Tonys: Mia Farrow would receive her first ever peer-group nomination for ‘The Roommate’
Throughout her esteemed career, Mia Farrow has earned seven Golden Globe nominations (including a win for 1964's Guns at Batasi) as well as three BAFTA bids. Yet notably she has never been recognized at the Emmys, Oscars, or Tonys. This year, she might finally add a major peer group bid to her résumé: a Tony nomination in Best Actress in a Play for The Roommate.
In 1964, Farrow burst onto the scene in a major way. She not only had her aforementioned Golden Globe win for Guns at Batasi, but also her role as Allison MacKenzie on the first two seasons of Peyton Place. The former didn't result in an Oscar nom and, despite getting in at the Globes for the latter, it didn't translate to an Emmy nod. In 1968, she starred as the title character in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby. Her performance resulted in Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations. The film earned two Oscar bids — Best Supporting Actress for Ruth Gordon (who won) and Best Adapted Screenplay for Roman Polanski — but Farrow was not included in the Best Actress lineup.
She went on to appear in 13 Woody Allen films, gaining recognition from the Globes and BAFTA for Broadway Danny Rose, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah and Her Sisters, and Alice. Despite each of them getting at least one Oscar nod (with Hannah and Her Sisters up for Best Picture and winning two acting prizes for Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest), Farrow's performances were still left unnoticed. Her most recent Golden Globe nom was in 1999 for the CBS TV movie Forget Me Never.
Last fall, Farrow returned to the Broadway stage, starring alongside three-time Tony winner Patti LuPone in Jen Silverman's two-hander comedy, The Roommate. In it, she played Sharon, a recently divorced Iowa housewife in need of a housemate to pay her bills. As a result, Robyn (LuPone), a leather-jacketed lesbian from the Bronx, comes in and becomes her very first roommate. While critics were mixed on the play itself, they at least found Marrow's performance to be nomination worthy.
Greg Evans (Deadline) called her "delightful" while adding that she "is so thoroughly invested in her characterization that she almost manages to pull off an ending that’s so slap-in-the-face unbelievable." Frank Scheck (New York Stage Review) thought she expertly channeled "Betty White’s Rose Nylund from The Golden Girls with Sharon’s amusing befuddlement and sweet eagerness to please, and is even funnier when the character comes to gleefully embrace her darker side." Patrick Ryan (USA Today) raved she was "enchanting from start to finish."
According to Gold Derby's Tony odds, Farrow is expected to become a first time Tony nominee this year. She's currently in third place for Best Actress in a Play behind Sarah Snook (The Picture of Dorian Gray) in first and Laura Donnelly (The Hills of California) in second, but ahead of Sadie Sink (John Proctor is the Villain) in fourth and LaTanya Richardson Jackson (Purpose) in fifth.
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