Quotable Quotes: 2004 Tony Ceremony
Who: Tony Award presenters and winners
What: The 2004 Tony Awards
Where: The stage of Radio City Music Hall
When: Sunday, June 6, 2004
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"What about those Rockettes? I knew these long legs would come in handy one day." --Hugh Jackman after the opening number
"'One Night Only,' the words I'll be hearing from my agents when I tell them I'm coming back to Broadway." --Hugh Jackman
"Chandra Wilson told me to write a speech. I didn't do it!" --Best Featured Actress in a Musical winner Anika Noni Rose
"This year I have been blessed by stepping onto a Broadway stage as an actor for the very first time." --A Raisin in the Sun star Sean Combs
"This is a picture I never thought I'd see: Me and Puff!" --Best Featured Actor in a Musical winner Michael Cerveris on standing onstage with presenter Sean Combs
"Thank you for proving that you don't have to kill someone to get something like this. You can just pretend to on Broadway." --Michael Cerveris
"Fellow Tonyians…" --Kristin Chenoweth as Wicked's Glinda addressing the audience
"I was so convinced I talked myself out of this by repeating my mantra: 'We're classy and we're closed.'" --Jack O'Brien on his win for Henry IV
"He just told me backstage actually that when he got back from World War II, he went to the American Theatre Wing School on the GI bill, and that's where he learned everything he knows about singing, performing and picking up chicks." --Hugh Jackman on performer Tony Bennett
"Last December, Broadway lost one its greatest friends: Isabelle Stevenson." --Sandra Gillman
"As the book writer for one big smash and one big smelly flop, I always wondered if anyone knows just what goes into making a great musical. When a show is a hit, the critics trip over themselves not knowing who to laud and applaud the loudest. It's that marvelous score, those urbane lyrics, that irreplaceable star. But only when a show is a flop, does anyone notice the book writer. And then it's always our fault." -Presenter Harvey Fierstein
"There are so many people from this angle that I can't believe it. I'm crying. That's so embarrassing. " --Jeff Whitty taking the stage to accept the award for Best Book of a Musical
"You know, Hugh, you are a very successful gentleman and I'm an investment banker, so if you ever need anyone to take care of your assets…" --Rod from Avenue Q
"Deb, if I go to the Avenue Q party, you'll know why." --Hugh Jackman to his wife after Rod's flirtation
"I know when you think of the Tony Awards, you don't immediately think LL Cool J, so to help me present the award for Best Score, I'd like to bring out a popular, contemporary artist who has a little more experience. Come on out here, baby." --LL Cool J welcoming Carol Channing to the stage
"I've been updating my act." --Carol Channing before rapping a number with LL Cool J
"When we started writing Avenue Q four years ago, Jeff was an intern and I was a temp. Our lives kind of sucked, so we came up with an idea for a show for people like us whose lives kinda suck." --Robert Lopez, half of the winning team for Best Score
"We made it! Radio City Hall! Last time I was here, I saw Snow White." --Jerry Stiller
"This just in: Carol Channing has been arrested in a drive-by shotting." --Hugh Jackman after Channing's rap number
"I'm not sure if a grinning Irish guy who is speechless for 45 seconds is going to make good TV." --Best Featured Actor in a Play winner Brìan F. O'Byrne
"The only thing I've ever wanted to do in my entire life is to be on Broadway." --Best Featured Actress in a Play winner Audra McDonald
"This belongs to Lorraine Hansberry." --Audra McDonald honoring the playwright of A Raisin in the Sun
"A few years ago, I won a Tony for Little Me and I learned two important lessons from that experience. 1. Fair-weather friends are so much more interesting to be around and 2. It's amazing what this award fetches on E-Bay." --Presenter Martin Short
"A musical is only as good as its director. The same can also be said for the CIA." --Martin Short
"I learned this year how hard directing musicals can be. I want to acknowledge Jerry Zaks and the unforgettable original cast of Assassins that I saw on a really cold night in 1991. You blazed a trail for us and we are grateful." --Best Director of a Musical winner Joe Mantello
