Student Blog: Musical Theater at the Grammys

Have you ever wondered about the difference between the Grammy's "Best Musical Theater Album" award and the Tony Awards? Most likely not, and I never did either until the recent announcement of the 2024 Grammy Nominations. I decided to take a deep dive into the Grammys and the Tonys. How are these awards conducted and decided upon? Which Tony Award category matches most with the Grammy’s musical theater category? And most of all: is possible to predict the winner of Best Musical Theater Album based on who wins a Tony Award?

I began my research by digging into the Grammys and its criteria for the musical theater category. The Recording Academy conducts the Grammy Awards. The Recording Academy consists of thousands of professionals in the music industry. Academy members are only permitted to vote within their areas of expertise. In other words, a hip-hop artist would not be allowed to vote for Best Musical Theater Album. This adds a layer of credibility to the Grammy Awards in my eyes. The audience can trust that the professionals voting in every category have true authority to dictate who wins these awards.

The Best Musical Theater Album award is for the principal vocalists, producers, lyricists, and composers of the album. Basically, the entire product and experience of the recorded album are considered for this category. Additionally, 51% of the album must be newly recorded material for the album to be eligible for this award. This means that revivals and jukebox musicals are also considered for this category alongside original musicals. 

The Tony Awards are hosted by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing. Over 800 professionals from The Broadway League, the American Theatre Wing, Actor's Equity, and various other groups are permitted to participate in the final voting for the awards.

When thinking of Tony Award categories that best parallel the Best Musical Theater Album award, I came up with three possibilities: Best Original Score, Best Orchestrations, and Best Musical or Best Revival. Best Original Score is a composer and lyricist award. This award is strictly for newly written music, so jukebox musicals and revivals are excluded from this category. Best Orchestrations is an orchestrator award, as indicated by the title. An orchestrator takes the original score and writes parts for pit musicians. I am always impressed with the work of orchestrators due to their creativity in writing for a vast array of instruments. Last but not least, the Best Musical and Best Revival awards. Best Musical is a producer and writer award, however, it is tradition for the entire cast and creative team to come on stage to accept the award. The Best Musical category considers every aspect of the musical and the experience they create as a whole. Best Revival is very similar to Best Musical with one distinct difference - the musicals in this category have already been produced. Revivals are musicals that have already had a run on Broadway but are revisited by a new creative team, recast, and then re-opened on Broadway. Again, this category considers every aspect of the revival production and the overall effect of the production. Best Musical and Best Revival are two separate awards but for the sake of my research, I thought of them as one. 

To find out which Tony Award category the Best Musical Theater Album Grammy is most similar to, I compared the Tony and Grammy winners from the past 20 years. The winners of Best Orchestrations and Best Original Score both matched with the winner of Best Musical Theater Album 45% of the time. This percentage makes sense to me considering both of these awards are for very specific portions of the musical album whereas the Grammy award considers the musical’s album as a whole. Best Musical and Best Revival winners match Best Musical Theater Album winners 65% of the time. While I did anticipate that Best Musical and Best Revival would have the closest connection to Best Musical Theater Album out of the three categories, I was still surprised to see that any of the awards matched over 50% of the time. 

This little research project was more for my entertainment than anything else, but it does bring up some interesting points about the Grammys and the Tonys. It is clear that the professionals voting for the Grammy and Tony winners all generally agree on which album or musical is the “best.” This is fascinating considering how subjective art and music are. Is it their schooling and training that leads them to their similar opinions? Or perhaps their expertise allows them to recognize and appreciate specific details that the average audience member or listener doesn’t pick up on. Whatever the reason may be, next time you make a bet on who the winner of the Best Musical Theater Album Grammy Award will be, your safest bet is the winner of the Best Musical Tony Award.