Who Says You Cant Give Tony Awards in an Abbreviated Season? – The New York Times

GREEN The creators of musicals really offered a sampler of ways to respond to the jukebox problem. Jagged Little Pill, built on the Alanis Morissette catalog, made the smart choice of abjuring biography and instead attaching her songs to a new plot (by Diablo Cody) that grew out of the same concerns and vocabulary. Or perhaps I should say new plots, because it is not shy with them. There are at least eight story lines.

BRANTLEY To be honest, this was the show that gave me a headache, because it was so insistently earnest in its topicality and, even when it was trying to be funny, humorless. So, of the new musicals (and we havent touched on The Lightning Thief, your personal favorite) what would you give the premature Tony to?

GREEN The one that wouldnt be eligible: American Utopia. Joy and sadness bound to each other through David Byrnes music and Annie-B Parsons movement: What else do you want from a musical, even if its just a concert?

BRANTLEY I loved American Utopia. I think, though, Id have to go with Girl From the North Country, but I wouldnt have predicted that after seeing it in London two years ago. I find more in it every time I revisit it.

GREEN Despite all the Best Musical possibilities this truncated season, only one, The Lightning Thief, had a new score. Yet most of the offerings sounded new anyway, the result of terrific arrangements and orchestrations. Im thinking especially of Justin Levines magpie-on-Ecstasy song collages for Moulin Rouge!, Tom Kitts theatricalization of post-grunge pop for Jagged Little Pill and Simon Hales excavation of the deeply layered Americana in Dylans catalog for Girl.

BRANTLEY Here, Id have to say its a tie between Girl and Moulin Rouge!, each a remarkable accomplishment in a very different way. As for best revival, the undisputed winner is Ivo van Hoves divisive revival of West Side Story, but thats because it is, remarkably, the only musical revival so far.

GREEN I liked West Side Story better than you did, Ben, perhaps because I wasnt reviewing it. I lapped up the new things it wanted to show me (while also hunting for the old things it wanted to hide from me) and didnt worry about the elements that laid an egg. (Gee, Officer Krupke.) Its evocation of innocence and hopelessness felt more like real life now than Ive experienced in previous revivals.