Hallie and Horton Foote

Most entertaining take on the peculiarities of Tony voters comes from Jeremy Gerard in Bloomberg: When he asked 15 Tony voters if they’d actually seen the 33 Chinese monks who performed in the Soul of Shaolin for only 24 performances yet were nominated for Best Special Theatrical Event, Jeremy reports: ” None of my correspondents had seen Shaolin (at least, that’s how I interpreted the inevitable cackling on the telephone or, in the case of e-mails, the strings of exclamation points and question marks). ”

In my years knowing him (Jeremy preceded me at the Dallas Morning News‘ theater critic’s desk), he’s always been a very insightful handicapper of the Tonys.  He also underscored the emotional force behind the long-delayed recognition of the late Horton Foote that the nominations represent. Despite winning the Pulitzer and two Oscars, and despite having given the American theater some superb plays, Foote had never been nominated for a Tony before this.

And this time, his daughter Hallie was also nominated for her role in her father’s Dividing the Estate.