Mason Pilevsky, Pages on Stages
DISCLAIMER: These are NOT real Tony Award categories… just some humorous patterns we noticed that, surprisingly, would have enough contenders to have their own Tony category this year.
Best Play with a Dead Body
Dorian Gray
An absolute explosion of tormented dying on stage because the killer and the killed are portrayed by the same person simultaneously. Brava, Ms. Snook!
McNeal
The ending is a little ambiguous here, but the premise of McNeal is that the protagonist is trying to find the correct way to end his life by having AI search through his writing and the writing that inspires him. If you interpret the end as AI not being able to help him commit suicide, then there is not technically a dead body on stage in this one, but if you interpret it as AI immortalizing his life’s work, then Robert Downey Jr.’s final moment is as a corpse.
Oh, Mary!
After Lincoln’s onstage shooting and, in this case, timely demise, Mary gets to go live the life of cabaret that she has always dreamed about. Oh, Mary! is the frontrunner for this award because the killing is not senseless and it leads to a better world for the character we love the most.
Othello
The body count in this show is actually four: Roderico, Emilia, Desdemona, and Othello. What an exciting last few minutes!
Romeo + Juliet
Both titular characters “doth with their death, bury their parents’ strife.”
Stranger Things
Stranger Things features the bodies of several animals on stage, and culminates in the gruesome onstage killing of the protagonist’s mother.
AND THE WINNER IS: Oh, Mary!
Best Corpse in a Musical
Dead Outlaw
Andrew Durrand’s portrayal of Elmer McCurdy requires incredible stillness, as once he is dead, he stays dead.
Floyd Collins
Alive, but imminently dying through most of the show, Jeremy Jordan is always acting, even when his under-the-rock location is not being lit. This makes his actual on stage death more devastating.
Operation Mincemeat
Unfettered by the hindrance of a human actor, the corpse is paraded about the stage throughout the production and is the centerpiece of this work despite being an inanimate object.
Swept Away
In this musical, everyone is a dead man. They sing beautifully and hauntingly towards their deaths, and their sacrifices are tough but necessary. These dead bodies win this award because they evoked emotion in the audience in a way that others this season did not.
AND THE WINNER IS: Swept Away
Best Singing Beyond the Grave
Buena Vista Social Club
The protagonist’s sister sings from beyond the grave in a fictional conversation when Omara is in her darkest moment in the deep throes of making a decision about leaving her music behind.
Death Becomes Her
After choosing eternal life, Madeline Ashton is murdered by her husband and former friend. The sequence in which she falls down the stairs with the cracking sounds of her bones is terrifying, yet she gets back up again and remains a diva for the rest of the performance.
Just in Time
Bobby Darin’s mother is a huge inspiring force for Darin throughout the show, and her death doesn’t change a thing. She appears to him at the Copa Cabana and motivates him to keep singing even to his dying breath.
Redwood
In Redwood, Jesse is mourning the loss of her son, Spencer. She hears him singing in her memories and connects with him on a spiritual plane. Zachary Noah Piser’s songs are incredibly deep and moving, and his lack of nomination in a real Tony category is a serious snub.
Sunset Blvd.
Joe Gillis climbs out of a body bag at the beginning of this interpretation, so everything he sings about how his death came about is technically from beyond the grave.
AND THE WINNER IS: Redwood
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