Tony Watch 2015: Play Design Awards

Today we have another three category post, where we're going to squeeze in scenic, lighting, and costume design in a play into one post.

Best Scenic Design of a Play:

The juggernaut in the play design categories this year is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which has scenic design by Bunny Christie and Finn Ross. The real question is which other shows will be nominated?

A few shows with a solid chance at a nomination have already closed. You Can't Take it With You and A Delicate Balance both received praise for their sets that captured a regular household,  but with both shows now closed, will they be remembered by the nominating committee?

Other contenders include the new two part play Wolf Hall, the revolving set for the Heidi Chronicles, the first quaint, then horrifying set of Hand to God, the stripped down apartment of Skylight, and the wild motel in Airline Highway. This large field of competitors should make for a very competitive nomination race.

Nomination Odds:

Curious Incident (Bunny Christie and Finn Ross): 99%
You Can't Take it With You (David Rockwell): 60%
Wolf Hall (Christopher Oram): 45%
Airline Highway (Scott Pask): 40%
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The Heidi Chronicles (John Lee Beatty): 35%
A Delicate Balance (Santo Loquasto): 30%
Skylight (Bob Crowley): 25%
Hand to God (Beowulf Borrit): 24%
This is Our Youth (Todd Rosenthal): 10%
The River (Ultz): 6%
Fish in the Dark (Todd Rosenthal): 5%
Constellations (Tom Scutt): 5%
It's Only a Play (Scott Pask): 4%
The Elephant Man (Timothy R. Mackabee): 4%
The Audience (Bob Crowley): 3%
Living on Love (Derek McLane): 1%
The Real Thing (David Zinn): 1%
Disgraced (John Lee Beatty): 1%
The Country House (John Lee Beatty): 1%
Love Letters (John Lee Beatty): 1%

You Can't Take it With You (Set by David Rockwell)

Best Costume Design of a Play:

Costume design, the rare category where Curious Incident is not favored. But the Brits still lead the way, with Wolf Hall, a production that features exquisite Elizabethan era costumes. Its main competition may be another Brit in the quick changing costume work performed by Helen Mirren in The Audience. 

After these two, the field becomes more open. You Can't Take it With You received praise for its costume work, and may get a nomination. Costuming veteran Ann Roth worked on four shows this year, and two of them (A Delicate Balance and It's Only a Play) could be in contention for a nomination. Other potential nominees include The Heidi Chronicles, Living on Love, The Elephant Man and Airline Highway.

Nomination Odds:

Wolf Hall (Christopher Oram): 85%

The Audience (Bob Crowley): 75%

It's Only a Play (Ann Roth): 41%

You Can't Take it With You (Jane Greenwood): 41%

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A Delicate Balance (Ann Roth): 35%

The Heidi Chronicles (Jessica Pabst): 26%

Living on Love (Michael Krass): 22%

The Elephant Man (Clint Ramos): 21%

Airline Highway (David Zinn): 20%

Skylight (Bob Crowley): 10%

Fish in the Dark (Ann Roth): 8%

Hand to God (Sydney Maresca): 5%

The Real Thing (Kay Voyce): 2%

The River (Ultz): 2%

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Bunny Christie): 2%

Disgraced (Jennifer von Mayrhauser): 1%

The Country House (Rita Ryack): 1%

This is Our Youth (Ann Roth): 1%

Constellations (Tom Scutt): 1%

Love Letters (Jane Greenwood): 1%

Wolf Hall

Best Lighting Design of a Musical:

Curious Incident is (again) the juggernaut of this category. and all but guaranteed a nomination. Wolf Hall will also likely see another nomination in lighting, completing its sweep of nominations in the Tech categories. Amazingly both shows shared the same lighting designer, Paul Constable.

After this the competition gets very interesting. Constellations didn't have any grandiose lighting designs or effects, but the lighting changes were essential to assisting the story. Airline Highway has to capture the atypical outdoor lighting of a motel. A Delicate Balance follows a typical day/night cycle, but has to deal with lighting a very grandiose set. Other contenders The Elephant Man and Skylight also used lighting to accentuate their respective shows, and have veteran Broadway lighting designers behind them. But which will be able to snag those last spots?

A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Paule Constable): 99%

Wolf Hall (Paule Constable): 80%

The Audience (Rick Fisher): 40%

The Elephant Man (Philip Rosenberg): 37%

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Constellations (Lee Curran): 35%
Airline Highway (Japhy Weideman): 33%

Skylight (Natasha Katz): 30%

A Delicate Balance (Brian MacDevitt): 27%

Hand to God (Jason Lyons): 8%

The River (Charles Balfour): 8%

You Can't Take it With You (Donald Holder): 7%

Fish in the Dark (Brian MacDevitt): 4%

It's Only a Play (Philip Rosenberg): 4%

The Heidi Chronicles (Japhy Weideman): 4%

Living on Love (Peter Kaczorowski): 3%

This is Our Youth (Brian MacDevitt): 3%

The Real Thing (Mark Barton): 2%

Disgraced (Kenneth Posner): 1%
The Country House (Peter Kaczorowski): 1%

Love Letters (Peter Kaczorowski): 1%

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Lighting by Paul Constable)