BWW Interviews: TUTS' CEO John Breckenridge Talks Tony Voting

Summer in the theatre world is awards season. The king of all theatre awards is the annual Tony Awards Show. This year's Tony Awards Ceremony will be televised live on CBS on June 9, 2013 at 7:00pm Central Standard Time. To help Houston prepare for Broadway's big night, I had a chat with one of our local Tony Voters, John Breckenridge, Theatre Under the Stars' CEO.

Me: How do you become a Tony Voter?

John Breckenridge: There's a number of different ways that the Tony Voters are picked. A large number of them are full members of an organization called The Broadway League. The Broadway League is the industry service organization that deals with labor contracts, marketing, and all of those kinds of things associated with the Broadway theaters and the regional touring theaters across the country. So, if you're a full member of that organization you are automatically a Tony Voter.

In addition to that, there's an organization called The American Theatre Wing, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to developing theatre and all of that. So, the [American] Theatre Wing also appoints Tony Voters. Many of the labor unions, such as Actors Equity Association, Stage Directors and Choreographers, the design unions, and the critics groups, also have representation as Tony Voters.

So, in total there's, I think, 850 or 860 of us. Something like that. It changes a little bit from year to year. And that is how the pool of the Tony Voters is made up. So, it's theater owners and operators and then actors, directors, designers in the organization, and theatre critics.

Me: How do Tony Voters decide which shows, actors, actresses, directors, choreographers, and designers will be nominated for a Tony Award?

John Breckenridge: The voters actually don't get to make that decision. There's a smaller group that's appointed every year jointly by The Broadway League and The American Theatre Wing. And there's, I don't know, 30 or 40 of them, and they're actually the Tony nominating committee. They are also representative of the same groups I talked about earlier. So, you're going to have some directors, composers, lyricists, designers, critics, and some theatre operators. That smaller group is the one that is charged with making the nominations that the Tony Voters vote on.

Me: Do you know what the nominating process is like?

John Breckenridge: Well, no I don't because I've never actually sat on the nominating committee itself. But, they're required to see all the shows, and then somehow through a process of meetings they make the determinations on what is going to be nominated and what's not. And there are certain rules that are followed. If a show is a revival of something but with a brand new book, a decision has to be made on whether that would be in a revival category or whether that would be considered a new work because you're voting with different competitors, if you will, in that. So there are certain rules that the Tony Management Committee has to make decisions on; for instance, whether an actor in a show would be considered a principal role or a supporting role. There are certain rules that are followed, but that's not something that we, as Tony Voters, deal with. That's predetermined ahead of us.

Me: What is the voting process like for the Tony Awards?

John Breckenridge: You're not required to vote in every category. For example, TUTS [Theatre Under the Stars] only does musicals, so while I see some of the plays that are in New York, since my business is musicals, I only vote on the musical categories. And the basic rule with that is that if you're going to vote in a category, you have to see everything that's nominated. It's not fair, obviously, for you to make a decision on the quality of one show if you haven't seen whom that show is competing against. So, if you're going to vote in a category, you have to see everything in it.

After that, there's simply a ballot that is sent out by an accounting firm and you make your selections. The ballet is due in by a certain date before the awards. But, there is no specific scoring. So you don't have 20 points assigned to this, and you don't have 15 points assigned to that. Each individual voter on their sense of aesthetic and all of that makes their decision on what would merit the winning vote, and then you vote accordingly.

Me: Do you personally attend the Tony Awards, since you are a voter?

John Breckenridge: I do not.

Me: So you're just like us, and watch them on TV! (Laughs)

John Breckenridge: Yes! And, you know, it would be yet another trip to New York. I'm already up there 10 to 12 times a year. I find out hat's happening on TV, like most of the audience.

Me: Do Tony Voters have any idea who the winners will be beforehand?

John Breckenridge: We don't know until it's announced either at the ceremony or on television. You can usually guess, just like you can with the Oscars or something else. If the show has 13 nominations, for example, chances are it's going to win a fair number of awards just by sheer mathematics. But there is certainly no guarantee. You can have a scenario where a show only had three or four nominations but wins Best Musical.

Me: What other insights can you share into behind the scenes of the Tony's?

John Breckenridge: It's a fairly straightforward process, and a lot of people can't vote in some of the categories. For those of us that are not regularly in New York, it becomes especially hard if you've got a show that is a limited run at Lincoln Center or a show that simply for whatever box office reasons didn't last very long. It still may get nominated, but if you weren't in New York to see it during it's run, then that knocks you out of voting for it and everything else in that category. So, part of being able to vote is the ability and the time to get to New York on a regular basis. I'm lucky, if you will, because I actually sit on the Board of Governors of The Broadway League, and we meet once a month. So, I'm in New York on a regular basis-sometimes more than once a month. But, if you're the presenter from Oklahoma City, Topeka, Kansas, or whatever, aren't on the board, and don't get to New York very often, being able to exercise you Tony Voting rights can be a challenge.

Me: That makes sense when you consider a show like HANDS ON A HARDBODY, which closed after a couple of weeks.

John Breckenridge: Yeah, exactly. HANDS ON A HARDBODY is a perfect example. Another one that got some nominations was THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. DROOD was originally a limited run show, so it was never scheduled to get through the Tony Voting process. And you've got others like HANDS ON A HARDBODY and SCANDALOUS from earlier in the year. Both of them got at least one nomination, if I'm not mistaken. But, if you weren't able to be in New York in that window, then you'd be out of voting in that category.

For more information about the Tony Awards please visit http://www.tonyawards.com. You can find out more information about Theatre Under the Stars, which is opening both the pre-Broadway tour of FLASHDANCE - THE MUSICAL and the Off-Broadway hit DIXIE'S TUPPERWARE PARTY on June 4, 2013 by visiting http://www.tuts.com.

Photo Courtesy of Theatre Under the Stars.