2004 Wrap-Up: Quotable Quotes

You wouldn't believe some of the things the stars of the stage tell us--or maybe you would! To celebrate the end of another great year covering the world of Broadway, we've decided to bring you some of our most memorable sound bites!

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"I played Dorothy in The Wizard Oz in fourth grade. Maybe that was a good omen." --Wicked star Idina Menzel in the Tony press room after winning the award for Best Actress in a Musical

"In every audience, you can hear audible sighs. Many are sobbing… and this is a comedy show." --Billy Crystal, at the opening night of 700 Sundays

"Dame Nature, when she created me, created someone with universal appeal. Now, it sounds conceited to say that… but not from me." --Dame Edna on her origins

"I have to say you'd be forgiven if you were in the next room and thought we were rehearsing riotous comedy." --'night, Mother star Brenda Blethyn on having a good time rehearsing the dark drama

"I don't court people's interest in my personal life. I'm just an actress, you know? I'm a private person; I'd be a private person if I were a botanist." --Reckless star Mary-Louise Parker on her brush with tabloid fame

"I'm not sure if a grinning Irish guy who's speechless for 45 seconds is going to make good TV, but it might be just what you get." --Brían F. O'Byrne, accepting the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for Frozen

"Even though I didn't go back and look at the movie, there were times when I would think, 'Oh, I bet Henry Fonda could make this work.'" --Twelve Angry Men star Boyd Gaines on playing the part Henry Fonda made famous in the film version

"We wanted to make a point that community has power still, that our rights can be taken from us without us even noticing it and that we can come together to change the country. And that's what this show screams about." --Raul Esparza on Hair, a show that was performed in a concert version as a benefit for the Actors' Fund of America

"Whenever I do a show I do a lot of research. For The Frogs, it's research on Greek history and Greek theater and Shaw and Shakespeare… and frogs." --Susan Stroman on directing The Frogs at Lincoln Center

"I say it's a three-hankie musical, but there's also a lot of silliness and joy and fun." --Maureen McGovern on Little Women

"Kenny Leon is always making me, talking me into, doing things that I don't believe I can and know I shouldn't." --Phylicia Rashad on A Raisin in the Sun and Gem of the Ocean director Kenny Leon

"So now the ex-Prez wanted to see a crowd-pleasing, slightly goofy musical fable with a sweet and smart moral, and that was fine by me. Just no pictures. " --Michael McKean on President George H.W. Bush's visit to Hairspray

"I'd like to say to Charlotte von Mahlsdorf herself, thank you so much for entrusting me with your life. When I met you I thought I'd found a hero, and I realized I'd found something far more profound: a human being." --I Am My Own Wife playwright Doug Wright accepting the Tony Award for Best Play

"We spend so much time together that strangely enough, we've actually fallen in love, and I'm here to tell you that Richard Dreyfuss is a tender and wonderful lover." --Eric Stoltz joking about his Sly Fox co-star

"When I first read it, I said, 'This was downloaded from the divine.' There are some things that are just meant to be, and I knew that this piece would be successful because of its truth." --Tonya Pinkins on her starring role in Caroline, or Change

"I like my stomach a lot better. I like all that's in it: the messy, gooey, delightful, cheery, happy, sad." --The Good Body's Eve Ensler on how her show changed her body image

"You have to be a really cynical bastard to not be touched by it." --Cheyenne Jackson on All Shook Up

What I've learned with Hairspray is that anything you do during the day, you will pay for onstage at night. Especially when you're an older bride." --Hairspray star Bruce Vilanch on the rigors of eight shows a week

"The five of us feel strongly about what we're doing and each other." --Brooklyn star Eden Espinosa on her show

"I'm going to be on with LL Cool J. How about that?" --Carol Channing, presenter at the 2004 Tony Awards

"I hope all the red, blue, orange, purple, gray states comes to see the show and enjoy it. " --La Cage aux Folles' Gavin Creel on audiences seeing his show in the current political climate

"A nicer bunch of Assassins you'd never hope to meet!" --Roundabout Artistic Director Todd Haimes on the cast of the revival of Assassins

"She's a great artist and one of the great idiosyncratic creatures of Western civilization, and somebody I love very deeply." --Reckless playwright Craig Lucas on Mary-Louise Parker, the show's star

"I think we just hoped to make it a rediscovery rather than just a revival." --Alfred Molina on Fiddler on the Roof

"Since I was 18-years-old I dream about this. I was waiting and waiting. This is like a miracle for me." -Pacific Overtures director Amon Miyamoto on his Broadway debut

