Page 2 - Kaleem Wright News Today

"This really is a celebration because never have we seen this kind of diversity happen on Broadway,” he says. “It is a rare year and it is a rare year for both the good and the bad.”

Multiple Black artists were nominated in every single Tony Award performance category. But COVID-19 sickened actors and starved box offices.

The company members from this year's nominees share the rhymes that make them laugh and the imagery that takes their breath away.

As predicted, "Paradise Square," which tried out in Chicago last fall, earned 10 Tony nominations, including for lead actress Joaquina Kalukango and for choreographer Bill T. Jones. Playwright Lynn Nottage, whos 2003 drama "Intimate Apparel" is currently running at Northlight Theatre in Skokie, has two reasons to smile: Her book for the musical "MJ was nominated for best book and her play "Clydes" got a nod for best play.

As predicted, "Paradise Square," which tried out in Chicago last fall, earned 10 Tony nominations, including for lead actress Joaquina Kalukango and for choreographer Bill T. Jones. Playwright Lynn Nottage, whos 2003 drama "Intimate Apparel" is currently running at Northlight Theatre in Skokie, has two reasons to smile: Her book for the musical "MJ was nominated for best book and her play "Clydes" got a nod for best play.

A Strange Loop led the list with 11 nominations in all. One nod was for Best Musical which also has in the category Girl From the North Country, MJ, Mr. Saturday Night, Paradise Square and Six.

The visceral intensity of all the performances in this new musical — set in the titular bar in the Five Points neighborhood of Manhattan during the New York draft riots of 1863 — surely is indicative not just of the long, hard slog to beat back COVID-19 and wrestle an original musical to Broadway.

Your pandemic listening may just have primed you for the most well-informed night you've ever had at the theater.