A Date with Tony?

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
Curtains (Music: John Kander; lyrics: Fred Ebb, John Kander & Rupert Holmes)
Grey Gardens (Music: Scott Frankel; lyrics: Michael Korie)
Legally Blonde The Musical (Music & Lyrics: Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin)
Spring Awakening (Music: Duncan Sheik; lyrics: Steven Sater)

PREDICTED WINNER Spring Awakening
I guarantee that I'm not the only Tony voter whose iPod has Spring on permanent rotation. Even those who didn't warm to the show as a whole have overwhelming praise for Sheik's soaring compositions and Sater's poetic lyrics.

Best Orchestrations
Bruce Coughlin, Grey Gardens
Duncan Sheik, Spring Awakening
Jonathan Tunick, LoveMusik
Jonathan Tunick, 110 in the Shade

PREDICTED WINNER Duncan Sheik
Best Orchestrations usually go hand-in-hand with Best Original Score, and this one's no exception.

Best Lighting Design of a Play
Paule Constable, Coram Boy
Brian MacDevitt, Inherit the Wind
Brian MacDevitt, Kenneth Posner and Natasha Katz, The Coast of Utopia
Jason Taylor, Journey's End

PREDICTED WINNER Say it with me now: The Coast of Utopia.

Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Kevin Adams, Spring Awakening
Christopher Akerlind, 110 in the Shade
Howard Harrison, Mary Poppins
Peter Kaczorowski, Grey Gardens

PREDICTED WINNER Spring Awakening
It's mood lighting in the best sense.

Best Direction of a Play
Michael Grandage, Frost/Nixon
David Grindley, Journey's End
Jack O'Brien, The Coast of Utopia
Melly Still, Coram Boy

PREDICTED WINNER Jack O'Brien
He directed not one, but three plays. Utopia may be Stoppard's words, but it was O'Brien's vision. Without him, it wouldn't have been anywhere near as astounding an achievement.

Best Direction of a Musical
John Doyle, Company
Scott Ellis, Curtains
Michael Greif, Grey Gardens
Michael Mayer, Spring Awakening

PREDICTED WINNER Michael Mayer
No contest. Moving on...

Best Choreography
Rob Ashford, Curtains
Matthew Bourne and Stephen Mear, Mary Poppins
Bill T. Jones, Spring Awakening
Jerry Mitchell, Legally Blonde The Musical

PREDICTED WINNER Bill T. Jones
Personally, I'm voting for Poppins; ''Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'' cemented it for me. But Jones' modern dance steps earned major critical kudos.