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Several Latino performers received a Tony Award nomination today: David Alvarez, lead actor in a musical for Billy Elliot; for lead actress, Josefina Scaglione as Maria, and for featured actress, Karen Olivo as Anita. For Lead actor in a play was Broadway favorite Raul Esparza as a rising star in Hollywood for “Speed-the-Plow".
33 Variations by Moises Kaufman is nominated as Best Play. West Side Story is nominated for Best Revival of a Musical.

Here is the New York Times article on today's nominations:

“Billy Elliot: The Musical,” the story of a British lad from a coal-mining town with a secret gift for ballet, received 15 Tony Award nominations Tuesday morning, tying the 2001 hit musical “The Producers” for the most nominations in Broadway history.
Another new musical, “Next to Normal,” about a family’s struggle with bipolar disorder, received 11 nominations and appeared poised to compete most directly with “Billy Elliot.” Not only do they face off in 10 categories, they also offer Tony voters a distinct choice between a feel-good British import that has singing, dancing, and youthful charm, and a new American musical that is emotionally demanding and decidedly adult.

The other nominees for best musical were “Shrek the Musical,” based on the popular Dreamworks movie and William Steig book, which received eight nominations, and “Rock of Ages,” an arena-rock musical that emerged somewhat unexpectedly with five nominations and beat out other top contenders for the best musical category, such as “9 to 5: The Musical” and the cult favorite “[title of show].”
In the musical revival category, the Tony nominators set up a showdown between “Hair” and “West Side Story,” both of which received rapturous reviews. “Hair” received eight nominations, while “West Side” received four; the men of “Hair” were standouts — with nominations for lead actor (Gavin Creel, as Claude) and best featured actor (Will Swenson, as Berger) — while the women of “West Side” were in the Tony nominations spotlight — for lead actress, Josefina Scaglione as Maria, and for featured actress, Karen Olivo as Anita.


The other nominees for leading actress in a musical were Stockard Channing as the unhappily married socialite in “Pal Joey,” Sutton Foster as Princess Fiona in “Shrek,” Alice Ripley as the emotionally troubled mother, Diana, in “Next to Normal,” and Allison Janney as the office supervisor, Violet Newstead, in “9 to 5.”
The nominees for leading actor in a musical were David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik, and Kiril Kulish in a single nomination as the three boys playing the title role in “Billy Elliot”; Brian d’Arcy James as the title ogre in “Shrek”; Constantine Maroulis in “Rock of Ages”; J. Robert Spencer in “Next to Normal”; and Mr. Creel in “Hair.” Among the surprise non-nominees were Matt Cavenaugh, who played Tony in “West Side Story.”
In a year that saw a large number of well-received Broadway productions, the competition was particularly fierce in the play categories.
The nominees for best play were “Dividing the Estate,” “God of Carnage,” “reasons to be pretty,” and “33 Variations” — with “Dividing” standing as both the sentimental favorite (its Pulitzer- and Oscar-winning author, Horton Foote, died in March) and the one nominee of the four that is no longer running on Broadway. “God of Carnage,” about two well-off couples who turn nasty over a spat between their children, is not only the critical hit that “Dividing” was, it is also one of the hottest-selling tickets on Broadway.

All four members of the “Carnage” cast received nominations: James Gandolfini (who played Tony Soprano on HBO) and the veteran film actor Jeff Daniels in the leading actor category, and the Oscar-winner Marcia Gay Harden and indie film favorite Hope Davis for leading actress.
Also nominated for lead actor in a play was Broadway favorite Raul Esparza as a rising star in Hollywood for “Speed-the-Plow,” a performance that required him to rehearse and adapt with three different co-stars in the show’s four and a half month run. The role of Bobby Gould turned over after the first Bobby, Jeremy Piven, left the show early.
The other nominees were Geoffrey Rush as a crazed, dying monarch in “Exit the King” and Thomas Sadoski as a young man coming to grips with a break-up and a piggish best friend in “reasons to be pretty.”
Joining the “Carnage” women in the leading actress category, meanwhile, were two other female sparring partners, Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter, who play Mary, Queen of Scots, and Queen Elizabeth I, respectively, in the revival of “Mary Stuart.” And the film legend Jane Fonda rounded out the category for her performance as an ailing musicologist obsessed with Beethoven in “33 Variations.”

Perhaps the largest group of strong productions competing for nominations in one category were the play revivals. The nominees were “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” “Mary Stuart,” “The Norman Conquests,” and “Waiting for Godot.” Among the revivals that missed out in this category were “Exit the King,” “Speed-the-Plow,” “Desire Under the Elms,” “The Seagull,” and “Blithe Spirit.”
Among the celebrities who scored big, meanwhile, were two actresses who aren’t especially strong singers but nabbed nominations for leading actress in a musical: Ms. Channing for “Pal Joey” and Ms. Janney for “9 to 5.” Other well-known and well-regarded nominees were Angela Lansbury for “Blithe Spirit” and Martha Plimpton for “Pal Joey.”
A full list of the Tony nominations with analysis is posted on the ArtsBeat blog of The New York Times.
The Tony Awards will be presented on Sunday, June 7, at Radio City Music Hall, and will be televised live on CBS.

Photo credits:
David Alvarez as Billy. Billy Elliot.Photo Sara Krulwich/NYT
Karen Olivo as Anita. West Side Story. Photo Joan Marcus
Josefina Scaglione as María. West Side Story. Photo by Joan Marcus
Raúl Esparza in Speed-the-Plow
Jane Fonda in 33 Variations. by Moisés Kaufman. Photo Joan Marcus