That was what ended up happening last week with my predictions for Sunday’s 66^th Annual Tony Awards, honoring the best of (a so-so) Broadway season. Though many of my predictions came true – including the wins in the Best Play (Clybourne Park), Musical (Once), Revival of a Play (Death of a Salesman), Actress in a Musical (Audra McDonald got a fifth Tony for The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess), and all four featured acting winners.

But in several other categories – including the other three leading acting categories – I got it wrong, a rare poor entry given my track record for award horse race calculations. Instead of Philip Seymour Hoffman winning for Salesman, James Corden won for One Man, Two Guvnors; Tracie Bennett didn’t win for End of the Rainbow; new star Nina Arianda did for Venus in Fur; and instead of Jeremy Jordan triumphing for Newsies, Steve Kazee won a Tony for Once.

And you know what? These surprises were the highlights of my night. Both Kazee and Corden gave teary, heartfelt speeches, the former in honor of his late mother, and the latter in tribute to his girlfriend, with the rare combination of humility and poise, surprise and articulation that usually only those in public speaking and performance lines of work can do. Arianda squealed that the man who read her name – recent Oscar-winner and legend Christopher Plummer – was her first crush. McDonald, too, emotionally declared that for her the theater was the only place where, as a young, awkward child, she felt she belonged. And winners Judy Kaye and Judith Light both dedicated their moments of the evening to very recently deceased fathers.

And thank heaven for these talented winners and their dignified speeches. They were the only real moments in an overlong ceremony that seemed to do little to further the Broadway League’s mission of drumming up interest in New York theater throughout the rest of the country. (Sunday’s telecast, hosted for a third time by Neil Patrick Harris, was the lowest rated Tonys telecast. Ever.)

Almost all of the current musicals and musical revivals on the Great White Way got a slot to perform a number on the CBS show, as well as Best Musical nominee Leap of Faith, which had already shuttered. And as opposed to last year, where musicals performed catchy numbers that made sense even out of context, virtually none did this year. Criminally, instead of putting together a montage of numbers like Porgy did, Follies only featured Danny Burstein singing “Buddy’s Blues,” a number that comes at a point in the show that befuddles even some sitting through the whole damn thing. How is that possibly going to entice non-Sondheim fans?

A cryptically assembled look at scenes of the nominated plays hired actors to appear in shadow, kinda sorta re-enacting moments from the nominated shows. It didn’t work, now did it really give a good idea of what these clever shows were about. And did anyone else notice the couple dry-humping during the Venus in Fur description?

Overall, this year’s telecast was a disengaging affair. I’m happy for this year’s hard-working winners, but I’m already indoctrinated into the world of theater. This telecast shows that the sphere may only be getting increasingly smaller, preaching to the choir. Given the amount of talent within that choir, its audience should be ever-expanding.

That certainly applies to Raul Esparza, whose Leap of Faith received a Best Musical nomination despite a tepid critical reception. Conventional wisdom had it that Esparza would win his first Tony for the vehicle, an overdue honor since his Company perf got passed over for David Hyde Pierce in Curtains a half-decade ago. Well, Esparza’s out and Follies boys Danny Burstein and Ron Raines are in, along with Newsies’ Jeremy Jordan, Once’s Steve Kazee, and Norm Lewis for The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. Will this be Jordan’s Thoroughly Modern Millie moment? Or will veteran Burstein emerge with his own long-overdue first win on Tony night?

The Best Actor in a Drama field seems like a fait accompli – Philip Seymour Hoffman will win for Mike Nichols’ current Death of a Salesman revival, though I found his performance over-studied and less alive that of fellow nominee James Corden of One Man, Two Guvnors, a play many thought would make the Best Play field. (It didn’t, falling to a quartet of plays that transferred from Off-Broadway perches either last season or the one before). Also, James Earl Jones was solid in Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, but Best Actor-worthy? Over a terrific John Larroquette in a true leading role? That’s absurd.

The Best Actress categories have been far more interesting to clock over the season, and while the five chosen for Lead Actress in a Drama are a solid bunch, the list leaves out Angela Bassett for The Mountaintop, Tyne Daly in Master Class, and, saddest of all, the wonderful Jennifer Lim in Chinglish. Venus in Fur’s Nina Arianda will give Bennett a run for her money, though I think the latter has it, to some controversy, since the most impressive aspects of her performance as Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow are the musical, not the dramatic ones.

The announcement of a special Tony Award going to Bernadette Peters for her charitable works fueled speculation that she might not get a Lead Actress in a Musical nomination for Follies, and, sure enough, she did not. Instead the field includes one four-time winner – Porgy’s Audra McDonald – and four women who’ve never won, including Jan Maxwell, Peters’ Follies co-star. Dare I say that I’m pulling for a dual Burstein-Maxwell victory? I was also pleased to see Laura Osnes make the cut for Bonnie and Clyde. The show had plenty of problems , particularly a misguided book, but performances were not one of them. (I even prefer Jordan as Clyde to his Newsies turn this year).

Which is why I am saddened that Melissa van der Schyff was left off the Featured Actress in a Musical list for Clyde, especially to make way for Once’s Elizabeth A. Davis. I am, however, happy to see On a Clear Day You Can See Forever’s Jessie Mueller, and hope she makes it to the podium. Josh Young, great but sometimes absent from Jesus Christ Superstar, also scored an early career coup with his nod, but I think Philip Boykin for Porgy has the award. (Lo siento, Ricky Martin – Tony nominators only threw Evita love to more polished co-star Michael Cerveris.)

The featured acting in a play categories are also exciting; nominators certainly threw bones to certain plays that might have gone unrecognized otherwise, like Don’t Dress for Dinner (Spencer Kayden) and Stick Fly (Condola Rashad). Andrew Garfield in Salesman never won me over, but his un-nominated co-star Finn Wittrock did. I also would have liked to see The Lyons’ Michael Esper score a nod, or Thomas Sadoski, who departed Other Desert Cities fairly early in its Broadway run but was terrific. Ditto for his co-star, Judith Light, taking over for Linda Lavin after Desert’s Lincoln Center run. Follow this trail of Broadway casting bread crumbs: Lavin declined reprising the Desert role that went to Light to play Hattie in Follies at the Kennedy Center, a role that Jayne Houdyshell then took on for Broadway so Lavin could take on the lead role in The Lyons. All three ended up with Tony nods. Well played.

Here’s a full list of this year’s Tony nominees below. I’ll have my official predictions in a few weeks.

http://www.tonyawards.com/en_US/nominees/index.html