Jessica Lange got one statuette closer to joining the pantheon of uber-talented folks who have picked up the grand slam of entertainment awards, the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony).
At Sunday”s Tony Awards, she won the Lead Actress in a Play honor for Long Day”s Journey Into Night, her first Tony.
Lange returned to the role of Mary Tyrone in this year”s revival of the Eugene O”Neill play after she told her American Horror Story producer Ryan Murphy that she wanted to revisit the character. She”d played the part in London 16 years ago.
The AHS/Glee creator got a shoutout in Lange”s acceptance speech when she thanked “my dear friend Ryan Murphy, who made this possible to do.”
Two of Lange”s three Emmys are for American Horror Story. The other is for 2009 HBO movie Grey Gardens. The first award she logged for her pending EGOT was her Oscar for Tootsie in 1982. She won another Academy Award in 1995 for Blue Sky.
Still needed to get Lange into the EGOT club: a Grammy. We know she can sing, as she did on multiple occasions for American Horror Story and for Grey Gardens. There is also a less musical way she could earn a Grammy: Best Spoken Word Album.
But just you wait: Lange”s win may not be the buzziest bit of EGOT movement in 2016.
Lin-Manuel Miranda began 2016 with two marks on his EGOT checklist: His Tony for In the Heights and an Emmy for writing original lyrics for a song in the 2013 Tony Awards telecast.
Now monster hit Hamilton“s earned him three more Tony statuettes and the Grammy that got him one step closer to EGOT status.
Next up, his chance at an Academy Award – Moana. By the first sweet sound of Miranda”s tunes we got to hear in the Disney musical”s teaser trailer released today, Miranda may have a solid shot at an Oscar in next year“s ceremony.
Frozen songwriter Robert Lopez is currently the youngest of the exclusive club of 12* to call themselves EGOT winners and also the one who worked his way to winning all four the fastest (within 10 years). If Miranda walks home a winner from next year”s Oscars, when he”ll beat Lopez for both distinctions at age 37 having won all four awards in just less than nine years.
*Yup, just 12, when you”re only counting competitive (not honorary) wins
Hamilton made Tonys history as the production with the most nominations ever (a whopping 16). Though it didn”t break the record for most wins – its 11 statuettes are just shy of The Producers” record 12 – history still happened in Manhattan tonight: For the first time, all four musical acting awards went to people of color – Hamilton“s Leslie Odom Jr., Daveed Diggs, and Renée Elise Goldsberry and The Color Purple“s Cynthia Erivo.
Tell the Oscars that Broadway gets the job done.