Tony Awards 2022: Ricardo Hornos, the Argentine producer competing tonight

Once again in competition for several Tony Awards, the Argentine producer Riccardo Corno, will be present at the delivery that will take place this Sunday 12 June at the legendary Radio City Music Hall in New York. After two years without ceremony, due to the pandemic, this 75th edition can be seen live Film and arts from 21 (Argentina time).

Hornos, who already has three Tony Awards, has won over two decades of Broadway playwill compete this year with two works, in co-production with another Argentine, Valentina Berger: Agency (in Best Music Revival) e The minutes (in the Best Opera category).

Shortly before the awards ceremony, Hornos spoke with Clarione on their productions nominated for this Sunday. “Agency It’s a 1970 musical, written by the legendary Stephen Sondheim, which has the advantage of being the sentimental favorite, “says the producer.

In this new version appearing on Broadway, the original protagonist who was a man, Bobby, is now a woman, Bobbie. “It was director Marianne Elliott who convinced Sondheim to change the character’s gender so that the central theme, which is her 35th birthday celebration, had more force,” says Hornos.

In Agency, through a series of cartoons, the character retraces his love life and re-examines various moments with a very particular dynamic. “With a female lead, the question of the biological clock, among other issues, becomes more dramatic,” she explains.

The musical would be released in March 2020, coinciding with the composer’s 90th birthday, but the pandemic has arrived and the debut has been postponed. Finally there was a preview that Sondheim was able to attend last year, but the first was posthumous, as the author died in November 2021.

The great rival of Agency winning the Tony this year in its category, according to Hornos, is Caroline, or Charge. “It is a politically correct work because it deals with racial and social divisions in the 1960s, in Louisiana, but perhaps the sentimental question weighs more at the moment of the decision and is inclined towards the homage to Sondheim, one of the great composers of Broadway musicals.

On the other hand, The minutes who competes to win the Tony for the best play has, among his contenders, a very strong one: The Lehman trilogy, Directed by Sam Mendes. “That job is excellent and looks like a favorite. Ours has fewer chances, but we are confident that he can win because he is the only American of all the candidates, who are British,” admits Hornos.

The minutes, as Hornos explains, in this case translates as “minutes” and refers to those notes that are taken during a meeting of a Deliberative Council. “The show takes place in a fictional city that represents a suburb or a city like Vicente López,” he says.

It is a black comedy, written by Tracy Letts who also stars in it, although the cast is very choral. “For about 15 years, Republicans have been gaining space in these municipalities and a lot of regulations have changed since then and there are many references to this issue in the text,” Hornos says.

The show was allegedly released during the government of Republican Donald Trump, but was postponed due to the Covid pandemic. Although there is now another administration, that of Democrat Joe Biden, the job remains current. “And it continues to have an impact, even for the figure of Letts,” emphasizes the producer.

The multifaceted Letts is the author, among others, of the work August (for which he won a Pulitzer Prize) and as an actor, he had starring roles in the series Homelandin the movie against the impossible (Ford versus ferrari), where he played Henry Ford, and in a theatrical adaptation of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?among other roles.

“Fortunately, this year, the two works we have named are on the bill so, if they win, it would be a big push to keep adding audiences,” he admits.

With work in Argentina

Hornos knows the world of Broadway theater very well, having been based in New York since the 90s and has been dedicated to theater since 2009. However, the producer does not stop working in Buenos Aires as well.

“With theater, I go back and forth between three cities: New York, London and Buenos Aires, and I love working in Buenos Aires because it allows me to explore things I couldn’t do on Broadway or in London’s West End,” he says. “With the Buenos Aires theater you can experiment, fly,” he says.

Currently on the Buenos Aires billboard it is mothers, a comedy that was all the rage off-Broadway and arrived in Buenos Aires produced by Valentina Berger and Carlos Mentasti, and is presented at La Plaza. “I feel part of the job because I rewrote the adaptation,” says Hornos.

This year he also added a new facet and made his directorial debut with intuition, with Nico Francella and Puma Goity, arriving on the HBO Max platform this month. She describes that first foray into cinema as “a wonderful experience”.

Pending the delivery of the Tonys, Hornos has several projects underway, for film, theater and television, to be done on Broadway and also in Buenos Aires, including a musical film that he is currently writing.

And he anticipates that one of his projects, city ​​of Hadeswhich took thirteen years to reach Broadway, will likely join the Buenos Aires billboard in 2024. “You have to be patient, but everything is moving,” he says.

POS