Broadway Scores Second Consecutive Clean Sweep In Musical Theater Grammy Nominations
10.11.2023 - 17:13
/ deadline.com
For the second consecutive year, Broadway cast albums made a clean sweep of the Grammy nominations for Best Musical Theater Album, shutting out both the West End and Off Broadway.
Competing for the 2023 Grammy will be Kimberly Akimbo, Parade, Shucked, Some Like It Hot and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Three of the five nominees are new shows, while two – Parade and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – are revivals.
With today’s announcement, the Grammys reprise last summer’s Tony Awards, when all five of the productions made strong showing in both nominations and wins. At the Tonys, Kimberly Akimbo won top honors for Best Musical and Best Original Score, while Parade was named Best Musical Revival – three wins that might be most relevant as a Grammy predictor.
Still, the Tonys also awarded performances from Some Like It Hot (J. Harrison Ghee, Lead Actor) and Shucked (Alex Newell, Featured Actor) – Kimberly Akimbo‘s Victoria Clark and Bonnie Milligan took the Actress nominations in those categories – while Parade‘s Michael Arden was honored for his direction. David Lindsay-Abaire won Best Book for Kimberly Akimbo.
Like last year, all five of the nominees are Broadway cast albums, bucking a previous nomination trend that saw strong showings from both London, Off Broadway and even a concept album from a TikTok musical (the 2022 winner The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical).
Even in years when the nominations are more representative of theater both Broadway and non-Broadway, the Grammy winner almost always is a Broadway cast album, Bridgerton being the notable exception. The 2023 winner was the revival of Into The Woods, which began life Off Broadway as an Encores! presentation but took the