Tonys 2007: Inside the Press Room with the Big Winners

Hello from the Tony Awards press room, which is billed as being held in the Rainbow Room but is actually in a smaller space with a breathtaking view on the 64th Floor of 30 Rock. It's a little strange to see so many reporters dressed in black tie when we aren't technically part of the festivities. But nobody will get closer than us to the winners—especially me, with a first-row seat on the aisle they'll all walk down on the way to the podium. I've already been warned not to trip anybody! We've been treated to a lovely buffet dinner catered by Cipriani and all the sodas we can drink, so we're ready to roll.

8:25pm
Our first winner arrives: The handsome and obviously very happy John Gallagher Jr. entered the press room to applause. The first questioner inquired his age, and many of the non-theater press in the room seemed shocked to find out that he is only 22. "I can't feel anything right now, including my arms," he claimed to laughter, although he seemed very calm and collected. Reacting to Steven Sater's win for best book, Gallagher spoke of meeting someone at the stage door not long ago who had gone to high school with Sater and announced, "You're playing him." I asked if he dreamed that Spring Awakening would make it to Broadway a year ago, when the show was in previews at the Atlantic, and he responded, "Never. We didn't have a final number a year ago—we just wanted to get through the invited dress rehearsal." The key to Spring Awakening's success, in his view, is the excitement audiences feel watching "a cast of young people who are fearless." On a side note, Gallagher noted that the last time he was in Radio City Music Hall was for a Wilco concert two years ago.

8:45pm
Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater entered together. We'd had a bit of a shock earlier when an over-eager publicist announced that John Kander had won best score after he appeared on the telecast, and the whole room went silent with surprise. Oops! Sater's emotion still seemed palpable: "It was such a struggle for so long when we couldn't get anyone to look our way for four years." Sheik began with apologies for not thanking his mom on camera. He was asked about bringing rock music to Broadway. "I love Hair," he said, "but we wanted to do something that honored the traditions of musical theater," as Sater piped up, "West Side Story."

8:55pm
Mary Louise Wilson continued the witty candor she had exhibited on the air. Asked how she felt about winning, Wilson admitted, "I didn't want to lose. I'm thrilled for the show and also for myself." Now that Grey Gardens is going to London, Wilson said of her own involvement, "It's a rumor, but I don't have any firm information about it." The actress famously played Diana Vreeland in Full Gallop before taking on Big Edie Beale, and noted, "It's always better to play a woman of power than the cook." She described her onstage chemistry with Christine Ebersole as "probably the only ideal relationship I've ever had with another actor." When they met, Wilson recalled, "I looked at her and said, 'This woman is really good,' and she said the same thing about me."

9:05pm
Spring Awakening's elegant choreographer Bill T. Jones practically leaped onto the little stage in the press room. The first question brought chuckles: "What is Jonathan Groff doing in 'Totally Fucked'?" Jones revealed Lea Michele's body-hugging movement in very first scene, which he dubbed "a virus," is the springboard for all of the choreography in the show. Explained Jones, "The young woman's body is talking to her, and by the time it gets to this moment [in 'Totally Fucked'], the movement has become something else that points toward the tragedy that's coming." He credited the cast with helping him hone his own intuitive movements with their ability to bring a character's motivation to their parts. Next up for Jones: a modern dance piece based on Jane Bowles' Puppet Play, which he described as "a piece about two middle-aged ladies, about thinking, about feeling but also an entertainment." Of his Tony win, he said, "I didn't expect to be here at 55."

