Shows that won Tonys for Best Score and Best Book, but not Best Musical

[adamunc Joined: Jul 5th, 2011 Topics: 13 Posts: 617 View Predictions]

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As I looked back on shows that have won the Best Score and Best Book Tonys, but did not win Best Musical, I realized it has happened more times than I initially realized. This has happened in eight different years:

1978
Book & Score: On the Twentieth Century
Musical: Ain’t Misbehavin’
Ain’t Misbehavin’ obviously wasn’t eligible for Score; I’m not familiar enough with it to know whether it had an eligible book or not, but it wasn’t nominated. Perhaps this was just a case where a show was an overwhelming favorite, but wasn’t eligible in the Book & Score categories.

1981
Book & Score: Woman of the Year
Musical: 42nd Street
I think Woman of the Year was considered a lesser Kander & Ebb effort even at the time, but there was zero competition that year and this was likely a default win. Though it’s a little curious that it won Book over 42nd Street, which was nominated and was a hit show.

1988
Book & Score: Into the Woods
Musical: Phantom of the Opera
Probably the most famous example of this phenomenon. I think Harold Prince’s masterful presentation of Phantom and the sheer spectacle carried the day over Woods, which has its flaws. But voters were anxious to deliver a smackdown to ALW’s pretensions to operatic grandeur in the score category.

1992
Book & Score: Falsettos
Musical: Crazy for You
I call BS on this one. I didn’t care for Crazy for You, which was almost entirely a choreographic achievement. Falsettos perhaps just fell victim to not being “big” enough, particularly during the mega-musical age.

1998
Book & Score: Ragtime
Musical: The Lion King
I guess voters just went for the staging and design elements over the writing this year when it came to the big prize. I would have voted for Ragtime without hesitation, but the outcome isn’t particularly surprising here. This is the one I’m most curious to know how close the vote was.

1999
Book & Score: Parade
Musical: Fosse
Were voters so against awarding the top prize to a Lincoln Center art piece? Or is it just that they felt Parade was the best of a weak lot in the Book and Score categories?

2002
Book & Score: Urinetown
Musical: Thoroughly Modern Millie
I will always be convinced that the voters just didn’t want the name Urinetown listed in the pantheon of Best Musical Tony winners, lol.

2006
Book & Score: The Drowsy Chaperone
Musical: Jersey Boys
Jersey Boys was obviously a runaway hit. So it seems curious to me that Chaperone would win in the Book category when JB was eligible. If there was a bias against bio-musicals, why wouldn’t that have also come out in the vote for the top prize? As I recall, there was a general consensus that the book for JB was a model for writing a bio-musical.

Which years do you think voters got it right and which did they get it wrong? Why do you think some of these happened? I tend to be biased towards writing; maybe others don’t weigh it as heavily.

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[kolbet12 Joined: Dec 29th, 2022 Topics: 0 Posts: 13 View Predictions]

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[rantinanton Joined: Jun 22nd, 2017 Topics: 9 Posts: 667 View Predictions]

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I read that for 42nd Street, producer David Merrick originally didn’t credit the librettists for the book, he only listed it as “lead-ins and crossovers by.” As for Falsettos, yes Crazy for You was a big old-fashioned tuner, of course Falsettos has held up better over time, thanks to its 2016 revival. Another factor in Ragtime losing was the disdain against producer Garth Drabinsky. As for Urinetown, perhaps the producers that lighthearted was what the doctor ordered right after the 9/11 attacks, though not too light, as Mamma Mia! was shut out.

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