‘Hamilton’ Is Getting Screwed Out of a Tony Award
This is a story about the most unlikely beef in rap history. When the Tony Award nominations are announced on May 3rd, honoring the best of the Broadway season, Hamilton is expected to dominate in every category. You know Hamilton, right? The groundbreaking hip-hop musical about our founding fathers? President Obama and Queen Beyoncé are both fans. And tickets are basically sold out until 2017. If the tea leaves prove correct, the Tony Awards could wind up feeling like one big infomercial for Hamilton. Which is pretty awesome! Except for the one person from Hamilton‘s creative team getting screwed out of a nomination, if not a win. Say hello to the show’s sound designer, 49-year-old Nevin Steinberg.
To be fair (and nothing about this feels fair) the Tony Awards committee actually eliminated the best sound design category in 2014—a stunningly arbitrary decision that left the theater community scratching its collective noggin. No formal explanation was ever given but the New York Times managed to piece together the committee’s thinking: “Few of the 800 Tony voters, whose ballots determine the sound design winners, know what sound design is or how to judge it…and some administration committee members believe that sound design is more of a technical craft than a theatrical art form.” In other words: They’re not sure what sound design is, but it’s definitely not art. Huh.
An online petition to reinstate the category drew more than 30,000 signatures, including John Hancocks from Cyndi Lauper, Stephen Sondheim and Lin-Manuel Miranda himself, the creator and star of Hamilton. Miranda e-mailed Rolling Stone this week to explain why the decision frustrated him: “Sound design is an art form as integral to the success of a theater piece as any other element. Set designers sculpt with physical materials, lighting designers sculpt with light and sound designers sculpt with sound. They are responsible for your aural experience at a Broadway show — LITERALLY THE SOUND OF BROADWAY. To omit them from recognition — I simply don’t understand it.”
Hamilton‘s sound designer, Nevin Steinberg, will surely appreciate the love. While talking about awards makes Steinberg uncomfortable and feels presumptuous, he admits the situation still rankles him. “Yeah, I’m pissed,” Steinberg says. “I’m pissed on behalf of my colleagues who are also pissed and confused. I think it’s a snub. At best it’s a slight.”
To get to the bottom of this mystery, we sat down with Steinberg in the mostly-empty Richard Rodgers Theatre one quiet April morning, as desperate Hamilton fans lined up outside in the hopes of scoring a ticket from a last-minute cancellation. Steinberg is bespectacled with a kind face, looking not unlike a grown-up Harry Potter at the very end of the franchise. He offers a two-minute primer on his life’s work.