9:15pm
Jennifer Ehle sweeped in looking gorgeous in a fitted satin Carolina Herrera gown. She declared that she couldn't choose a favorite of the three characters she played in Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia: "I loved them all. They were different characters who lived such different lives; I can't imagine removing one from the equation. It was like stringing beads; we brought them on one at a time." Ehle felt comfortable with the long journey of mounting Stoppard's three-part epic, she added, after having done rep for a year at the Royal Shakespeare Company. On winning her second Tony, Ehle noted, "This form of competitiveness is not natural among actors, but I hope if I'm nominated again, I'm not up against my mother [Rosemary Harris, whom Ehle famously beat for the Best Actress in a Play Tony Award in 2000] or one of my co-stars [Martha Plimpton]." Her first Tony, for The Real Thing, was followed by a period of concentrating on her personal life. "I met my husband two weeks after I won, and that's when my life really began. I gave up acting for four years, got married and had a baby." When I asked what she would do next, Ehle replied, "I've planted about 70 zinnias, and I'm going to watch them grow." MIA in the press room, by the way is Ehle's co-star, Billy Crudup, the first winner of the evening. Where's Billy?!

9:25pm
Jack O'Brien took the stage, his natty black appliquéd vest showing under his tux jacket. He called Lincoln Center Theater's willingness to stage The Coast of Utopia "stupefying." O'Brien said of his acting company, "You have no idea what they did; they gave a year of their life and their livelihood." As Coast moved toward the record of six Tony wins for a play, O'Brien was asked about the play's many honors. "No award given or withheld can dent the feeling we had doing this. We knew this was a one-off experience. This is frosting on the cake, but the cake itself was glorious."

9:35pm
At last, Billy Crudup is here! So, so modest—not only did he say he has no jobs lined up, when I asked him if it was difficult to give up a year of his movie career to do Coast of Utopia, he said, "If there's something I missed while I was doing this, please tell me." Calling theater "an actors' arena," he noted, "I understand the process of the theater better" than movies, where he's also achieved great success. "You play the role from beginning to end [onstage]; you have time to explore the character. If I have a bad day on the set of the film, it's there forever." The experience of performing all three parts of Coast in a one-day marathon was "utterly euphoric," Crudup said. "We did nine marathons, 11 hours of Russian philosophy, and it was utterly inspiring to do. Those were the most engaged audiences."

9:45pm
Michael Mayer got warm applause for his best director win. Asked the secret to Spring Awakening's success, he said, "I attribute it to the fact that I had an astonishing design team that were able to translate the intimate atmosphere of the Atlantic Theater to Broadway. I thought [producer] Ira Pittelman would have to buy us a church in order to move," he joked. Although we hadn't heard his acceptance speech in the press room, he noted that he'd used the word "heinous" onstage because it's one of his favorite put-downs in everyday life, and he wanted to make an inside joke that Spring Awakening has definitely not been a heinous experience. A questioner noted his work with composer Patty Griffin in the Atlantic's current off-Broadway production of 10 Million Miles. Mayer mentioned that he's developing two shows, one with the rock group the Decemberists and as more conventional musical by Henry Krieger and Susan Birkenhead based on The Flamingo Kid. He traced his gift for working with young actors to the off-Broadway play Stupid Kids and his NYU production of Tony Kushner's Perestroika. "They don't know how to walk through a performance," he said of the cast of Spring Awakening.

9:55pm
It had to happen: Jay Johnson, winner of best special theatrical event for his ventriloquism show, The Two and Only, was asked if he could throw his voice into the Tony statuette. Of course he could! And he did, making the twirling medallion declare how happy it was to be here. Johnson noted the role of Atlantic Theater Company, a big winner throughout the evening for Spring Awakening, in the development of his show, which will soon go on a national tour.

10:10pm
During a lull in the press room, we get to watch Julie White win Best Actress in one of the only truly competitive races of the night. Best reaction shot: Vanessa Redgrave's face when White refers to the Tony as a tchotchke. Now here come the producers of Company, all 10 of them. I asked how long they plan to keep the production open, given that it has struggled at the box office, and lead producer Richard Frankel gave a friendly, dodging answer: "As long as we can." The group is not involved in the Roundabout's forthcoming production of Sunday in the Park with George but said they have several other Sondheim shows in the works, which they declined to name. A close-mouthed bunch, but obviously thrilled to take home the award they were denied last year when The Pajama Game beat Sweeney Todd for best musical revival.

