Broadway stars react to Tony nominations
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This season’s crop of Tony nominees features a healthy number of screen stars and writers, many of whom were making their Broadway debuts. Here are reactions to Tuesday’s announcement. We’ll add more comments from nominees throughout the day.
Denzel Washington (“Fences”): ‘Being on Broadway, and in the theater community as a whole, is like coming home again for me, and sharing a Tony nomination for ‘Fences’ with so many wonderfully talented people associated with this play makes it seem like one big family reunion.’
Catherine Zeta-Jones (‘A Little Night Music’): ‘What a thrill to be nominated! The experience of doing this incredible show and working every night with such a talented group of people has truly been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. And now to be nominated for a Tony, in my dreams, I couldn’t imagine a better way to make my Broadway debut.’
Jude Law (‘Hamlet’): ‘What a great honour. Bringing our production of ‘Hamlet’ to New York will always be one of the highlights of my career and to receive this recognition amongst these other brilliant actors only makes this experience sweeter.’
Christopher Walken (‘A Behanding in Spokane’): ‘Thank you very much. I look forward to seeing my friends.’
Viola Davis (‘Fences’): ‘I am so happy to be back ‘home’ again on stage, in this play, with these actors, and to be recognized is icing on the cake! I am very, very grateful!’
Sean Hayes (‘Promises, Promises’): ‘I got an e-mail from my publicist this morning and she told me to pick up the phone, and I practically fell out my chair. The nomination is really for me and Kristin Chenoweth -- I couldn’t do [the show] without her, so this really is a joint nomination...[Theater] requires a different endurance level [from doing television] that you have to learn. It can be difficult but that’s why I chose to do it.’
John Logan (playwright, ‘Red’): ‘I grew up in New Jersey, and I used to take the train in to New York to see shows. So to have a show on Broadway is beyond thrilling. ... In London [where the play ran before transferring to New York], we had a smaller house so we’ve had to really open up the play for our new audiences.’
Katie Finneran (‘Promises, Promises’): ‘I did a benefit last night.. honoring Sam Waterston, so I didn’t wake up until 11 a.m... I’m not an early morning person! But to be nominated alongside Barbara Cook and Angela Lansbury -- both of those women were so influential to me. I’ve listened to Barbara’s albums... and I met Angela, who came backstage for our show. Now I get to go to luncheons with them.’
Geoffrey Nauffts (playwright, ‘Next Fall’): ‘I’m extremely thrilled and humbled. ... That the play did well off-Broadway was really amazing, and I was really pleased about that. When our producers stepped forward to move it to Broadway, I knew it would be a challenge, but it’s been great so far. The questions the play asks are big and universal, but it’s told in an intimate context.’
Eddie Redmayne (‘Red’): ‘For a British actor, the notion of a Tony Award is as this unattainable thing from where you started out. The idea of bringing this New York play to a New York audience has been extraordinary.’
-- David Ng
