In recent years, the Tony Awards tend to place more and more of the spotlight on the Musical categories (and we at SF Shakes do love a good musical)! Still, we wanted to focus on this year’s acting nominees for Plays, and find out how many of them have appeared in Shakespeare productions over the years. Turns out, it’s a pretty impressive list. Wait ’till you see the picture of young Cynthia Nixon as Juliet:
Denis Arndt as King Lear at Kansas City Repertory Company.
Chris Cooper as Antonio in Julie Taymor’s 2010 film The Tempest.
Corey Hawkins as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet on Broadway.
Kevin Kline as Bottom in the 1999 film version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Jefferson Mays as The Duke in Measure for Measure on Broadway.
Cate Blanchett as Richard II for the Sydney Stage Company.
Jennifer Ehle as Lady Macbeth at the Public Theater.
John Douglas Thompson as Richard III for Shakespeare & Company.
Nominees Condola Rashad AND Jayne Houdyshell as Juliet and the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet on Broadway.
Cynthia Nixon as Juliet for New York Shakespeare Festival in 1988.
BONUS: it’s not a Shakespearean role, exactly, but musical Best Actor nominee Christian Borle actually played Shakespeare himself in Something Rotten! on Broadway…
So what’s missing from this list? Did we leave out any Shakespearean performances from the other nominees that you know about? Be sure to let us know! And no matter who wins tonight, let’s celebrate a group of actors at the top of their craft.