10:20pm
Another big group takes the stage, the producers and handsome cast of Journey's End. Why close the acclaimed revival on Tony day? "The reason we chose to close today was Hugh Dancy, Stark Sands and Boyd Gaines all have jobs that start tomorrow, and we felt it would be unfair to keep it open for several extra weeks and deny them 10 months of work," lead producer Bill Haber said. Another producer chimed in, "We want to see a revival at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue." Tony nominee Stark Sands is flying to Africa tomorrow, he revealed, to shoot an HBO miniseries called Generation Kill about the American invasion of Iraq, produced by the team responsible for The Wire. Quipped Hugh Dancy, "I'm driving him to the airport." In addition to his summer role as Herbie in Encores! Gypsy, Tony nominee Boyd Gaines is apparently bound for a role in the Roundabout Theater Company's fall revival of Pygmalion Colonel Pickering, maybe? alongside Jefferson Mays as Higgins. Dancy blamed the wealth of choices on Broadway this spring for Journey's End's failure at the box office: "It's been said that at a time of war, people don't want to see this play. I don't believe that personally." British-born Tony-nominated director David Grindley, clad in the evening's most incredible pair of red plaid pants, said, "We didn't attract big audiences [on Broadway], but for those who came, it's the best reaction we've ever had."

10:40pm
The tall and handsome Tom Stoppard takes the stage with his Tony for The Coast of Utopia. Asked about future productions, Stoppard revealed that the play has been in rehearsal in Russia for 18 months ! and he's on his way over to check on its progress. "There's been talk of a French production," he added. Stoppard said he felt the three plays in the trilogy could be produced separately. Informed that with its seven Tonys, Coast had broken the record previously held by Death of a Salesman and The History Boys, he said, "I didn't know that. They're both plays that I admire very much. What didn't they get? We didn't get choreography, did we?" He expressed regret that the music from Lincoln Center Theater's production was not honored. Quipped producer Bernard Gersten, "What he means is that we should have won eight." More seriously, Stoppard credited Lincoln Center for taking on the immense challenge of producing The Coast of Utopia. Asked why Cymbeline is next on Lincoln Center's agenda, Andre Bishop said, "It's my favorite Shakespeare play. That's the simple answer. And it's only three hours long."

10:55pm
Stoppard stays on the podium answering intellectual questions, but the press is distracted by TV monitors showing David Hyde Pierce's surprise win for Best Actor and Raul Esparza's stony on-camera response, Christine Ebersole's wholly expected win for Best Actress above all, she looked relieved and Spring Awakening's win for Best Musical. Now we wait for Ebersole and Hyde Pierce to make their way across the street. But first, here's Julie White! "Hold on, I'm drinking," she called as she made her way down my aisle with a Tony and glass of champagne in hand. What was she thinking when she heard her name called? "Well, that they weren't gonna [say my name]! When I heard that J sound, I went 'Nuh uh!' I'm still not believing this exactly. I didn't go to acting school. I have been working in the theater for 25 years, and you learn by doing and by making embarrassing mistakes. I just felt like New York's girl, a little bit. I made my debut in Lucky Stiff by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty singing 'The Dog Song.' My daughter watched from the light booth when she was 10 months old." Asked whether she would like to do another musical, White said, "Tommy Tune asked someone yesterday if I could sing because he was interested in using me for something. I started singing in the Baptist church when I was young, but I haven't done a musical since Lucky Stiff." On her Tony competition, White joked that she felt like "a piece of gum" on Vanessa Redgrave's shoe. "She's doing a show about the death of her husband and her daughter, and I'm doing one about trying to keep my gay client in the closet. It's like comparing apples and Buicks." White went on to praise all of the other nominees, marveling that she's made it "up from the kids' table to the big table." Of her new network TV show, Cavemen, White revealed that she's being encouraged to indulge her talent for improv. On the way out, champagne in hand, she called out that her striking flowered dress was by Bill Blass, with jewels by Fred Leighton.

