A Triumphant Nikki M. James Takes Home the Tony for The Book of Mormon

“I didn’t expect to be standing here tonight!” Nikki M. James cried when her name was called as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for playing sweet-natured villager Nabulungi in The Book of Mormon.

Winning in a category that had no clear frontrunner, James threw her hands in the air when Harry Connick Jr. presented her trophy and cooed, "Tony, come over to live with me."

James was in the middle of thanking her co-stars (including a teary-eyed Rory O'Malley) when she was apparently signaled to wrap up. “I will not leave this stage!” she said to applause, going on to give special mention to the Mormon ensemble. In closing, she compared herself to bumblebees who fly “because nobody told them they couldn’t. I come from a long line of bumblebees, and I’m grateful that nobody told me I couldn’t fly.”