The new Broadway musical, Lempicka, which dramatizes the storied life of famed Art Deco artist Tamara de Lempicka, has landed three nominations at the 2024 Tony Awards.
The star of the show, Eden Espinosa has been nominated in the category of Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for playing Lempicka, while Amber Iman, who plays the artist’s lover Rafaela, has been nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical. Designers Riccardo Hernández and Peter Nigrini were nominated for the Best Scenic Design of a Musical award.
Eden Espinosa. Photo by Adam Schrader.
Espinosa and Iman shared posts on social media celebrating their nominations.
“I definitely powered down my computer by mistake right as the announcements started and then I had 3 panic attacks tryna get the thing back on and then the WiFi WOULD NOT COOPERATE and my hands were shaking and my chest was tight JESUS LORD,” Iman posted on Instagram. “We did it, Joe. Holy Chicken Nuggs. Also, I was really just so proud of Joshua Boone.”
The show currently graces the stage of the Longacre Theater on Broadway, after its first production opened at the Williamstown Theater Festival in 2018. Directed by Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown), the musical features songs written by Matt Gould and Carson Kreitzer, and inspired by Lempicka.
Eden Espinosa and the cast of Lempicka. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.
Born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1898, Lempicka relocated to Paris in the 1920s, where her highly stylized paintings, notably showcased at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, as well as her gained her renown amid the city’s cultural elite. With her husband, Lempicka fled Europe for the U.S. at the outbreak of World War II. There, her stylized portraiture fell victim to shifting postwar art trends, and she tried her hand at other forms of painting including abstraction. Lempicka’s work was rediscovered in the 1970s, not long before her death in 1980 in Mexico.
The production opens as the Art Deco star is enjoying a moment. San Francisco’s de Young Museum is prepping the artist’s first U.S. retrospective to open in the fall, while Sotheby’s just concluding a selling exhibition of Lempicka portraits.
Espinosa, whose theater credits include roles in Wicked and Rent, was tied to the role of Lempicka for more than a decade. The musical marks her first Tony Award nomination.
“To be a part of this show is thrilling. We are all exhausted beyond comprehension, but we just love the ride,” she told Artnet News in April. “I don’t take it for granted.”
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