The 2016 Tony Nominations: Not All About the Hamiltons

Yesterday, the Asian American Performers Action Coalition released its annual report of “Ethnic Representation on New York Stages.” On Broadway and Off, thirty per cent of available roles went to actors of color during the 2014-15 season, a record high in the nine years the survey has been conducted. But the news wasn’t all so promising. On Broadway alone, the numbers actually dipped two per cent from the previous year, and African-American representation dropped from twenty-one to nine per cent. (The Asian-American percentage shot up from two to eleven, thanks to “The King and I”—hardly a groundbreaker.) Off Broadway, the Public Theatre was by far the most diverse of the major nonprofits, with sixty-two per cent of its casts made up of minority actors. The Public also claimed the largest percentage of black actors, owing mostly to its production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton,” which has since moved to Broadway and, this morning, was nominated for a record-breaking sixteen Tony nominations.