Looking ahead to the Tony Awards: An off year for musicals, but 'Once' deserves to win

NEW YORK — What with "Ghost,""Lysistrata Jones" and other wearying disappointments, the 2012-13 Broadway season hardly will go down as a banner year for new American musicals. Indeed, should the best-musical Tony Award go, at Sunday night's ceremony, to a show other than "Once" or "Newsies" — the only remotely viable candidates for this most important of theatrical honors — the theater chatterati will be speechless and Tweetless. For a couple of seconds.

Chris Jones

June 6, 2012