My 2011 TONY Predictions

We are approaching my favorite day of the year, the Tony awards! Next Sunday, June 12th, Broadway's finest will unite to award the best shows, performances, and designs of the 2010-2011 Broadway season. I've been anxiously awaiting the Tonys for months and I'll be live-blogging and tweeting from the time the red carpet coverage begins at 6pm on tonyawards.com until the time the live-broadcast on CBS ends. Join me all week right here and over on my twitter page @barbiebackstage for updates! For now, here are all of the nominees and my predictions for each category's winner.

Best Play: Good People Author: David Lindsay-Abaire, Jerusalem Author: Jez Butterworth, The Motherf**ker with the Hat Author: Stephen Adly Guirgis, War Horse Author: Nick Stafford

My Pick: War Horse by Nick Stafford-having won the Drama Desk & Outer Critics Circle Awards, this is a fairly safe prediction; it is also the 'biggest play' of the season in terms of design and spectacle

Best Musical: The Book of Mormon, Catch Me If You Can, The Scottsboro Boys, Sister Act 

My Pick: The Book of Mormon-this show has swept the awards this season and has been loved by critics and audiences alike as a truly original musical, if it is not named "Best Musical" it will be the biggest upset in many seasons

Best Book of a Musical: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson Alex Timbers, The Book of Mormon Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone, The Scottsboro Boys David Thompson, Sister Act Cheri Steinkellner, Bill Steinkellner and Douglas Carter Beane 

My Pick: Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone for The Book of Mormon-this new musical has been praised for its wit and dark humor at the hands of the team behind "South Park" and as any great book should do, it rises to meet the score and carries the actors to where they begin to sing

Best Original Score: The Book of Mormon Music & Lyrics: Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone,
The Scottsboro Boys Music & Lyrics: John Kander & Fred Ebb, Sister Act Music: Alan Menken
Lyrics: Glenn Slater, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Music & Lyrics: David Yazbek

My Pick: Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone for The Book of Mormon-again, no show has received such praise this season and while I'd like it to go to Women on the Verge, I think "Mormon" has it in the bag

Best Revival of a Play: Arcadia, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Merchant of Venice, The Normal Heart 

My Pick: The Normal Heart-this revival was praised by critics and was touted by audience members as "deeply moving"

Best Revival of a Musical: Anything Goes, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying 

My Pick: Anything Goes-of only 2 revivals this season, this is far superior to How to Succeed 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play: Brian Bedford The Importance of Being Earnest, Bobby Cannavale The Motherf**ker with the Hat, Joe Mantello The Normal Heart, Al Pacino The Merchant of Venice, Mark Rylance Jerusalem 

My Pick: Mark Rylance for Jerusalem-this is a very tight category, probably the tightest of all in my opinion, and anyone could win but my gut is telling my Mark Rylance since he gave not one but two outstanding Broadway performances this season

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play: Nina Arianda Born Yesterday, Frances McDormand Good People, Lily Rabe The Merchant of Venice, Vanessa Redgrave Driving Miss Daisy, Hannah Yelland Brief Encounter 

My Pick: Frances McDormand for Good People-Nina Arianda seems to be gaining a lot of momentum and could pull of a win on Sunday, but I'm still giving the edge to McDormand, the winner of this year's Drama Desk, and co-winner of the Outer Critics Circle along with Arianda

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Norbert Leo Butz Catch Me If You Can, Josh Gad The Book of Mormon, Joshua Henry The Scottsboro Boys, Andrew Rannells The Book of Mormon, Tony Sheldon Priscilla Queen of the Desert 

My Pick: Tony Sheldon for Priscilla Queen of the Desert-though he hasn't won any of the early awards this season, my money is still on Sheldon because let's face it, Broadway loves a good Queen in drag

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical: Sutton Foster Anything Goes, Beth Leavel Baby It's You, Patina Miller Sister Act, Donna Murphy The People in the Picture

My Pick: Sutton Foster for Anything Goes-before the reviews came out, everybody thought hands down that Patina Miller would win, but Sutton had the critics at hello and the fans followed; she has also won the Drama Desk & Outer Critics Circle this season and I can only suspect that Tony will choose her too

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play: Mackenzie Crook Jerusalem, Billy Crudup Arcadia, John Benjamin Hickey The Normal Heart, Arian Moayed Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Yul Vázquez The Motherf**ker with the Hat 

My Pick: John Benjamin Hickey for The Normal Heart-I'm going out on a limb with this one and based on reviews, word of mouth, and my own gut feelings, I think Hickey will take it

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play: Ellen Barkin The Normal Heart, Edie Falco The House of Blue Leaves, Judith Light Lombardi, Joanna Lumley La Bête, Elizabeth Rodriguez The Motherf**ker with the Hat 

My Pick: Ellen Barkin for The Normal Heart-again, I'm jumping on the Normal Heart bandwagon and I think Barkin will take this category; I loved Judith Light in Lombardi but because Light's show opened early in the season, I think the momentum is really in Barkin's favor at this point in the race

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical: Colman Domingo The Scottsboro Boys, Adam Godley Anything Goes, John Larroquette How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Forrest McClendon The Scottsboro Boys, Rory O'Malley The Book of Mormon 

