Two theater figures with deep Portland roots have scored big in the just-announced nominations for Broadway’s Tony Awards.
- Producer Corey Brunish has been nominated for the 12th time, this year as a producer of the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Company, which took nine nominations overall, including best revival of a musical.
- Actor/singer Shoshana Bean is nominated for best performance by an actress in a featured role in a musical, in Mr. Saturday Night, the new Billy Crystal hit, which took five nominations, including best musical.
Bean, who’s also starred in such Broadway shows as Wicked (as Elpheba), Hairspray, and Waitress, is a graduate of Beaverton High School, and has returned there several times to give benefit concerts. She’s also released a trio of albums as a singer.
Brunish, who began acting and singing in Portland after graduating from college and eventually also moved on to direct and produce, has a long line of Broadway credits as a producer, among them such Tony winners as Porgy and Bess, Pippin, and Once On This Island, plus such hits as Come From Away, Tootsie, and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Company is something of a return run for Brunish: It’s the first musical he directed and produced in Portland. He maintains homes in New York and Lake Oswego, and most recently was in London as assistant director and a producer on the West End for the musical Bonnie and Clyde, repeating roles he held in the musical’s 2011 Broadway premiere.
A full list of Tony nominations is here. Leading the pack is the musical A Strange Loop, with 11 nominations, followed by the musicals MJ and Paradise Square (10 each), and Company (9). The award ceremony is scheduled for Sunday, June 12.
