NY Daily News

Karen Olivo, as Anita, gives the show's most thrilling performance. With her hair, skirt and legs flying and her voice soaring, she all but achieves liftoff during the dazzling "America."

NY Post
In a league of her own is Karen Olivo, who all but steals the show as Anita. She's not a perfect dancer, but she attacks her role with a convincing mix of vitality and enraged pride; her final scene, when she's assaulted by the Jets, is simply gut-wrenching.

NY Times
Ms. Olivo’s worldly Anita, the girlfriend of Bernardo (George Akram), Maria’s brother, is a stunner, full of citrusy zest and acerbity. The role of Anita (created on stage by Chita Rivera and on film by Rita Moreno) has always been the show’s most fully drawn, and the right actress can steal the show whenever she steps onstage. Ms. Olivo obliges, but without overdoing the Latin spitfire clichés. And leading her fellow Shark girls in the rousing “America,” that great sardonic hymn to living in the United States, she takes the production to a level of pure physical exhilaration it never quite achieves otherwise.

Yeah, the night the reviews came out I thought the same thing. She's definitely the frontrunner now and with few other possibilities one the horizon she's got to feel optimistic.

Timing also helps her here, this role coming straight off of her breakout in "In the Heights" last season.

I don't know about Karen Olivo being the front runner. No one has ever won a Tony for playing Anita (although Rita Moreno won the Oscar, but West Side Story swept the Oscars which it has never done at the Tonys). Plus Haydn Gwynne received very good reviews when Billy Elliot opened also.

I think the nominees will be:
Kathy Fitzgerald, 9 to 5
Haydn Gwynne, Billy Elliot
Karen Olivo, West Side Story
Martha Plimpton, Pal Joey

I'm not sure about the last spot. I doubt it will happen but, if one of the 3 main ladies from 9 to 5 goes Featured then they will take a spot.

Haydn Gwynne. Of course. I haven't seen Billy Elliot yet but she's supposed to be fantastic. It might be a close one between her and Olivo. We'll have to see what the precursors do.

Martha Plimpton was also great but Pal Joey was such a disaster...she'll probably be nominated but I can't see her winning, despite the fact that it would be her third consecutive nomination.

The stars haven't lined up for an actress yet to claim a Tony for one of the juiciest supporting female roles in the musical theater canon...as proven by Moreno's Oscar...so I think the fact that nobody's won a Tony for it is not really relevant in this case. Broadway was soo not ready for WSS when it opened in 1957 (it lost to The Music Man) and there really hasn't been a very notable revival since. Among the three nominations the underwhelming 1980 revival got was for Debbie Allen as Anita.

I agree that it seems to be coming down to Olivo, Gwynne and possibly Hilty if she goes featured. Gwynne was FANTASTIC! But I think the depth of the role of Anita and the sheer FUN of the character of Doralee will be stiff competition for her.

Although the role of 'Anita' has never won a Tony, think about last year's Featured Actress. Laura Benanti in a role that had been nominated previously, but never won, Louise in "Gypsy."

The fact that they were both directed by Arthur Laurentis may be foreshadowing? Who knows?

These are reviews from the same sources of Gwynne

NY Daily News
As his brassy ballet teacher in shocking pink (and purple) tights, Haydn Gwynne, who originated the role in London in 2005, is a sublime mix of bark, bite and big-heartedness.

NY Post

Britain's Haydn Gwynne is terrific as the tart-tongued, chain-smoking dance teacher who tutors Billy on the sly

NY Times

the sublime Haydn Gwynne...

But the two most essential portrayals — that of Ms. Gwynne and Mr. Alvarez — were spot-on the night I saw the show. Hard-shelled and all too wary of the limits of her life, Ms. Gwynne’s Mrs. Wilkinson perfectly embodies the tricky balance of sweet and salty the show requires.

quote:

Martha Plimpton was also great but Pal Joey was such a disaster...she'll probably be nominated but I can't see her winning, despite the fact that it would be her third consecutive nomination.

Pal Joey was a mess...but Plimpton was my favorite part of this show she was so much fun in it and her voice was fantastic I hope she scores a nomination for bringing this show some life support.

Reviews for Plimpton from same sources

NY Post
As the tough-talking, second-rate nightclub performer Gladys Bumps, Plimpton - not exactly known for musical comedy - is terrific, the standout attraction of the flawed revival that opened last night.

NY Daily News
The delightful surprise is Martha Plimpton as the street-smart showgirl Gladys. The actress debuts a robust and smoky singing voice and makes the novelty number "Zip" (usually sung by another character) enormously entertaining.

NY Times
In the newly expanded role of Gladys Bumps, an aging entertainer who clashes with Joey, the ever-daring Ms. Plimpton exudes a been-there, frowzy sensuality that summons a host of hard-bitten dames from 1930s movie melodramas. Leading the nightclub act “That Terrific Rainbow,” she has the period style down pat and a more than passable voice.

She has also been given the fabled “Zip,” a satirical number about interviewing Gypsy Rose Lee, originally sung by a newspaper reporter (a character eliminated from this version). Ms. Plimpton has the chops to make “Zip” a showstopper, but she is undercut by staging that turns the song into a contemptuous burlesque turn, stripping the actress down her to scanties.

Reviews for both from Entertainment Weekly:

Martha Plimpton:

Martha Plimpton, as an aging showgirl punished for knowing too much about Joey's shady past, is a surprisingly strong singer who comfortably sells her second-act charmer, ''Zip.''

Karen Olivo:

The EW heaps more praise on Josefina Scaglione as Maria, but calls Olivo "sensational" and "You'll understand pretty much everything — especially if it's coming from the gorgeous, expressive Scaglione or Olivo. In fact, whenever Scaglione or Olivo are on stage the show kicks into gear."