"What's brilliant about Michael Frayn is he makes you feel smart. Being in it makes you feel smart, and I hope seeing it makes you feel smart." --Michael Cumpsty on Democracy playwright Michael Frayn

"I was so in love with the MGM monsters. I had crap taped all over my room, so to be able to revisit the 12-year-old boy in me at the age of 46 is so much fun." --Tom Hewitt on starring in Dracula, The Musical

"Don't do a ballet barre to stretch out at a truck stop. It's pretentious and suspicious." --Dirty Rotten Scoundrels star Joanna Gleason on traveling

"We like to do this together. We write a lot of our own stuff, and we love the same older stuff. We're kind of like a really low-budget Comden and Green." --Hairspray star Michael McKean on his professional collaboration with wife Annette O'Toole

"Jewish or non-Jewish, the heart and soul of this production moves so many people." --Fiddler on the Roof's Robert Petkoff

"I was struck by her sweetness. She was generous and helpful in many ways--and I guess now we have a strange sort of pen-pal type relationship. I wouldn't say I'm sympathetic towards her, but I do see her as a person now." --Assassins' Mary Catherine Garrison on contacting the real Squeaky Fromme while playing her in the musical

"I think it's the event of the season on Broadway--that 10-minute number where everybody gets soaking wet." --Librettist Thomas Meehan on the "Shakalaka Baby" number in Bombay Dreams

"I'm now walking around backstage in a bra. I'm kissing and hugging a whole lot more. And just the other day, I flashed my friend Bernard my breasts. I'm starting to get a bit unleashed!" --Chicago's Anne L. Nathan on the effects of working with a lot of free-spirited dancers

"This is a spiritual history lesson, rich with humanity and great storytelling." --Anthony Chisolm on Gem of the Ocean

"They were in Paris; I was still at the gate at JFK." --Julie Halston on stepping into a role in White Chocolate at the last minute

"Stamina-wise, I could do the conga with a broken leg--I've got energy forever." --Wonderful Town star Brooke Shields

"I go to the bathroom, pee and then I sing various Broadway show tunes." --Reckless star Rosie Perez on how she deals with stage fright

"For heaven's sake, Q fans, don't come to the show dressed like Let's Make a Deal contestants or bring in KFC so we'll notice you--trust me, if you laugh really loudly or clap a lot, we'll like you just as much if not more." --Avenue Q star Ann Harada's tips to audience members

"This belongs to Lorraine Hansberry." --Audra McDonald accepting her Tony Award and honoring the playwright of A Raisin in the Sun

"[Director] Joe Mantello came up with the name. It keeps the squeamish away." --Laugh Whore's Mario Cantone on the title of his show

"It's fairly inevitable that, if you're in this profession long enough, you're likely to work with stars." --Beth Fowler on her many famous co-stars

"My wife said to me, 'I think you're going to win--and if you don't win, I'll run naked down Broadway.' I thought, I might not mind not winning. I would have liked to have seen that." --The Boy from Oz star Hugh Jackman in the Tony Awards press room

"We're kind of freaking out and going to the gym and eating no carbs and tanning all the time." --Jessica-Snow Wilson on preparing for the skimpy costumes in Good Vibrations

"It's fascinating. Simon is always saying, 'That's cabaret' or 'That's Broadway.' Well, screw you, Simon!" --Barbara Cook's take on American Idol

"It's freedom. If you can stand there naked, you can do anything." --Jodi Moccia, director of Broadway Bares: 14

"I'm pinching myself. But not too much 'cause I'll get red." --Avenue Q star Stephanie D'Abruzzo on her Tony nomination

"I have to go from positive and glib to suicidal and crying in a matter of 16 bars. But it's what I'm being paid to do. I just have to go for it and let my schizophrenia take over. Thank heavens I'm a Gemini." --Assassins star Neil Patrick Harris on his dual role in the musical

"It's been moving to discover that people have held onto these characters for 20 years. They are embedded in people's hearts, which I didn't know. That's kind of wonderful." --Whoopi Goldberg on revisiting her solo show from 20 years ago

"Isn't this just surreal? This is just the strangest thing I've ever done in my life." --Euan Morton, on his first Tony Awards ceremony

"There's a lot of T&A, a lot of booty. I'm OK with that." --Jai Rodriguez on Broadway Bares: 14

"I got up this morning, and I was like, 'I'm on my way to Broadway!'" --Jennifer Hudson on performing in the benefit concert of Hair

"It certainly doesn't suck to be us tonight." --Robyn Goodman, one of the producers of Best Musical winner, Avenue Q on Tony night