Predictions: Who Will Win a Tony Award for Direction in 2018?

Now that we've given you our predictions for both male and female actors, here is who we think will win in the gender-neutral category of direction. Keep checking back for our predictions concerning the night's big awards.

Best Direction of a Musical

THE NOMINEES:
Michael Arden, Once on This Island
David Cromer, The Band's Visit
Tina Landau, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical
Casey Nicholaw, Mean Girls
Bartlett Sher, My Fair Lady

David Gordon:

Will Win: David Cromer, The Band's Visit
Should Win: Tina Landau, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical
The fingerprints of David Cromer and Tina Landau are all over their respective musicals, The Band's Visit and SpongeBob SquarePants. Cromer will continue the Band's Visit's winning streak, even though Landau's work on SpongeBob is a genius example of theatricality at its best.

Hayley Levitt:

Will win: David Cromer, The Band's Visit
Should win: Tina Landau, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical
The Band's Visit is the front-runner for best musical and that throws a lot of weight behind David Cromer. But Tina Landau is the mad genius who made a SpongeBob musical without a single trite sentiment or foam costume. PS: We need more female directors, so give this lady a microphone and a national audience.

Zachary Stewart:

Will Win: David Cromer, The Band's Visit
Should Win: David Cromer, The Band's Visit
Cromer's ability to transpose the subtle tone of an independent film to a Broadway musical feels like a breakthrough achievement.

Best Direction of a Play

THE NOMINEES:
Marianne Elliott, Angels in America
Joe Mantello, Edward Albee's Three Tall Women
Patrick Marber, Travesties
John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
George C. Wolfe, Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh

David Gordon:

Will win: John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Should win: John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
In a perfect world, there would be a tie. John Tiffany's production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Marianne Elliott's production of Angels in America are mind-blowing. But Elliott's beautiful work will earn Angels the Best Revival category, while Tiffany makes the Best Director statue "apparate" into his hands.

Zachary Stewart:

Will Win: John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Should Win: John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Tiffany will win by a hair for taking this big-budget theatrical property and making it fly. He employs cutting-edge stagecraft while never shirking the basics: Some of the most intimate two-person scenes of the season take place in the cavernous confines of the Lyric Theatre. That level of versatility absolutely deserves a Tony.

Hayley Levitt:

Will win: John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Should win: John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
John Tiffany is the person who's going to break Marianne Elliott's perfect Tony record (she won for both of her prior Broadway productions, War Horse and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time). Any other year, Elliott's incredible production of Angels in America would be a trump card. But Tiffany saw her two-part epic and raised her a world where magic is theatrical and theater is magical.