Other Desert Cities Scribe Jon Robin Baitz Feels Like He 'Burned Down a House'

The morning the Tony nominations are announced, phones start buzzing with texts and calls for the happy few who get nods. As usual, Broadway.com is among the callers offering congratulations and getting responses. Here are the first reactions from 2012 Tony nominees. Congrats to all!
 

Jon Robin Baitz
Nominated for Best Play, Other Desert Cities

"I’m grinning and surprised and delighted. There’s nothing about this experience that hasn’t been extraordinary. It’s a long time coming to Broadway but it’s been the perfect Broadway experience—to being in the best theater to having the greatest cast and the greatest producers and collaborating with Joe [Mantello] again. My friend Pippin Parker, who runs the New School for Drama, texted me, 'Congratulations.' I wasn’t watching, I was reading a very interesting English cookbook…it’s bad luck to pay attention! The only people who should pay attention are people in government. I haven’t called anybody yet. I’m the product of a very specific kind of sort of Anglo-African schoolboy education, and I’ve been taught that it’s best to be seen and not heard and that we don’t share good news, but I suppose when the West Coast wakes up, I will call my mother in a few hours. She’ll be thrilled. Frankly, you know, I’m just built in such a weird way that unless everybody gets nominated I feel incredibly guilty like in fact I burned down a house or something. That’s just the way I’m built."

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