My Pick: Rory O'Malley for The Book of Mormon-I'm going to be slightly cynical here and suggest that the show that will probably win Best Book, Score & Musical will have to win at least one acting award and I think that O'Malley has the best shot

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical: Laura Benanti Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Tammy Blanchard How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Victoria Clark Sister Act, Nikki M. James The Book of Mormon, Patti LuPone Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown 

My Pick: Laura Benanti for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown-if we look at the winner in this category last season, Katie Finneran for Promises, Promises, Laura Benanti seems a natural fit to take the award this year; she did exactly what the nominees in this category should do in taking a small role and making it the most memorable part of the show

Best Direction of a Play: Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris War Horse, Joel Grey & George C. Wolfe The Normal Heart, Anna D. Shapiro The Motherf**ker with the Hat, Daniel Sullivan The Merchant of Venice

My Pick: Marianne Elliott & Tom Morris for War Horse-again this is a tough category but I think War Horse has the momentum going into Tony night and in such a big technical piece as this, direction is key

Best Direction of a Musical: Rob Ashford How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Kathleen Marshall Anything Goes, Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker The Book of Mormon, Susan Stroman The Scottsboro Boys 

My Pick: Kathleen Marshall for Anything Goes-Nicholaw & Parker for The Book of Mormon are the easy choices here, but something tells me that Kathleen Marshall will pull this off and perhaps I think that because a grandiose musical such as Anything Goes has so many moving parts that it takes such attention to detail to really pull it off well and Kathleen Marshall has done just that

Best Choreography: Rob Ashford How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Kathleen Marshall Anything Goes, Casey Nicholaw The Book of Mormon, Susan Stroman The Scottsboro Boys

My Pick: Kathleen Marshall for Anything Goes-directing and choreographing is such a tall order and when it is done so well as in this case, I think Kathleen Marshall will take the category

Best Orchestrations: Doug Besterman How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Larry Hochman The Scottsboro Boys, Larry Hochman & Stephen Oremus The Book of Mormon, Marc Shaiman & Larry Blank Catch Me If You Can

My Pick: Larry Hochman & Stephen Oremus for The Book of Mormon-I was convinced Women on the Verge would be nominated in and win this category but since it's not, I'll have to go with the favorite, The Book of Mormon

Best Scenic Design of a Play: Todd Rosenthal The Motherf**ker with the Hat, Rae Smith War Horse, 
Ultz Jerusalem, Mark Wendland The Merchant of Venice 

My Pick: Rae Smith for War Horse-my conundrum here is whether or not to consider the horse/puppetry as part of the scenic design and if so, War Horse wins this hands down; if we are laving out the puppets, I'll have to go with Jerusalem

Best Scenic Design of a Musical: Beowulf Boritt The Scottsboro Boys, Derek McLane Anything Goes, Scott Pask The Book of Mormon, Donyale Werle Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson 

My Pick: Derek McLane for Anything Goes-I think this will go the route of the 2008 revival of South Pacific and take all the design categories, its just my gut feeling, especially since none of the other musicals this season are nearly as "big" in terms of production value

Best Costume Design of a Play: Jess Goldstein The Merchant of Venice, Desmond Heeley The Importance of Being Earnest, Mark Thompson La Bête, Catherine Zuber Born Yesterday

My Pick: Desmond Heely for The Importance of Being Earnest-I tend to give the nod to period costumes in a category like this and visually I found these to be the most interesting

Best Costume Design of a Musical: Tim Chappel & Lizzy Gardiner Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Martin Pakledinaz Anything Goes, Ann Roth The Book of Mormon, Catherine Zuber How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

My Pick: Martin Pakledinaz for Anything Goes-though Priscilla is an easy choice, those costumes may be too over the top even for the Tony awards and here, Marin Pakledinaz' designs fit the period without looking dated, not to mention they allow the characters to sing and dance with easy and make them sparkle

Best Lighting Design of a Play: Paule Constable War Horse, David Lander Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Kenneth Posner The Merchant of Venice, Mimi Jordan Sherin Jerusalem 

My Pick: Paule Constable for War Horse-again, I'm giving the nod to the biggest technical piece of all the nominees

Best Lighting Design of a Musical: Ken Billington The Scottsboro Boys, Howell Binkley How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Peter Kaczorowski Anything Goes, Brian MacDevitt The Book of Mormon 

My Pick: Peter Kaczorowski for Anything Goes-again, I think Anything Goes will pull a South Pacific

Best Sound Design of a Play: Acme Sound Partners and Cricket S. Myers Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Simon Baker Brief Encounter, Ian Dickinson for Autograph Jerusalem, Christopher Shutt War Horse

My Pick: Ian Dickinson for Jerusalem-because of the nature of the shows, this should come down to War Horse or Jerusalem but I really fell in my gut that Jerusalem will take this

Best Sound Design of a Musical: Peter Hylenski The Scottsboro Boys, Steve Canyon Kennedy Catch Me If You Can, Brian Ronan Anything Goes, Brian Ronan The Book of Mormon

My Pick: Brian Ronan for Anything Goes-pulling a South Pacific