Quotable Quotes: Getting Up Close and Personal with the 2005 Tony Nominees
WHAT: Tony press reception
WHERE: The View at the Marriott Marquis
WHEN: May 11, 2005
"The reward is that I do my job eight shows a week and that eight shows a week, audiences leave happy." --Marc Kudisch, Best Featured Actor in a Musical nominee for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
"Growing up as a kid, I watched the Tony Awards all the time and seeing all these fantastic, fabulous, nifty people doing really cool stuff on stage and really enjoying themselves. I said, 'I want to be one of those people.' And so I am now one of those people." --Christopher Sieber, Best Featured Actor in a Musical nominee for Spamalot
"I never know how to relate to this because when we actors started out in rehearsals, we didn't have this in mind. We were not going to duke it out with anybody. I'm speaking negatively, but I mean it's like a deer in headlights. It is very exciting, but boy, it's distracting!" --James Earl Jones, Best Leading Actor in a Play nominee for On Golden Pond
My younger brother just kept saying, 'Oh my God! Oh my God!' And I thought, 'That's how I feel a little bit, too.'"--Celia Keenan-Bolger, Best Featured Actress in a Musical for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
"I feel more of a part of the theater community, which is something that I've always wanted to be in since I was a kid. It's kind of a dream come true." --David Harbour, Best Featured Actor in a Play nominee for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
"I'm hugely honored. This is my fourth nomination, and I can't believe myself. I never thought I'd ever receive a nomination. I'm blessed." --Brían F. O'Byrne, Best Leading Actor In A Play Nominee for Doubt
"I haven't worked on Broadway for about 15 years, so boy, this is just the best way to come back. I love doing the show and people love it when they see it. It's just sort of a celebratory kind of deal that this is icing on the cake." --Tim Curry, Best Leading Actor in a Musical nominee for Spamalot
"I got so much attention for not being nominated before that I was kind of hoping I wouldn't be nominated again because it was habitual." --Sherie Rene Scott, Best Leading Actress in a Musical nominee for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
"I don't know what to do. When you prepare a speech, you don't ever get to give it. When you don't prepare one, you stand up there like a schmuck." --Playwright John Patrick Shanley, Best Play nominee for Doubt, on preparing a speech before the Tony ceremony
"It feels like this is the victory." --Mireille Enos, Best Featured Actress in a Play nominee for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, on being nominated
"Most of my Broadway credits are musical theater credits. I've done plenty of plays off-Broadway and other places, but this really wakes people up to another side." --Adriane Lenox, Best Featured Actress in a Play nominee for Doubt, on how the nomination makes a difference in her career
"I'm very grateful to be involved with the event this year. I've been watching it from afar and thinking about it for years." --Michael Stuhlbarg, Best Featured Actor in a Play nominee for The Pillowman
"Well my parents just said, 'Thank God!' and 'Can we come up for the ceremony?' and 'What are we going to wear?' And my daughter said, 'What's a Tony?' --Norbert Leo Butz, Best Leading Actor in a Musical nominee for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, on his family's reactions to his nomination
"It does mean a lot to me because it's a role that I've thought about for so many years and wanted so much to do. It's wonderful to have recognition that I got her where I wanted to get her. Honestly, I've wanted Martha for so long and hoped that I was doing her really well, and I feel it's a kind of affirmation." --Kathleen Turner, Best Leading Actress In A Play Nominee for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
"Well, I think everybody's very, very jazzed and encouraged that a play that is fantastically entertaining but has a real head on its shoulders seems to strike such a nerve." --Doug Hughes, Best Director of a Play nominee for Doubt
"It means that they got it and they didn't forget." --Mario Cantone, Best Special Theatrical Event nominee for Laugh Whore, on what the nomination means to him
"To get to a place that I've always wanted to get to means a lot, it really does. Broadway to me was always unattainable when I was in my early 20s and so to be here and to be here right now is pretty special." --Michael McGrath, Best Featured Actor in a Musical Nominee for Spamalot
"It really is a dream. I've wanted to play Stella for eight years. I used to carry the play around in my pocket everywhere I went--and then to be nominated for it? It doesn't get better than that. Well, it could get better than that I suppose, but right now it's fantastic. I'm just thrilled." --Amy Ryan, Best Featured Actress in a Play nominee for A Streetcar Named Desire
