If Idina Menzel is disappointed that the 2014 Tony Award nominating committee overlooked her, along with (for the most part) her show If/Then, she might look back to the Broadway scene of 50 years ago and take some comfort. That season welcomed two musicals, and two stars, who would become legends. But the 1964 Tonys tilted all the way to one side, bestowing a then-record 10 awards on Hello Dolly!, including Best Leading Actress (Carol Channing), Best Direction (Gower Champion), and Best Musical. Left in the cold with zero wins were Funny Girl and its star Barbra Streisand.
Few musicals today work as true star vehicles, unless you count the jukebox shows centering on one great performer, like Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill with Audra McDonald channeling Billie Holiday. Instead, even the biggest successes of the 1970s and on--Les Misérables, A Chorus Line, the Andrew Lloyd Webber canon, the Disney musicals and so on--tend to be ensemble works that don't give a single performer the spotlight to break into pop culture in a big way. Evita, I would suggest, was an exception that proves the rule.
By contrast, pop culture wrote those big names of 1964--Channing, Streisand, Hello Dolly! and Funny Girl--into its annals for all time.
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