Patrick Stewart (Best Performance By a Leading Actor in a Play, Macbeth—his first nomination): "It feels so good! This is a primo nomination for a stage actor, and for a British stage actor to be nominated on Broadway is about as good as it can get. So it's a wonderful morning. This is quite something for a show that started out in a 200-seat studio theatre on the South Coast of England. I was told that, if I were nominated, I would be the first actor in the history of the Tony Awards to be nominated for this role. That's amazing. I don't think any production of Macbeth has been nominated before."
Listen to David Hyde Pierce and Sara Ramirez announce the nominations for the 2008 Tony Awards on May 13, 2008. |
photo by Joan Marcus |
Kate Fleetwood (Best Performance By a Leading Actress in a Play, Macbeth): "It's very wonderful. I'm really proud of the show, and to have a Tony nomination on top of having a fantastic production and fantastic company is the cherry on the cake. I have to say it was really unexpected. And this nomination is not just for me, it's for my little boy as well. He has to put up with his mum being out every night. It's for him, too."
photo by Joan Marcus |
Daniel Evans (Best Performance By a Leading Actor in a Musical, Sunday in the Park With George): "I watched on television. I couldn't not watch. How many times in your life are you eligible for a Tony nomination? I was up very early. I couldn't sleep. But, you know, the nominations were already on the Tony website, so even before David Hyde Pierce said my name, I knew. That got rid of the suspense. Alan Cumming came to see the show last week. He won his Tony for Cabaret. He was telling me what a circus it is, and how it's really not something that we do back home, the notion of having all the awards within a month of each other. The time is pretty intense. It's pretty charged. We're not so brutal back home. But I really want to enjoy it. That's my motto this month."
Kevin Adams (Best Lighting Design of a Play, The 39 Steps): "I had no idea which show I did was going to be nominated, if anything. And I'm still reeling from last year [when he won for Spring Awakening]. It seems like yesterday. It's a very nice surprise. I did a lot more detailing on the show at the Cort Theatre. The show is more finely detailed now. We found some more cues to add. It just looks better."
Sinead Cusack (Best Performance By a Featured Actress in a Play, Rock 'n' Roll): "To be perfectly honest, I thought that with so many plays on Broadway this season, I thought it was possible I wouldn't be remembered. So I am completely delighted. I think I will come back for the ceremony. It's a great honor. I think it would be discourteous not to come."
photo by Joan Marcus |
David Pittu (Best Performance By a Featured Actor in a Play, Is He Dead?): "I was texted at the gym by my friend Johanna Day. I had to get out of the house. I knew it was going on, and I didn't want to be there. And then, while I was on the treadmill, there was David Hyde Pierce and Sara Ramirez on the TV and I thought, 'Oh, shoot.' But I couldn't hear it. Then when I went back upstairs, there was a text from Johanna. That was a good way to find out. I'm glad to represent the show. The whole thing was a pleasure and a joy."
S. Epatha Merkerson (Best Performance By a Leading Actress in a Play, Come Back, Little Sheba): "I'm in Los Angeles. I'm on my way to the airport to come back to New York. I was awakened this morning. My publicist called. I guess it must have been 6 AM or something. I was knocked out cold, actually. I was surprised and quite excited by it. I started in the theatre, so the Tony nomination is a huge thing."
Jenna Russell (Best Performance By a Leading Actress in a Musical, Sunday in the Park With George): "I had switched on the broadcast, I was making a cup a tea and then Todd Haimes rang me. I was really happy, of course. I kept thinking of my mum in her office in Scotland. She had me on Google alert. She's happy. I am going to go out this afternoon and try to find something to wear that looks halfway decent. I'm a jeans and t-shirt girl. Thank goodness it's not raining, so it will be a pleasurable experience."
Christopher Fitzgerald (Best Performance By a Featured Actor in a Musical, Young Frankenstein): "My agent called me at 8:30. I'm actually in Boston. My wife, Jessica Stone, is doing She Loves Me here. On my day off I came up here—actually, with Andrea Martin, who was giving an award to Nicky Martin at a ceremony. Jessica was asleep, and I was feeding our new son, Charlie, and my agent called. I'm at the airport right now to do a performance tonight. There have been a lot of eventful days. Charlie was born two weeks into rehearsal of Young Frankenstein. It has been very intense. It's actually sweet to get a little nod for how sleep-deprived I've been while doing this show!"
Ben Daniels (Best Performance By a Leading Actor in a Play, Les Liaisons Dangereuses): "I was in bed. I got a text from a friend of mine. She said the results were on-line, and I'd been nominated. So I whipped out my laptop, and there they were. One doesn't do this job to think about awards, but of course it's fantastic to be nominated. I'm thrilled and over the moon. The phone hasn't stopped going. People from England and people from here. How brilliant to be in this great city and be doing a great part, and then someone says to you, 'Have a nomination as well.'"
Amy Morton (Best Performance By a Leading Actress in a Play, August: Osage County): "I attempted to not watch the broadcast, and for the first time since I've been here my body woke me up at 8:15. So I just thought, screw it, I'll watch it. The whole thing is just unbelievably thrilling. So what the hell—I'll be tired for a month. That's okay."
Donald Holder (Best Lighting Design for a Musical, South Pacific, Best Lighting Design of a Play, Les Liaisons Dangereuses): "I got a bunch of phone messages. I'd just gotten off a plane from California. That's how I heard about it. I'm experienced enough in this not to expect anything."
Danny Burstein (Best Performance By a Featured Actor in a Musical, South Pacific): "We have a little place in Pennsylvania. It's only about an hour-and-a-half away. I knew I wouldn't be able to see my category on television, but I did turn on CBS to see the beginning of the nominations and heard the major ones. Then we turned off the TV, had a cup of coffee and waited around to see if the phone rang. My buddy Patrick Wetzel, who was in The Drowsy Chaperone, called me and literally it sounded something like this: 'Aaaeeaaaeeyyahhh!' I couldn't even understand what he was saying. But I got the picture."
Paulo Szot (Best Performance By a Leading Actor in a Musical, South Pacific) "A friend called to give me the news, and I was very surprised and very, very happy for that. I lost my time a little bit. I was so exhausted. I didn't really wake up to listen to the nominations, though I had it all the time in my mind. I tried to relax, because if I don't I wouldn't sleep at all. I'm very glad. We worked so hard all this time, and it's good to know that people are recognizing that. I'm sure tonight's show is going to be a special one."
photo by Michal Daniel |
Daniel Breaker (Best Performance By a Featured Actor in a Musical, Passing Strange): "The phone is ringing off the hook. Lots of repeat phone calls. My mom has called me over and over again. She's called five times so far. My brother and sisters sent my mom and my dad out to Vegas for Mother's Day. They're at the Mirage right now. At 5:30 in the morning their time they called me. My family's from all over the place. They're coming up. They're very excited. The whole gang is coming. They've been thinking about this for some time. They just confirmed the hotel room they reserved."