“The Band’s Visit,” a Broadway musical featuring several Mainers about accepting people from different backgrounds and working together to help one another, snagged several Tony Award nominations Tuesday, including best musical, best book of a musical and best original score.
Tony Shalhoub, a University of Southern Maine alumnus, was nominated for best performance by an actor in a leading role for his performance in the musical, and Tyler Micoleau of Portland was nominated for best lighting for his work on “The Band’s Visit.” The musical also stars John Cariani, who grew up in northern Maine and wrote the play “Almost, Maine.”
Shalhoub graduated as a theater major from USM in 1977. He’s been nominated for Tony Awards many times, but never won.
This is Micoleau’s first nomination, and he’s competing against another Mainer. Donald Holder, who graduated from the University of Maine, was nominated for his lighting design for the musical for “My Fair Lady.” Micoleau is a graduate of Bowdoin College in Brunswick. In a brief phone message Tuesday morning, he said the nomination was “very exciting and surprising.”
Bartlett Sher, who directed at Portland Stage Company in the 1990s, was nominated as best director of a musical for “My Fair Lady.”
Overall, the musicals “Mean Girls” and “SpongeBob SquarePants” each had 12 nominations. “The Band’s Visit” got 11 nominations, as did revivals of “Carousel” and “Angels in America.”
In “The Band’s Visit,” an Egyptian police band, led by Shalhoub’s character, is sent to a remote village in the middle of the Israeli desert. With no bus until morning and no hotel in sight, these unlikely travelers are taken in by the locals, one of whom is named Itzik, played by Cariani.
The 72nd Tony Awards will be held June 10 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and air at 8 p.m. on CBS.
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