Theater professionals are not, as a rule, early risers. But an inordinate number of alarm clocks will be set for Tuesday morning, when the Tony Award nominations will be announced. Great reviews, a hit show, past recognition: None of these guarantees a nomination this year, given the glut of award-worthy work. And so, with the exception of a very few sure things — Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson for “Grey Gardens,” Raúl Esparza for “Company,” Tom Stoppard for “The Coast of Utopia” — an awful lot of men and women will be watching NY1 through their fingers at about 8:43 a.m.

Take Best Actor in a Play, a category that conceivably could be made up entirely of men with multiple Tony Awards already — Frank Langella (“Frost/Nixon”), Christopher Plummer and Brian Dennehy (“Inherit the Wind”), Nathan Lane (“Butley”), and Boyd Gaines (“Journey’s End”). Kevin Spacey (“Moon for the Misbegotten”) has one measly Tony, as do Liev Schreiber (“Talk Radio”) and Brían F. O’Byrne (“The Coast of Utopia”). Add to that the fact that Bill Nighy got some of the year’s best reviews for “The Vertical Hour” and Michael Sheen is sticking with “Frost/Nixon” through the planned film version, and you’ve got at least five disappointed leading men. I feel confident about Messrs. Plummer, Langella, and Schreiber, and I’m pulling for Messrs. Nighy and Gaines to join them.

A smaller logjam exists for the evening’s biggest award, Best Musical, which essentially has three contenders jockeying for one spot. (For some reason, the Tony nominators go five deep in the acting categories but only pick four in all the others.) “Spring Awakening” and “Grey Gardens” appear to be givens, and “Curtains” should get a nod on the wave of the industry’s good will toward John Kander and the late Fred Ebb. It’s also the closest thing to an old-fashioned musical comedy among the contenders. This leaves “Mary Poppins,” “LoveMusik,” and “Legally Blonde.” Is Kurt Weill too somber for the nominators? Is Elle Woods too sugary? If “Legally Blonde” and “LoveMusik” do come up short — and my guess is that they will — it would be the first time since 1999 that all four Best Musical nominees opened in March or earlier, flouting the conventional wisdom that an April/May opening is the way to stay fresh in nominators’ minds.

At first, the Best Play category threatened to be particularly heavy on British imports, even by Broadway’s Anglophilic standards. But then “The Vertical Hour” fizzled with critics, as did (somewhat inexplicably) “Coram Boy.” The Tony nominating committee further winnowed the field by deciding that “The Coast of Utopia” was one giant play, not three large ones. And so “Utopia” and “Frost/Nixon” are the only sure things from across the pond, which leaves the door open for “Radio Golf,” and perhaps, “The Little Dog Laughed.” (Assuming “Radio Golf” is nominated, August Wilson will have gone nine for nine; “Jitney” was the only one of his 10-play cycle to open off-Broadway.) The other contender is an American-British hybrid, “The Year of Magical Thinking.”

Musicals typically rack up more nominations than plays, thanks to extra categories like Best Score, Best Book, and Best Choreography. Even with just one Best Play spot instead of three, however, “Utopia” could potentially change that. Billy Crudup, Jennifer Ehle, Mr. Stoppard, and director Jack O’Brien are all no-brainers, and a slew of technical nods plus maybe one or two more acting spots could result in it tying or even besting “Indiscretions” and the first half of “Angels in America,” each of which received nine Tony nominations. And don’t rule out a Best Score nomination, too: “LoveMusik” is ineligible, and the “Legally Blonde” score hasn’t won too many fans. “Coram Boy” could squeak into the category, too, as could Marc Shaiman’s cheeky efforts on “Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me.”

Best Musical Revival, however, is all squared away: With “A Chorus Line” and “Les Miserables” virtual carbon copies of the original productions, look for one of them (probably “Les Miz”) to come up empty. That leaves “Company,” “The Apple Tree,” and “110 in the Shade.” The Best Play Revival category is much more competitive: After “Inherit the Wind” and the sublime “Journey’s End,” a half-dozen shows are in contention. “Talk Radio” and “A Moon for the Misbegotten” have the advantage of still being open, but don’t rule out “Heartbreak House,” “Translations,” “Prelude to a Kiss,” or even “Butley.”

And finally, Bob Crowley has as many Tony nominations (10) as Wendy Wasserstein, John Guare, and David Mamet put together — and he could easily pick up three more Tuesday. Bob who? The guy who directed “Tarzan”? Well, yes, but he’s also the guy who designed such marvelous sets as “The History Boys” and the “Carousel” revival. His “Mary Poppins” sets and costumes are both likely nominees, and his “Coast of Utopia” sets (designed with Scott Pask) appear to be a lock. Perhaps Mr. Crowley can also sleep in on Tuesday.