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Happy Tony Awards Nominations Day! Today the spotlight shines on May 1, 1983, when My One And Only opened at the St. James.

My One And Only was Tommy Tune's "bid to become the king of musical comedy," Don Shewey wrote in The New York Times on May 1, 1983. If he succeeded, Tommy would be "wearing a three-point crown (as) director, choreographer (and) star." A little over a month later, the night the Uris Theatre was redidcated in honor of George and Ira Gershwin, Tune won two out of the three Tonys he was nominated for, including Best Lead Actor in a Musical and Best Choreography, the latter shared with Thommie Walsh. Tommy and Thommie failed, however, to win Best Director of a Musical. They lost that one to Trevor Nunn for Cats.

"This show has been a tough one but it's not anything that's being forced on me," Tune said in the Times' recap of My One And Only's difficult road to Broadway. "I'm liking it. It's really not that different from playing in the family garage back in Texas. I'm just doing what I've always like doing best -- makin' up shows."

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Set in 1927, My One And Only starred Tommy opposite his costar from 1971's film of The Boy Friend, Twiggy. She played Edith, who "swam that English Channel and got that pretty little puppy dog face in all the newsreels." He played Billy, determined to complete the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. My One And Only started life as a revisal of the Gershwins' Funny Face, with the adaptation by director Peter Sellars and book writer Tim Mayer. Sellars and Mayer evidently went for broke before both were fired.

"(They) had concocted a wild, purposely silly book involving rum-running in Cuba, a flight to Morocco and a case of amnesia. Yet within this comic context they hoped to comment satirically on such notions as the rise of the corporation, the colonialization of the Third World and the oppression of women," Don Shewey reported. Things were simplified enough for the finished show, with a heavily doctored book credited to Mayer and Peter Stone. "There (is) a female mechanic (Denny Dillon), a phony Russian prince (Bruce McGill), a debonair Harlem preacher (Roscoe Lee Browne), an enigmatic wise man (the tap dancer Charles 'Honi' Coles), a barbershop quartet, six chorus girls and seven male dancers," Shewey wrote.

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Frank Rich, New York Times, liked Twiggy's performance better than Tommy's. "Not quite an accomplished actress, singer or dancer and not quite beautiful, she has a striking, slinky presence and vulnerable, little-lost-flapper look that is instantly winning," Rich wrote. "It's her plaintive, intimate renditions of ''Boy Wanted'' and ''Nice Work If You Can Get It'' that give My One and Only its essential warmth.

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Tune's "relentless aw-shucks pose is more obsequiout than ingratiating," Rich declared. "This excessive narcissism contributes to one of the show's failings, which is the lack of any credible sexual or romantic passion to spark the ostensible love story." Maybe I'm just an old softy, but I believed in Billy & Edith.

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Running for slightly less than two years on Broadway, My One And Only received one other Tony Award, for Coles as Best Featured Actor in a Musical. In addition to the Best Director of a Musical loss, the show was defeated for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Featured Actress in a Musical (for Dillon), and Best Costume Design by Cats. Twiggy, meanwhile, lost Best Lead Actress in a Musical to Natalia Makarova in On Your Toes.

Tommy and Twiggy were no slouches in promoting their show.

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The two Ts were succeeded in My One And Only by the husband and wife team of Sandy Duncan and Don Correia. Duncan initially co-headlined the show's 1985-86 national tour, appearing opposite Tune. He subsequently performed with former Seesaw co-star Lucie Arnaz, then with Stephanie Zimbalist in 1987.

My One And Only wasn't the first show to raid a Great American Songbook catalog, and it certainly wasn't the last. Perhaps somewhere down the line we'll get a revisal of the revisal and maybe the old Peter Sellars and Tim Mayer book will finally be performed on Broadway. Until then, I'll stick with my cast album.

Also debuting on this day:

Partners Again, which opened in 1922 at what is now the Todd Haimes. Selling cars was the millieu for the fifth of six plays about the Jewish comedy duo Abe Potash and Mawruss Perlmutter. The characters had been in books since 1909, on stage since 1913, and apparently relegated to obscurity since 1935. They were created by Montague Glass, himself Jewish.

Threepenny Opera, which was revived in 1977 at the Vivian Beaumont. It starred Raul Julia (who went on to star in Tommy Tune's Nine) as Macheath, Ellen Greene as Jenny, and Blair Brown as Lucy Brown.

