Longtime ‘Always Sunny’ Team Member Is Now a Tony Nominee, Jabronis

It can be difficult to recommend It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia to new/prospective fans. I’ve certainly tried, especially when the show was first starting, and it’s hard to explain what happens in the show, making it clear that the leads are some of the worst people alive, but that it’s also self-aware and making fun of people who are like the leads. You aren’t supposed to identify with them (even though plenty of people do). Still, even if I get over that hurdle, I’ve had people tell me, “They were just yelling at each other the whole time.”

Even with all of that, one of the most absurd characters on the show, whom I try not even to mention because it would just open up a sizeable can of worms which only the show can do justice: Matthew Mora, affectionately(?) known as Rickety Cricket. Mora is a character who became a priest after being mercilessly tortured by the Gang during high school. Then, Sweet Dee (the funniest in the gang), tricks him into leaving the priesthood, sending him down a road of drug addiction, vagrancy, and a wound on his neck that a dog tries to mate with.

Cricket has been maimed, burned, beaten, and assaulted to a degree that somehow gets funnier and funnier each time you see his mangled face. It’s even funnier when you realize that the actor who plays him, David Hornsby, has been a longtime writer on the show. He’s good friends with the creators and seemingly signs off on all the horrible things his character goes through. Now, in addition to a drug-addicted priest/occasional prostitute being on his resume, Hornsby can add a Tony nomination.

Yesterday’s Tony Award nominations saw a musical based on the 1987 film The Lost Boys earn 12 nominations! Among them, Hornsby nabbed one for Best Book of a Musical, an honor he shares with writer Chris Hoch. I love The Lost Boys and was genuinely unsure how this musical was going to turn out (it has an amazing creative team, but I’ve had a hard time getting over the tonal change in the music, which is all on me), but everyone I know who has seen it has loved it, whether they’ve seen the movie or not.

The biggest thing standing in its way, from my vantage point, is the equally popular Schmigadoon!, based on the popular streaming show. Schmigadoon! also earned 12 nominations (including best book), but does something that The Lost Boys does not: pokes fun at Broadway while wearing its history lovingly on its sleeves. If Tony voters are anything like Oscar voters, they’re going to go for the show that elevates their own sense of importance. Schmigadoon! is certainly a satire, but it’s also a loving homage to a bygone era, and that may keep Cricket in the streets of Philadelphia.