"People are just thrilled for us, and I think a lot of people feel that though for many reasons we may not go home with every award, that it's a really wonderful thing for the theater in general that this kind of a show can be nominated in this way." --Composer Adam Guettel, Best Score and Best Orchestrations nominee for The Light in the Piazza
"This my fourth nomination. I am so proud to be nominated for something that I just loved doing so much. I never thought I'd be nominated for somebody who didn't speak correctly [Mrs. Malaprop] since language has always been my big thing." --Dana Ivey, Best Featured Actress in a Play nominee for The Rivals
"It means I'm worthy as a human being to breathe air. No! I really feel like it's collective. It feels like an acknowledgment of my work, but I feel like my work wouldn't be what it is if it weren't for my cast." --Heather Goldenhersh, Best Featured Actress in a Play Nominee for Doubt, on what the nomination means to her
"I was at home yesterday when the phone rang and the word came down there was a nomination for every one of us in the cast, all four of us, so I asked my wife if maybe we could not clean the basement right away." --Bill Irwin, Best Leading Actor in a Play Nominee for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
"I think people are happy for me. They've said that they are happy and proud. I don't know. It's weird talking about it. At the end of the day, you have to go and do the same show you've been doing. You can't get too carried away in all the hoopla." Sara Ramirez, Best Featured Actress in a Musical nominee for Spamalot
"It's a very nice nod from the theater community, which I feel like I'm a part of now, so it means more to me this time. I feel like part of the community, so when the people that you respect and sometimes hang out with, register that they actually like your work, it's meaningful." --David Yazbek, Best Score nominee for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
"I really believe that I'm representing the whole cast. I'm just the point man. It's really an ensemble award." Philip Bosco, Best Leading Actor in a Play nominee for Twelve Angry Men
"I think more than any other character I feel closest to Jo March, and personally, I just feel I'm representing my company. This nomination is for all of us." --Sutton Foster, Best Leading Actress in a Musical nominee for Little Women
"It's not something you expect to happen, but you can't help but wish for because we all work so hard with this business. I'm so in love with this community; I wanted to be invited to this party." Erin Dilly, Best Leading Actress in a Musical nominee for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
"We're clearly going to stick around for a while, which is the greatest thing of all."-- Cherry Jones, Best Leading Actress in a Play nominee for Doubt, on how the nominations provide a boost for the show
"We all know this business. You have your ups, you have your downs and it's nice sometimes to be recognized that's all, because in a couple of years you won't be." --Scott Ellis, Best Direction of a Play nominee For Twelve Angry Men
"It means so much. It is such a victory for all of us. It's a sort of vindication that we were doing the right thing--that all along, all of the pain and suffering and everything that's happened up to this moment--it means something every night." --Christina Applegate, Best Leading Actress in a Musical nominee for Sweet Charity
"The funny thing is that I really feel like this community is my home, and Broadway Bares is a big part of that and Broadway Cares is a big part of that. It's really great to be nominated. It would be great to win, but it's great to be nominated." --Jerry Mitchell, Best Choreography Nominee for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and La Cage aux Folles
"I've always said that the nomination is the real honor. Now winning? There's no thrill like it, but the real honor has always been the nomination and to be recognized for this aspect of my work. I think theater is the hardest thing to do. It really is. Golf is easier, and I don't say that about golf. Golf is really hard." --Gordon Clapp, Best Featured Actor in a Play nominee for Glengarry Glen Ross
"Just 'So proud of you!' 'We knew it would happen!' That kind of thing. 'Good for you!' 'Great news!' 'What's wrong with the Yankees?' Stuff like that." --Billy Crystal, Best Special Theatrical Event nominee for 700 Sundays, on what people have been saying to him since he was nominated
"This is the just like the cherry on top of a fantastic, fantastic, glorious sundae filled with chocolate and dreams." Dan Fogler, Best Featured Actor in a Musical Nominee for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
"I was on the can." --Whoopi Goldberg, Best Special Theatrical Event Nominee for Whoopi, on where she was when she learned of her nomination
"What a wild day. It's like a class reunion." --Bill Irwin, Best Leading Actor in a Play Nominee for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, on meeting the other nominees at the Tony press reception
Interviews by Beth Stevens
Compiled by Grace Hernandez