The folks who give out the Tony Awards have just decided to add a new category: "Best Performance by an Actor/Actress Recreating a Role."
The name's a little misleading. A more accurate one would have been "Best Replacement" but I guess they didn't want to call it that. The idea is to have an award for someone who takes over a star part in a Broadway show. For example, when the new production of Fiddler on the Roof opened, a gent named Alfred Molina was playing Tevye. He would not have been eligible for this award, even though one could certainly say he was recreating the role originated by Zero Mostel. But that was in another production long ago, so Molina was instead eligible in the category of "Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical," just as if he was the first-ever Tevye. (He didn't win.)
After a while, Molina left the show and the role was assumed by Harvey Fierstein, which is the kind of thing the award is intended to honor: Taking over and keeping the show running. Fierstein, however, may not be eligible for the statuette since it's for the current season and he started in January of '05. (Broadway seasons run from May to May, a tradition that dates back to the days before theaters were air conditioned and some shows closed during the summer.) A committee will soon decide if he and a few others can get in on the first presentation. So if they were going to be honest, they'd call this new category "Best Peformance by an Actor/Actress Who Replaced Someone in the Last Twelve Months Unless We Make an Exception."
Now, what do we think of this new award? Well, my first thoughts are to note that Tony Awards ceremonies are already too long, don't need another award, and that if this new category endures for a little while, it will probably turn into two and perhaps four categories. Someone's bound to point out that no other acting award lumps men and women together, so they'll break it down to two trophies, one for each sex. Then there will come a season where there's an outstanding replacement in a musical and another in a play and someone will say, "You know, it isn't fair to make them compete. We don't make actors in new musicals and plays compete with each other." Which means we'll wind up with categories for Replacement Actor in a Play, Replacement Actress in a Play, Replacement Actor in a Musical and Replacement Actress in a Musical, even though some years, there won't be enough outstanding contenders to have three nominees in each of the four contests.
But other than that, it's probably long overdue…which makes you wonder why, since shows have had replacement actors since the days of Plautus, this award is just being started now. I have no inside info but I'm well aware that entertainment awards are largely driven by powerful folks who want the categories defined so as to maximize their chance of winning statuettes, usually for financial reasons as much as ego. Spamalot is currently introducing its second-generation cast, The Producers is on its fourth or fifth Bialystock, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is nearing the day when John Lithgow and Norbert Leo Butz will depart, etc. One wonders to what extent the money men behind one or more current productions decided this kind of Tony might help business and how they pressured the governing body to get it up and running.
Trivia Question: Only one time has the Tony committee bent the rules a bit and allowed a replacement actor to be nominated for Best Actor in a Musical, just as if he'd been in the role on Opening Night. The actor did not win. Who was it and what was the show? I'll post the names of the first ten people who've sent in a correct answer by the time I wake up in the morning. Tomorrow, I'll also try to run more discussion about movie musicals that retained the entire score of the Broadway show on which they were based. That's if I can tear myself away from news coverage of Hurricane Rita. (I just tuned in CNN for a few minutes. Would someone please tell Anderson Cooper that it's humanly possible to cover a big storm without standing in the middle of it and looking like he and the cameraman are about to sacrifice their lives, rather than report from inside a building?)