CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK

By CHARLES McNULTY

May 6, 2009 12 AM PT

THEATER CRITIC

A glut of great acting talent and a scarcity of distinguished new plays and musicals -- the Tony nominations for the 2008-09 season, announced Tuesday morning, reveal that the more things change in this period of economic hard times, the more they stay commercially the same.

No surprise that “Billy Elliot: The Musical,” the Lee Hall-Elton John juggernaut, pulled in a record-tying 15 nominations, with the three tykes alternating in the title role sharing a crack at the award for leading actor in a musical. Might as well roll out the red carpet and hand the production its bric-a-brac right now. The suspense over whether this overstuffed, overpraised British import will receive single- or double-digit awards isn’t exactly killing anyone. The Tony crown, whose gilt seems to be peeling more and more each year, has all but been bestowed on “Billy Elliot.”

Prognosticators were also fairly certain that “Next to Normal,” a musical that dares to tackle the subject of bipolar disorder, would clinch one of the four best musical spots. One nominee has to shore up the category’s serious credentials, if not integrity, and this production boasts a performance by Alice Ripley that’s favored to grab the best leading actress in a musical award.

Somewhat surprising was the absence from the best musical category of “9 to 5: The Musical,” that giant dollop of movie-inspired comfort food specially prepared by Dolly Parton, one of the film’s stars, and Patricia Resnick, the woman behind the original screenplay. When the show premiered at the Ahmanson Theatre in September, it struck me as an attraction for audiences that “just want to have nostalgic fun,” no matter that the production has “only occasional success in switching on the old fluorescent-lit office magic.”

Nothing gets in the way of a musical megalith and its Broadway dreams -- certainly not out-of-town mixed reviews. But it shouldn’t be too hard to wrap your mind around the illogic of the gamble when you consider the two shows that wound up squeezing “9 to 5: The Musical” out of the category: “Shrek the Musical,” marking DreamWorks’ less-than-heralded plunge into what traditionally have been Disney waters, and “Rock of Ages,” the jerky ‘80s jukebox joy ride that had its world premiere three years ago at the King King in Hollywood and seemed destined back then for Vegas (where it briefly played) rather than the Great White Way.

Ah, distinctions, distinctions. The Tony nominating committee members have had no choice but to become connoisseurs of Happy Meals, differentiating among burgers and fries as they wipe the grease from their upper lips. But don’t cry for Parton, whose score was nominated (and is fated to lose to John’s). Blockbusters with a theme-parkish hook have a way of financially prevailing, come critical rain or even Tony cloud cover.

The good news concerning the best play category is that three of the four nominated works are by Americans, with nary an Englishman or Irishman in sight, if you can believe it. The bad news is that Horton Foote’s “Dividing the Estate,” Neil LaBute’s “Reasons to Be Pretty” and Moises Kaufman’s “33 Variations” don’t stand a chance against French playwright Yasmina Reza’s “God of Carnage,” whose entire cast (Marcia Gay Harden, Hope Davis, Jeff Daniels and James Gandolfini) was lavished with lead actor nominations and whose ensemble brilliance went a long way toward making Reza’s schematic manipulations not just theatrically robust but almost human.

What would we do without the deft reliability of our actors? If not enough of us are sounding the Cassandra alarms this Broadway season, it has everything to do with their astounding quality.

Oscar winners, such as Jane Fonda (“33 Variations”) and Geoffrey Rush (“Exit the King”), were rewarded as expected with nominations in the leading actor and actress categories. Other notable nods include ones for Stockard Channing (“Pal Joey”) and Allison Janney (“9 to 5: The Musical”) for leading actress in a musical, Raul Esparza (and not his mercury-impaired “Speed-the-Plow” costar Jeremy Piven) for leading actor in a play, and Angela Lansbury (“Blithe Spirit”) and Hallie Foote (“Dividing the Estate”) for featured actress in a play.

The most competitive contest this year was best revival of a play, with “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” “Mary Stuart,” “The Norman Conquests” and “Waiting for Godot” beating out “The Seagull,” “Exit the King,” “All My Sons” and “Desire Under the Elms.” Classics brought to life by brilliant pros are a bankable phenomenon. Even Friedrich Schiller’s 1800 historical drama “Mary Stuart” can become an unmusty must-see when performed by actors of the caliber of Harriet Walter and Janet McTeer, who fittingly enough (given their roles) are up against each other in the leading actress category.

Meanwhile, British directors can duke it out over the hardware: “Billy Elliot’s” Stephen Daldry appears to have a lock on the best direction of a musical award, but only Bartlett Sher (“Joe Turner’s Come and Gone”), the lone American director, has a fighting chance against Phyllida Lloyd (“Mary Stuart”) and Matthew Warchus (nominated for both “God of Carnage” and “The Norman Conquests”).

With a tip of the hat to Reza, let’s just say plus ca change. . . . The Brits will understand perfectly well what we’re talking about.

charles.mcnulty@latimes.com

More stars than nominations

Broadway stages were packed this season with crossovers from film and TV. Some actors walked away with Tony nominations on Tuesday. Others weren’t so lucky.

James Gandolfini

“God of Carnage”

Leading actor in a play

You know him as: Tony Soprano in HBO’s “The Sopranos”

Jane Fonda

“33 Variations”

Leading actress in a play

You know her as: Jane Fonda.

Allison Janney

“9 to 5: The Musical”

Leading actress in a musical

You know her as: C.J. Cregg in “The West Wing”