Texas producer ranks among key Tony nominees
Fort Worth native Michael SkipperÂ’s collaborative production of In the Heights, a musical that moved from Off Broadway onto Broadway proper this spring, leads the nominations for the show capitalÂ’s top theatrical honors, the Tony Awards. Nominations were announced May 13 in New York.
“I’m just jumpin’ for joy,” Skipper said from Manhattan. “In this business, we always try never to take anything for granted — I had been thinking maybe a single nomination might be possible — but always look forward to what might be coming. Think good thoughts, I mean.”
Thirteen nominations for In the Heights include the categories of Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Actor (lead player and words-and-music author Lin-Manuel Miranda), and Best Direction.
Miranda and director Thomas Kail, with librettist Quiara AlegrÃa Hudes, had reworked the musical from a college-days project by Miranda, debuting In the Heights in Connecticut before securing an Off Broadway showcase in 2007. The Latin-flavored neighborhood story, with its street-smart jazz-to-hip-hop score and central tale of striving youth and personal intrigues, has garnered enthusiastic reviews and turnouts to match at the Richard Rodgers Theater on 46th Street.
“In the Heights is the priority, with us, for as long as it can pack ’em in,” said Skipper, 52, who moved from an acting career into stage production during the 1990s. He and his production-company partnership reserve the right, however, to “look at as many prospective new projects as we can, in the meantime.”
“The other Tony nominees are all first-rate, of course,” said Skipper. These include a South Pacific revival, with 11 nominations; Sunday in the Park with George, with nine; and Gypsy, with seven. The revival-among-revivals, with six nominations, appears to be Macbeth, with a Best Actor-nominated Patrick Stewart.
“The nominations seem to be telling us that there is as receptive an audience for the innovative productions as there is for the show-world classics,” said Skipper. “We’re just grateful to be in such fine company.”
Tony ceremonies will take place June 15.
Skipper, whose family maintains residences in New York and at Graham, west of Fort Worth, said his next step in light of the Tony nominations will be to help reconfigure the advertising campaign for In the Heights.
Skipper’s career since Richland High School and Texas Wesleyan University has been devoted to show business, including pivotal involvement with the Casa Mañana troupe in Fort Worth.
“At a certain point, y’know, I grew to believe that my vision as a producer and director was better than my vision as an actor,” he said. “So I set out to find an arena where I could work with the world’s biggest stage community.” Hence the gradual approach to Broadway and a long-term alliance with Kevin McCollum among other fellow producers. Skipper’s first Tony-nominated production was 2002’s The Crucible, starring Laura Linney and Liam Neesom.
Skipper and his wife, Anne Street Skipper, also are owners of the Wildcatter Ranch & Resort at Graham.
“Best jobs in the world,” Skipper said. “I get to work on Broadway — and then come home to Texas.”
On the Web: www.intheheightsthemusical.com and www.tonyawards.com
Contact Price at mprice@bizpress.net
