By Andrew Gans
13 May 2005

CELIA KEENAN-BOLGER in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Question: Where were you when you heard the news?
Celia Keenan-Bolger: I was at my boyfriend's. I hadn't woken up. I hadn't set an alarm or anything, and then I got a call, actually from the director of The Light in the Piazza, Bart Sher. He was the one who delivered the news. I had no expectations, my phone wasn't even on, but he got through.

Question: Did you get a lot of calls yesterday?
Keenan-Bolger: I did. I feel like when I have my first child, I won't have as many phone calls as I did yesterday. [Laughs.]

Q: Anyone you were especially surprised to hear from?
Keenan-Bolger: People come out of the woodwork, I will tell you. Certainly people I graduated with at University of Michigan, who I haven't really talked to since I graduated, who had my number, childhood friends. It was fantastic!

Q: How is it performing in Spelling Bee every night?
Keenan-Bolger: It's unbelievable. It's the best show to be in — ever. First of all, it changes everyday because we have the audience volunteers, and it's an unbelievable company, so there's a lot of support and good spirit.

Q: I had seen Spelling Bee Off-Broadway and then saw it again Friday night, and I think it works even better on Broadway at Circle in the Square.
Keenan-Bolger: That's great. A lot of people have said that, and it's very comforting because I think when you move, there's always that anxiety of "Have we taken something very important of the piece away?"

Q: How did you get involved with the show originally?
Keenan-Bolger: I knew one of [composer] Bill Finn's students. Bill teaches at NYU, and one of his students won a big award, and her musical got to be produced after she graduated . . . I did her show, and Bill, because he was her mentor, came and saw it, and he said, "You have to come be in the Spelling Bee." I was always in the periphery, and they did a workshop that I wasn't part of, but then it happened again, and I was able to do it. He called me up and said, "Come in, meet all the creative staff," and here I am.

Q: And you also get to sing the best song.
Keenan-Bolger: I do get the best song! [Laughs.] He actually wrote ["The I Love You Song"] for Lisa [Howard] and Derrick [Baskin] and I, so to know that Bill Finn has had your voice in his head is an honor.

Q: How long will you stay with the show?
Keenan-Bolger: Well, we're all contracted for a year, so I will definitely be there for a year, provided that we run for a year. [Laughs.]

Q: Are you able to work on any other workshops or projects?
Keenan-Bolger: It's funny, but I just did a reading of The Three Sisters at Lincoln Center on Tuesday with Michael Stuhlbarg. Jessica Hecht and Judy Kuhn and Mark Harelik [were also in the reading]. The shifting from Spelling Bee to Chekhov is a little rattling, but it was an amazing day.

JAN MAXWELL in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Question: Where were you when you heard the news?
Jan Maxwell: Well, I had just gotten my son off to school. My husband called and said, "You know, I think the Tony nominations are going to be on TV." So I turned on the TV, and then, of course, being from North Dakota, I thought there was a mistake, so I had to go on-line and see it in print before I really believed it. [Laughs.] It's very exciting and very much an honor.

Q: Who did you call first or who called you first?
Maxwell: Really, I sat there stunned, and then as life does, I had to go to the dentist. So it's kind of like a pat on the head and a sock in the stomach. [Laughs.] "Oh, now, I've got to go finish a root canal." It seems almost poetic justice. I'm such a cynic, I'm thinking, "Well, the other shoe has to drop. It can't all be good." [Laughs.]

Q: You and Marc Kudisch are so great in the show. Are you enjoying it?
Maxwell: Oh, thanks. We are. We're having a blast. It's just so much fun to come on and destroy all the cotton candy that's going on.

Q: How long will you be staying with the show?
Maxwell: I think I'm done in March.

KELLI O'HARA in The Light in the Piazza
Question: Where were you when you heard the news?
Kelli O'Hara: I was up in Esopus New York near New Paltz. My boyfriend, Greg Naughton's house, is up there. It was beautiful, and it couldn't have been more a perfect situation.

Q: Did you hear the news on TV?
O'Hara: No, actually, we don't have a television up there. It's a cabin. I woke up, and the phone didn't ring or anything, so I went to the computer, and the minute I was logging on, my agent called.

Q: Did you get a lot of calls?
O'Hara: Oh my God, all day, and the phone's still ringing in my jacket.

Q: Anyone surprising?
O'Hara: I heard from lots of old friends. It was mostly the people that are involved in the show. Wonderful calls.

Q: Are you enjoying working on the show?
O'Hara: I think the enjoyment comes from how challenging it is. It's the most challenging thing I've ever done. Had you asked me a couple of weeks ago, I wouldn't have said I was having much fun yet, but I have started having a lot of fun. Now that we're starting to get a rhythm and understand what it is that we're doing.

Q: And, for Broadway, you got bumped up into a larger role.
O'Hara: I did. I was playing Franca, the sister-in-law, and now I'm playing Clara.

Q: How has it been playing a different character within the same show?
O'Hara: Well, I was playing an Italian with an Italian accent and dark hair, and now I'm playing a blonde-headed young Southern girl, so it's amazingly different and wonderful to do both [roles] — to be stretched that way.

Q: And, you and Victoria Clark really seem to have that mother daughter bond, which translates to the audience.
O'Hara: We've been doing the show together, and that helped. We already knew each other very well. And she was very generous. She let me in, she nurtured me, and I very much felt the part, and it's worked out wonderfully.

Q: How long will you stay with the show?
O'Hara: As long as they'll let me I think. [Laughs.] We're extended through September, and I'll be there through then.

Q: Are you able to do any other workshops while you're doing this?
O'Hara: Yes, I actually am doing a couple of things and looking into a couple different things. I'm hoping to do as much as I can, but this is a very challenging and rigorous show for eight shows a week, singing-wise, so I think I'm going to be mostly dedicated to the show, at least through September.

SARA RAMIREZ in Spamalot
Question: Where were you when you heard the news?
Sara Ramirez: Asleep!

Q: Did someone call to tell you . . .
Ramirez: Yeah, I had about 19 missed calls. Sleep is really important to me right now. Actually, the first message I got was from [my co star] Chris Sieber.

Q: When do you think you knew that Spamalot was going to be a hit?
Ramirez: Well, I don't want to sound presumptuous, but in rehearsals I felt — I don't know if it was a hit — but I definitely knew it was something special, something different.

Q: Did the creators add to your role during rehearsals?
Ramirez: Well, it was supposed to be two different women, two different female roles, and then they combined it all. And, then they cut that female role anyway, everything that she would have done they cut in Chicago. So, it went back to what I was originally cast as.

Q: Are you able to work on any other projects while you're in the show?
Ramirez: No, the show is exhausting, and I'm physically not able to do anything else, in terms of singing and workshops.

Congratulations to all of the 2005 nominees! For a complete list of the 59th Annual Tony Award nominees, visit Click Here.

Well, that's all for now. Happy diva-watching! E-mail questions or comments to agans@playbill.com.

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