The musical Jagged Little Pill, based on Alanis Morissette's 1995 breakthrough album, has earned a leading 15 Tony Award nominations as the US's Broadway community takes the first steps to celebrate a pandemic-shortened season.
There are three best musical nominees: Jagged Little Pill, Moulin Rouge: The Musical and Tina - The Tina Turner Musical. And there are five best play nominees: Grand Horizons, The Inheritance, Sea Wall/A Life, Slave Play and The Sound Inside.
Jagged Little Pill plumbs Morissette's album to tell a story of an American family spiralling out of control. Tom Kitt, honoured for orchestrations, thanked his collaborators but also nodded to the more than a dozen shows that were unable to open due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Following Jagged Little Pill for overall numbers of nominations is Moulin Rouge!, a jukebox adaptation of Baz Luhrmann's hyperactive 2001 movie, which has 14 nods.
Tied with 12 are Tina - The Tina Turner Musical, which tells the rock icon's life, and Slave Play, Jeremy O Harris' ground-breaking work that mixes race, sex, taboo desires and class. The dozen nods make Slave Play the most nominated play in Tony history.
The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez nabbed 11 nominations. It's a two-part, seven-hour epic that uses Howards End as a starting point for a play that looks at gay life in the early 21st century.
The nominations were pulled from just 18 eligible plays and musicals, a fraction of the 34 shows the season before.
The category for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical has just one actor - Aaron Tveit from Moulin Rouge! One category - best musical revival - had no eligible shows at all and was cut.
Australian Associated Press