11:15pm
The show's over now, but the winners keep coming: Here are the producers of Spring Awakening, revealing that 72 weeks are already booked for the show's national tour, with productions afoot in across the globe, from Britain and Germany to France and Korea. "All over the world, they seem comfortable with the story itself and where it comes from," Tom Hulce said. Ira Pittelman admitted that he was surprised at the interest in the show across America, including towns like Indianapolis. "In our own crazy way we've turned into a family show—moms bringing their teenage daughters, fathers bringing their sons. Maybe they don't sit together," he said with a laugh, "but they're coming." Hulce claimed the Spring Awakening producers never originally intended to bring the show to Broadway. "But 10 performances after the press came, something electric happened in the theater," he recalled. "At the end of that performance, the audience demanded an extra curtain call. The songs began to feel that they wanted to be in a different, larger space. At that point, it seemed that we could genuinely and not irresponsibly consider bringing it uptown." Pittelman echoed, "We had no commercial expectations and no agenda, and we've been as much blown away as anybody else with its success."

11:25pm
A surprise guest: Fantasia! Unfortunately, none of us saw her performance on TV but the Spring Awakening producers referred to how good it was in their presentation. "I have such a heavy dress," the star said in her breathy voice as a minder carried her train onto the podium. Asked if she'd checked out her reviews, Fantasia said, "I did have time to check them out, and they were very good, which was a blessing." The Color Purple was the first Broadway show she had ever seen, she noted, explaining that she called on her own difficult background in North Carolina in creating her version of the show's leading character. "I took myself out of Tasia and put myself in Celie's shoes."

11:30pm
David Hyde Pierce had lots of support within the press room, judging by the enthusiastic reaction to his entrance. How surprised was he? "I was completely surprised. Not only did I not expect to win, I expected to be more together than I was [on stage]. I've been to the Emmys many times, but this meant more to me than I realized because it's the theater." Still he said, "What took the pressure off is that this is not an acting award. It's an award for the writing, choreography and for who I'm working with. I'm not being modest, because I love me," he added, to laughter, "but it's like going surfing and the wave shows up." Told that Debra Monk cried at his win, he said, "I've been an emotional mess this whole week. We all have. We've been doing interviews, performing on talk shows…" Hyde Pierce stopped himself and added, "I completely forgot to mention [choreographer] Rob Ashford and his assistant in my speech, and I should have; he's one of the most important people." Asked about playing the lead in a Broadway show, he said, "I've always been a character actor, and now I appreciate what the supporting actors do. I feel like the flag at Iwo Jima—I have all these people holding me up and all I have to do is wave."

11:35pm
At long last, here's Christine Ebersole, looking far prettier in person than she did on TV in William Ivey Long's fire-engine red dress. I asked her how much pressure she had felt being THE favorite to win among all the Tony categories. Ebersole acknowledged the pressure, but added that having found four kittens under her neighbor's deck five weeks ago helped take her mind off the Tony race. "They still had their umbilical cords on. Two of them passed away, but two lived, and that's what I've been thinking about—wiping their bottoms and making sure they have enough milk." The kittens have been named "Jackie Kittidy" and "Whiskers," a cat name from the Grey Gardens movie. As someone asked about the London production the schedule hasn't been finalized yet, she said, one of Ebersole's Harry Winston diamond drop earrings came off, and she joked, "That's the third time that's happened. I can't lose these or I will be in the paupers' prison!"

Midnight
Once La Ebersole exits, a member of the publicity team calls, "That's it! See you next year." Only one winner failed to make an appearance in the press room, the ever-elusive Frank Langella, Best Actor for Frost/Nixon. As I prepare to go back to Broadway.com's offices, I'm eager to watch the telecast on TiVo to see everything I missed—but it was worth the delay to share the winners' happiness in person after they'd earned the coveted designation "Tony winner."