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Da, which opened in 1978 at the Morosco. Hugh Leonard's play, with an Irish-born writer (Brian Murray) coming to terms with the impacts made by both his father figure (Lester Rawlins) and adoptive father (Barnard Hughes), went 4-0 at that year's Tonys. Leonard, Hughes (as Best Lead Actor in a Play), Rawlins (as Best Featured Actor in a Play), and director Melvin Bernhardt were honored. Da eventually became a movie, starring Hughes, Martin Sheen, and William Hickey, and released in 1988.

A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, which opened in 1980 at the John Golden. Tommy Tune and Thommie Walsh won their first Tony for choreography with this musical. Act One has Grauman's Chinese Theatre ushers spoofing but also celebrating 1930s Hollywood. Act Two is Chekhov's The Bear as a Marx Brothers movie. Priscilla Lopez won the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, while David Garrison was an also-ran in the featured actor category.

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As Is, which opened in 1985 at the Lyceum following an off-Broadway run. William M. Hoffman's play was Broadway's first to depict AIDS, which affects a former, then reunited gay couple (Jonathan Hadary and Jonathan Hogan). Hadary reprised his role for As Is's 1986 TV adaptation, which aired on Showtime. I hope the marketing improved and became less self-important during the play's Broadway run.

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Romance/Romance, which opened in 1988 at the Helen Hayes. Scott Bakula's last Broadway credit to date is this show which also made the leap from off-Broadway. Like Hollywood/Ukraine, it's a pair of one-act musicals. First, a Viennese pair (Bakula and Alison Fraser, both Tony nominees) fall in love while posing to one another as just plain folks. Second, two modern friends (Bakula and Fraser) consider cheating on their spouses (Deborah Graham and Robert Hoshour) during a shared vacation.

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Largely New York, which opened in 1989. Bill Irwin won the Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience. The production featured his "Post-Modern Hoofer" character.

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Prelude to a Kiss, which opened in 1990 at the Helen Hayes. Another production that transferred from off-Broadway, this starred Mary-Louise Parker and Timothy Hutton as a couple whose lives are turned upside down when she accepts a wedding day kiss from an old man (Barnard Hughes). Alec Baldwin, the male lead off-Broadway, reprised his role opposite Meg Ryan and Sydney Walker in an indifferently-received 1992 film adaptation.

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The Will Rogers Follies, which opened in 1991 at the Palace. Tommy Tune scored his last competitive Tony Awards to date, for direction and choreography, with this musical that nabbed 1991's big prize and was also recognized for the Cy Coleman-Betty Comden & Adolph Green score. Alas, Cady Huffman, Dee Hoty, and Keith Carradine as Rogers were also-rans.

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An Ideal Husband, revived in 1996 at the Ethel Barrymore. At 307 performances, this currently holds the record for Oscar Wilde's longest run on Broadway.

Dirty Blonde, which opened in 2000 at the Helen Hayes. Yet another off-Broadway transfer, this starred Claudia Shear, who wrote and co-conceived the play with director James Lapine. It's about two Mae West superfans. Shear, costars Kevin Chamberlin and Bob Stillman, and Lapine were all Tony nominees.

Gypsy, revived in 2003 at the Shubert. Bernadette Peters' last competititve Tony Award nomination to date (as of 10 p.m. April 30, 2025) was for this musical. It went 0-4 at the Tonys, with the show itself, Peters, Tammy Blanchard, and John Dossett* losing to the Nine revival, Marissa Jaret Winokur in Hairspray, Jane Krakowski in Nine, and Dick Latessa in Hairspray, respectively.

*Who co-starred in Prelude to a Kiss before eventually succeeding Timothy Hutton.

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The Drowsy Chaperone, which opened in 2006 at the Marquis. When I was in college at the University of Dayton, we were supposedly thisclose to putting on Chaperone. I would have killed to play Man in Chair. C'mon, I am Man in Chair. Anyway, 13 Tony nominations and five wins, including for the book and score, plus Beth Leavel (Best Featured Actress in a Musical) as the Drowsy Chaperone. Sutton Foster (Best Lead Actress in a Musical) lost to LaChanze in The Color Purple.

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Next week, nothing that's formal, nothing that's normal -- no recitations to recite.