Tony Rulings: ‘1984’ Can Vie for Best Play; Andrew Garfield and Nathan Lane Avoid Showdown

NEW YORK — The Tony Awards had some doubleplusgood news for the producer Scott Rudin on Thursday.

Five months after having declared the 2017 summer production of “1984” ineligible for awards consideration because Rudin had denied a member of the Tony nominating committee access to the show, awards administrators said it was back in contention.

They offered no explanation for the change.

The play initially was barred from consideration after Rudin, one of the lead producers, had declined to allow nominator Jose Antonio Vargas, an immigration rights activist and writer, to see the show, apparently because of concern about Vargas’ prior writings.

But Vargas has since recused himself from this year’s voting because he missed another show, which appears to explain the decision to allow “1984” back in the race. The play is Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan’s adaptation of the George Orwell novel.

The action on “1984” was the most dramatic move taken by the Tony Awards administration committee at its regularly scheduled meeting, but other rulings are also likely to have an impact on several key contests.

The committee averted a likely showdown between actors giving blistering performances in the revival of Tony Kushner’s two-part “Angels in America,” deciding that Nathan Lane, as the lawyer Roy Cohn, would be eligible in the featured actor category. Andrew Garfield, as Prior Walter, a gay man with AIDS who is left by his lover, remains in the running for a lead actor nod.

That is a change from 1993, when “Millennium Approaches,” the first part of “Angels,” took the best play Tony. Ron Leibman won for leading actor, as Roy Cohn, and Stephen Spinella won for featured actor as Prior Walter. (This year’s Tony committee ruled that the revival, which originally was considered two plays, would count as one.)

In a season of star-driven revivals, how to treat other ensemble casts was on the docket, too. In “Three Tall Women,” only Glenda Jackson will contend for leading actress; Laurie Metcalf and Alison Pill will be considered eligible in the featured actress category.

But in “Lobby Hero,” all four actors, including the film and television stars Chris Evans and Michael Cera, will be judged featured performers.

To be eligible for Tony Awards this season, shows must open by April 26. The slate of nominees will be announced May 1, with prizes presented June 10 at Radio City Music Hall in New York.