From Emma Stone to Anne Hathaway: 11 Actresses Who Earned Oscar Nods for Movie-Musicals
La La Land garnered a record-tying 14 Academy Award nominations this year — it’s now neck-and-neck with Titanic and All About Eve for receiving the most Oscar nominations in a given year. Among those nods is a first-ever Best Actress nom for Emma Stone, who’s been racking up rave reviews for her performance in the film.
While we’ve got musicals on the mind, let’s take a look back at some other actresses who’ve received acclaim for their musical turns.
Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables (2012)
Hathaway’s turn as Fantine was the only non-technical award the 2012 adaptation of the smash musical picked up. And with good reason: Hathaway’s rendition of the musical’s iconic “I Dreamed a Dream” was — as with most of the film’s musical sequences — performed live in one take and is still as harrowing a performance as any of the other women nominated that year gave.
Penélope Cruz, Nine (2009)
Nine didn’t fare particularly well with critics, though it did garner four Oscar nominations: One for Cruz’s bravura turn as Carla Albanese – a character based on Anna Giovannini, Federico Fellini’s mistress. She didn’t win, but her performance has aged better than other aspects of the film.
Rita Moreno, West Side Story (1961)
The only EGOT on this list, Moreno, who’s also a winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, earned an Oscar in 1961 for her performance in West Side Story, adding to the movie-musical’s record 10 awards, currently the most for a musical — at least until La La Land makes its run this year.
Julie Andrews, The Sound of Music (1965)
Including Andrews on this list is almost academic, because her performance in The Sound of Music has passed into canon at this point. But avoiding it in a discussion of Oscar-nominated musicals — it was nominated for 10 awards and won five —…