How Nicole Scherzinger, Audra McDonald, Darren Criss and Jonathan Groff are battling for Tony Awards

The weather was rainy in New York last week. And on Broadway, when it rained, it poured.

There was a torrent of activity in the race to the Tonys on June 8 — a lot of campaigning, some award shake-ups and the Broadway League’s Spring Road Conference.

That’s when hundreds of out-of-town presenters, known as “the road,” descend on Manhattan to party, I mean, work!

The annual convention’s main purpose is to encourage regional markets to book tours of new musicals. 

One lyin’ presenter told me, “We want ALL these shows to come to us!” Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But the conference’s dirtier use is to sway the 100-or-so road voters to pick them at the Tonys next month. There are only about 800 voters in total, so Florida, Ohio and Illinois make a dent.