned has had unintended consequences for the Broadway community. After the nominations were announced, several shows subsequently set closing dates. While the main reason for the closures was poor grosses, the Tony Awards were also factor. Tony wins -- or even nominations -- can help a show financially. The awards attract out-of-towners who will see a show simply based on critical approval. The Tony telecast on CBS can also provide publicity for even a struggling show, and in this social media age, much more Internet exposure for the cast, in the form of viral interviews, video performances and endless re-tweets
This year, after Hamilton swept the nominations, many shows on the edge of collapse had to close because their last resort had vanished. Neither the American Theatre Wing, the organization that sponsors the Tonys, nor Hamilton itself can be blamed for this. Perhaps no one except what Cole Porter once called "the high gods above" is really to blame. But it's upsetting that such shows have been forced to leave the Great White Way prematurely, if only because they opened during a bad year for small shows. We'll never know whether shows like Tuck Everlasting, Disaster, or American Psycho would have been successful had they opened in a different season. But it's a haunting question.
Does Hamilton deserve its honors? Of course! It's fantastic. But it's still a shame that other shows fall by the wayside because of its phenomenal success.
In the 1948-1949 Broadway season, Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific outshone and overshadowed Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kateat awards season. Both are now seminal classics of musical theater canon. But South Pacific was the Hamilton of its time. Kiss Me Kate, a solid hit that was initially slighted by some, eventually worked its way into the hearts of music lovers with standards like "So in Love" and "Too Darn Hot." Just as this "Wunderbar" show might have won more awards had it not been overshadowed by the tsunami of South Pacific, the similarly overshadowed shows from the 2015-2016 season might gain the later-in-life success.
I have nothing against Hamilton. In fact, I have everything for it! It has been great for Broadway. It has propelled an industry driven by pre-tested Disney franchises back to the critical cutting edge, and has helped lead a diverse band of fans to Broadway's beckoning marquee lights. It's just a tough question of economics and timing.
Every theatre fan on earth should applaud Hamilton for all it has done. But it is not out of the question to challenge the narrow-mindedness of its most ardent fan base. It's hard to imagine that Miranda, who has spent his whole career as an avid champion of Broadway inclusion, would be thrilled about his show's awesome imbalance of wealth and popularity. In all of its splendor and glory, Miranda's pioneering drama has inadvertently overshadowed younger, scrappier, and hungrier shows that never even got a shot to throw away.