Ready, Set, Tony! Looking at the Race for Best Featured Actor in a Play

When the Tony Awards telecast begins on Sunday, June 9, 40 nervous and excited actors will take their seats at Radio City Music Hall, hoping to win Broadway’s biggest prize. Throughout the season, Broadway.com has photographed and chatted with the stars at press events, opening nights and visits to our studio. In advance of the 73rd annual Tonys, we’re looking back at all of the season’s nominees. Check out the talents nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play!

BERTIE CARVEL | INK
The ultimate seal of approval for Bertie Carvel’s portrayal of Rupert Murdoch in Ink—beyond a Tony nomination and an Olivier Award for the play’s London premiere—is the fact that the media mogul himself has come to see the play twice. Murdoch’s enthusiasm is understandable, because Carvel makes even Fox News haters sympathize with the young Australian businessman hungry to make a name for himself on Fleet Street in 1969. The actor’s cunning performance as Murdoch follows his Tony-nominated metamorphosis six years ago into evil Miss Trunchbull in the musical Matilda. "I really do enjoy what you might call transformation," he said on #LiveAtFive, citing the Oscar Wilde epigram "Give a man a mask, and he will tell you the truth." On opening night, the former Broadway.com Fresh Face reveled at being part of the "cornucopia of theatrical pizzazz" in James Graham’s Tony-nominated play. "One surprising thing is how much fun it is [for audiences]," he said in a Spring Preview feature. “It grabs your attention. It’s bold and brassy and fun.” The same could be said of Carvel’s highly theatrical portrait of Rupert Murdoch.
 

ROBIN DE JESÚS | THE BOYS IN THE BAND
"All right, this is a raid! Everybody’s under arrest!" That’s the entrance cry of Emory, a flamboyant interior decorator toting a casserole dish, in The Boys in the Band. With lines like that, Emory establishes himself as the most outspoken—and in Robin De Jesus’ Tony-nominated performance, most touching—character in Mart Crowley’s dramedy of gay life in mid-century Manhattan. The Broadway revival that opened late last May was packed with stars, but only De Jesús received recognition from Tony nominators a year later. With his mom on his arm, De Jesús will take a seat at the Tonys for third time, following nominations for In the Heights (at age 24) and La Cage aux Folles. "The lasting message [of The Boys in the Band] is to look what happens when we marginalize, oppress and shame people," the former Broadway.com Fresh Face said on #LiveAtFive. Rather than "a bunch of sad, pathetic men in a room venting," Crowley’s Boys "are coping and trying to survive." If you missed the show on Broadway, don’t fret: Producer Ryan Murphy is reuniting the cast, including De Jesús, for a film version to be broadcast on Netflix.

GIDEON GLICK | TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
Prepping to play Dill Harris, the precocious pal of Scout and Jem Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, Gideon Glick concentrated on Truman Capote, Harper Lee’s real-life BFF and model for the character. "I’m not playing Capote, but I’m 100 percent inspired by Capote," he said on Show People. Glick brings a cheeky charm to 10-year-old Dill, who develops an obsession with Boo Radley during a summer visit to his aunt in Maycomb, Alabama. "I feel like I’m finally living my dreams," he said, "because I was a young queer boy, not in the south, but I get to explore that and be unabashed about it." Glick was still in high school when he made his New York stage debut as Ernst in Spring Awakening, gave a breakthrough performance as a 20-something looking for love in Significant Other, and is now a Tony nominee for creating young Dill. "This character has brought out this ebullient joy that I had as a kid," he said in a Citizens of Mockingbird video feature. Playwright Aaron Sorkin was more effusive, declaring that Glick "leads to you believe he’s this play’s comic relief until the second act, when he breaks your heart."
 

BRANDON URANOWITZ | BURN THIS
Three Tony nominations in five seasons, the first one for a show that opened just four years ago, is a darned impressive achievement, one that Brandon Uranowitz doesn’t take for granted. "Not even remotely!" he said on #LiveAtFive. "To be validated for your work in any given project is such an honor." After Tony nods for his musical performances in An American in Paris and Falsettos, Uranowitz is overjoyed to be recognized in the play category for the Broadway revival of Lanford Wilson’s Burn This. Cast as Larry, the grieving roommate of a dancer who dies suddenly, Uranowitz gives a funny, grounded performance opposite Keri Russell, David Furr and Tony nominee Adam Driver. Larry is "a helper," the actor said in a dual interview with Lou Liberatore, who created the character in 1987. "He’s order in the chaos." The play itself centers on four people "just trying to live bigger, better lives. It’s about the human experience." Personally speaking, Burn This "feels like a watershed moment for me, finally being able to play a gay character," the former Broadway.com Fresh Face said in a Spring Preview feature. "There’s a certain freedom and liberation in not covering up who I really am."
 

BENJAMIN WALKER | ALL MY SONS
It’s a long, strange road from Andrew Jackson to Brick Pollitt to Patrick Bateman to Chris Keller. Benjamin Walker has given stunning performances on Broadway in all four roles, two of them in musicals (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and American Psycho) and two in plays (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and All My Sons). Given Walker’s power and versatility, it’s a head-scratcher that he is just now celebrating his first Tony nomination for the revival of Arthur Miller’s post-World War II tragedy. "I’ve wanted to play this part for a long time," he said of idealistic veteran Chris on #LiveAtFive. Miller’s drama charts the disillusionment and horror Chris feels when he discovers that his father (Tony winner Tracy Letts) is responsible for the death of 21 pilots due to faulty airplane parts. "It’s chillingly poignant right now," the former Broadway.com Fresh Face said of the play, "wild and really timely." Competing for a Tony with a roster of musical theater vets pleases Walker, who dreams of tackling a classic musical on Broadway. "You know that the people in your category are the cream of the crop," he said. "It makes being nominated that much nicer."
 

Photos: Bertie Carvel and Gideon Glick photos by Emilio Madrid-Kuser for Broadway.com; Robin De Jesús, Brandon Uranowitz and Benjamin Walker photos by Caitlin McNaney for Broadway.com | Design: Ryan Casey for Broadway.com