"I know what you're thinking, 'There's been a horrible mistake. I was sent here and Brian Dennehy was sent to the MTV Music Awards." -Presenter Jimmy Fallon
"People ask me, 'Jimmy, how'd you get here tonight. Let's just say it involved a two-hour make-out session with Elaine Stritch. It got pretty heavy actually, I almost had to host." --Jimmy Fallon
"Here is what you missed at our little barbeque: I danced with the Rockettes, a witch came on in a bubble, a lot of Jews danced their way out of Russia, Tony Bennett sang, Harvey Fierstein presented an award, there was swing dancing, a whole bunch of people did a musical number about assassinating presidents and there were puppets in group therapy. It's not TV, it's the Tony Awards."--Hugh Jackman recapping the evening so far for people just tuning in
"Often I have wondered, what does it take for this to happen? And now I know. It takes effort and grace." --Best Actress in a Play winner Phylicia Rashad
"To be nominated among such luminaries was honor enough, but, nevertheless, I thank you for this." --Best Actor in a Play winner Jefferson Mays
"In 1906, Antoinette Perry was described by a New York critic as the sweetest, most piquant ingénue on Broadway and I think Charlotte von Mahlsdorf would love to have been remembered in a similar fashion." --Jefferson Mays
"I feel like a little Sex in the City… Hello, Sarah Jessica!" --Hugh Jackman to Sarah Jessica Parker before pulling her onstage in the middle of his The Boy from Oz Tony number, "The Boy Next Door"
"It's only 6000 people… and about 6000 on telly." --Hugh Jackman to a seemingly nervous Sarah Jessica Parker
"I am scared of my top! This is the wrong network…" --Sarah Jessica Parker afraid of a wardrobe malfunction
"I've got a 189 people to thank and, no, I am not going to read all of their names!" --Lincoln Center Theater Executive Producer Bernard Gersten accepting the Tony for Best Revival of a Play for Henry IV
"I've been fortunate in my career to have performed in revivals of great musicals and to have originated roles in musicals that have in turn been revived. And I'm not dead!" --Presenter Bernadette Peters
"A nicer bunch of Assassins you'd never hope to meet!" --Roundabout Artistic Director Todd Haimes accepting the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical for Assassins
"To my fellow writer nominees for writing so articulately in such ferociously inarticulate times…" --I Am My Own Wife playwright Doug Wright accepting the Best Play Award
"Our entire cast just won Tony Awards!" --Doug Wright referring to Jefferson Mays' win
"Charlotte von Mahlsdorf may have been her own wife, but suppose she wanted to marry Alfred?" --I Am My Own Wife producer David Richenthal speaking out in favor of gay marriage during his acceptance speech
"This has been an extraordinary year for women on Broadway." --Presenter Renée Zellweger
"I am so proud to be in a musical that celebrates women, that celebrates their strengths and their differences." --Best Actress in a Musical winner Idina Menzel
"I need these… unfortunately!" --Presenter Nicole Kidman putting on her glasses
"The characters portrayed by the nominees for Best Leading Actor in a Musical are two puppets one a fresh-faced college graduate, the other a Republican investment banker with a personal secret, a meek shop clerk with a man-eating plant, a homosexual pop star, a milkman who talks to God and a man who married Liza Minnelli… and you can fill in your own joke." --Nicole Kidman introducing the Best Actor in a Musical nominees
"I've been up here all night, and I am now absolutely trembling." --Hugh Jackman during his acceptance speech for Best Actor in a Musical
"Peter Allen, you wrote this song called 'Making Every Moment Count,' you did it. You did it onstage and offstage. Peter--it's an honor to play you and I dedicate this Tony to your memory." --Hugh Jackman
"Big news backstage--Donald Trump is coming to Broadway in I Was My Own Wife, But Then I Got Fired." --Presenter Nathan Lane
"It certainly doesn't suck to be us tonight." --Robyn Goodman, one of the producers of Best Musical winner, Avenue Q
"Thank you Broadway for voting your heart." --Avenue Q producer Jeffrey Seller
