Quotable Quotes: On the Red Carpet at the 2005 Tonys
WHO: The 2005 Tony nominees and presenters
WHAT: The 59th Annual Tony Awards
WHERE: The Red Carpet
WHEN: June 5, 2005
"It's sort of like being in the Kentucky Derby for the arts, which of course is a complete oxymoron; you don't do horse races with the arts." —Best Actress in a Play winner Cherry Jones on the awards
"I have some garbanzo beans in my purse in case I get hungry." —Best Featured Actress in a Musical nominee Joanna Gleason on being prepared
"I'm not just another sweaty face." —Best Actress in a Musical nominee Sherie Rene Scott commenting on the weather
"This is my seventh nomination, and it's lovely. I love to come here, but it's fraught with tension, as everyone's probably told you. I really enjoy it most for what it gives to my family." —Best Actor in a Play nominee Philip Bosco
"You know, you dream about these things. I have since I was a kid." —Best Featured Actor in a Play nominee Michael Stuhlbarg on the Tony Awards
"I'm just trying not like to sweat. Later on tonight I'll take these heels off and I'll be very happy." —Best Actress in a Musical nominee Christina Applegate
"It's very moving. I got my Equity card 20 years ago and this is the first time that I had ever been nominated. And I had been working steadily for the last 20 years, so to finally make it here is very moving. It's a wonderful honor." —Best Actress in a Musical winner Victoria Clark
"I took a lot of Claritin."—Best Featured Actress in a Musical winner Sara Ramirez on what she did to get ready for the big night
"It's like knowing you're going in to have a catheter put in or like a root canal or something like that. It's just really terrible." —David Yazbek on pre-Tony stress
"For those of us who are here tonight, it's a chance to get to see each other all decked out and to get to see our brothers and sisters in the musical theater strut their stuff."—Cherry Jones
"I feel good standing here talking to you so that's a good sign, isn't it? I'm glad you're all here." —Best Actor in a Play nominee James Earl Jones on the big press turn-out for the red carpet
"When you're nominated, it is just so exciting. I'm full of nerves and excitement. It's a thrill." —Best Featured Actress in a Play nominee Dana Ivey
"It's just too tense. You're worried about saying anything if you should win. You almost don't want to win so you don't have to worry about saying anything." —Philip Bosco on being nominated
"It's very exciting, nerve-wracking and ridiculous." —Best Featured Actor in a Musical nominee Michael McGrath
"It is nice because it means you're alive. It's good to see all your old buddies"—Presenter Chita Rivera on coming to the Tony Awards each year
"I'm friends with [Doubt writer] John Shanley and have been hanging out with him the last couple of weeks. It's good. If it's good for getting more people to see straight plays, then I'm happy about that." —Best Play nominee Martin McDonagh
"It's so thrilling especially to be with such amazing and talented actors this season. It's incredible." —Best Featured Actress in a Play nominee Mireille Enos
"I woke up, had some fruit, did a matinee, got into the tux, you know normal routine basically." —Best Featured Actor in a Play nominee David Harbour on his pre-Tony preparation
"I'm glad to be here. We started this off-Broadway so to end up here? This? It's nothing we thought of when we thought we were in for a limited run at Manhattan Theatre Club." —Best Actor in a Play nominee Brían F. O'Byrne
"We just had people come to the dressing room, set a stop watch and threw some food back and that's it." —Best Featured Actress in a Play nominee Heather Goldenhersh on her preparations on Tony day
"You know that every time that's mentioned, my anxiety surges." —Best Director of a Play winner Doug Hughes on Doubt being called a Tony frontrunner
"I have to have an emergency phone number in case anything happens " —Best Actress in a Musical nominee Sutton Foster on her borrowed Harry Winston jewelry
"It's an honor for the work that we do. It's an honor for the season that we've had. This has been an amazing season, man! And to be nominated in that group of people with as many wonderful talents that are on stage? That's why we're here, you know?"—Best Featured Actor in a Musical nominee Marc Kudisch
"I'm such a dude. I'm just like, 'All right, I have to get up in my monkey suit.' I'd rather be in jeans." —Matthew Morrison on getting ready for the awards
"I'm expecting nothing. I'm stress free because our show has been noticed and we're here, and I think that that's the most important thing right now, honestly." —Best Featured Actress in a Musical nominee Kelli O'Hara
"Did you see Kelli O'Hara? Oh my god! She's so beautiful I couldn't stand it." —Best Actress in a Musical nominee Erin Dilly
"Our producer [David Stone] bought us all massages last night, which was really nice. I've done a few little things that I normally wouldn't do for myself like facials and silly things like that." —Best Featured Actress in a Musical nominee Celia Keenan-Bolger on what she did to get ready for Tony night
"It's just a little odd to me because I'm just not used to this kind of attention, so I don't really know how to handle it but it's a learning experience."—Best Featured Actress in a Musical nominee Jan Maxwell
"I had maybe 45 minutes. I dried up the tears onstage and threw on pounds of make-up." —Best Featured Actress in a Play nominee Amy Ryan on how she got ready for the Tonys
"Theater's my first love. I love it. It excites me. It feeds me." —Presenter Angela Bassett
"I'm just so glad to be back in New York. Honestly. Walking down a red carpet anywhere is kind of weird, but it's really different here than it is anywhere else." —Best Actress in a Play nominee Mary-Louise Parker
"We got offstage. I jumped into the shower and then just put on the boy clothes. I bathed. In Anatevka we don't all bathe, but on the weekend I bathe. On the day off."—Presenter Harvey Fierstein on getting ready for the Tonys after performing in Fiddler on the Roof
"I had six minutes to get here [following the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels matinee]. We finished the show, we wiped some of the sweat off of ourselves and then we got dressed and came here." —Joanna Gleason
"I think it gets harder as you get more and more nominations for some reason. I don't know why. I think when you're young and stupid you just kind of fly along by the seat of your pants." —Best Choreographer nominee Wayne Cilento
"At this point, this is just really just a cherry on top of a really great experience that I've been having for the last six months." —Sara Ramirez
"I think you appreciate it a lot more the longer you're in the business." —Best Director of a Play nominee Scott Ellis on being nominated
Interviews by Paul Wontorek
Compiled by Grace Hernandez
