Reflections on a winning Broadway season

If asked two months ago to assess the impact of the 2010-11 Broadway season, my answer would have amounted to Al Pacino and Lily Rabe in "The Merchant of Venice," Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones in "Driving Miss Daisy" and the catastrophic misadventures of a show called "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark."

Oh, the fall season burst out early and fast, with 18 ambitious openings between September and Thanksgiving. Before the start of the big holiday marketplace, however, producers were already counting the number of theaters that would be dark during the tundra times of January and February.

And the action didn't start again until early March, and the real action -- 13 high-profile plays and musicals -- descended in just the past three mad weeks. Producers traditionally bunch up near the cutoff for Tony Award nominations, but the current jam (five big ones last week alone) may make it hard for deserving shows to break through the noise.

The nominations come out Tuesday morning and, with this much real competition, I don't envy the job. Predictions would be folly at this point, but here are some observations about the unusually healthy, adventurous and satisfying season. (The Tony Awards will be presented on June 12, telecast on CBS.)

OLD-FASHIONED MUSICAL COMEDY IS BACK

While such nontraditional musicals as "The Scottsboro Boys," "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" and "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" failed to find an audience, people seem to want melodies and laughs. Light new shows include "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," "Sister Act," "Catch Me If You Can" (all adapted, sigh, from movies). And though it dances on the third rail of religious irreverence, even the smash "The Book of Mormon" is an old-time show.

LIVING U.S. PLAYWRIGHTS FINALLY GET TO SIT AT THE GROWN-UPS' TABLE

Stephen Adly Guirgis ("The ---- With the Hat"), David Lindsay-Abaire ("Good People") and Rajiv Joseph ("Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" weren't relegated to Off-Broadway this year. They might not have made the jump to the mainstream without star casting, but, in these cases, the stars are actors, not stunts. Even "The Normal Heart," Larry Kramer's 1985 breakthrough AIDS play, gets to be seen by the large audience it deserves.

WHERE IS THE DEFUNCT SPECIAL-EVENT TONY WHEN WE REALLY HAVE A SPECIAL EVENT?

Theater doesn't come more special than "War Horse," the exquisite and heartbreaking dramatic epic that includes puppets more human than most humans we know in plays. But if voters for best play decide to go instead with one of the remarkable number of good conventional dramas, what does that leave for this once-in-a-lifetime experience? A Tony for its scenery?

SHOULD MARK RYLANCE HAVE HIS OWN CATEGORY?

I'm no Tony historian, but I believe this might be the first time someone has been eligible for two best actor nominations. Rylance competes with himself after his astonishing performances in "La Bête" and "Jerusalem."

IS SWEARING THE NEW NUDITY?

Naked people -- even the trendier naked men -- are so last season. Language that once made David Mamet famous is now so common in mass-market shows that we can't print many of the lines -- or, in the cast of Guirgis' remarkable play, the title.

WILL THERE BE NO BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL?

The Tony committee is expected to decide after we go to press whether to change the rules, yet again, to give a prize when there are only two nominees. Consider it a sign of creative health that old musicals no longer dominate the real estate. But unless the committee rescinds the three-or-more requirement established after the 1995 best-musical contest between "Sunset Boulevard" and "Smokey Joe's Cafe," then "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" and "Anything Goes" are out of the running.

STARS CAN'T HURT, BUT THEY DON'T ALWAYS HELP

Patrick Stewart and T.R. Knight couldn't keep Mamet's "A Life in the Theatre" open. Nor could Rylance and David Hyde Pierce in "La Bête," Brendan Fraser and Denis O'Hare in "Elling," or Kathleen Turner, whose portrayal of a tough nun couldn't keep "High" open more than a week. I hope Robin Williams is enough of a draw to get people to see the serious and funny Iraq tragicomedy, "Bengal Tiger."

ENOUGH WITH THE STAR CASTING, BRING IN THE STAR PRODUCERS

Whoopi Goldberg is lead producer of "Sister Act," a billing destined to confuse audiences who think she is repeating her star turn in the 1992 movie. And Bette Midler is co-producing the Broadway version of "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" to make sure the Australian show speaks clearly to an American audience. Not since Oprah produced "The Color Purple" has the biggest name been above the title and off the stage.

NUNS, AND DRAG QUEENS, ARE BIG THIS SEASON

Discuss.