- Title: USA: TONY NOMINEES REFLECT ON THEIR NOMINATIONS
- Date: 11th May 2005
- Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (MAY 11, 2005) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR JAMES EARL JONES SAYING: "We're not even aware of other people doing their plays and suddenly we're blindsighted with this event and it's like a deer in the headlights you know. It's exciting but it's also very distracting you know."
- Embargoed: 26th May 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES / VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Topics: Arts
- Reuters ID: LVA4QAE9QB49AQTDOZ655YUYHFSX
- Story Text: A day after the Tony nominations were announced,
Tony nominees spoke enthusiastically about their roles and
productions.
The "Monty Python's Spamalot" cast was particularly
excited about the jolly family feeling that they share on
and off stage.
The musical has has a total of 14 nominations,
including best musical, best book and best score of a
musical and best direction, by Mike Nichols. Tim Curry and
Hank Azaria were nominated for best leading actor in a
musical, while Michael McGrath, Christopher Sieber and Sara
Ramirez were nominated for supporting roles.
"This show has always been a ridiculously happy family,
so I think we're all just thrilled that so many of us have
been nominated and you know it would be lovely to win
some," said Curry.
Spamalot will be up against surprise Broadway hit The
25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Dirty Rotten
Scoundrels and The Light in The Piazza in the best musical
category.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is based on the movie about a
pair of con artists and stars John Lithgow. Lithgow has
also been nominated for best leading actor in a musical.
"It's a great role for an actor, for a character actor
because he's trying out all kinds of different masks
really, it's a very theatrical story and the audience
follows all of our different strategies and manoeuvrings
and flip-flops of the plot," said Lithgow.
The nominees for best play are Doubt, Democracy, Gem
of the Ocean and The Pillowman.
Actor James Earl Jones, also known for his deep "Darth
Vader" voice in Star Wars, has been nominated for best
leading actor in a play, for his performance in "On Golden Pond".
"We're not even aware of other people doing their plays
and suddenly we're blindsighted with this event and it's like a deer
in the headlights you know. It's exciting but
it's also very distracting you know," said Jones of the
entire nomination game.
John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer-prize winning play
"Doubt," about a nun who suspects a priest of child abuse,
was the most nominated play, with eight including best play
and best actor and actress for its stars Brian F. O'Byrne
and Cherry Jones.
"My director Doug Hughes was marvellous in that he kept
pushing me to be sort of more and more appalling. I am a
very jolly, soft, flabby person. My mind is soft and flabby
and she is rigid and certain and so I really had to build
up my muscles in a way to play this part," said Jones.
In what has been touted as a sympathy factor
nomination, Christina Applegate has been recommended for
best leading actress in a musical for her performance in
"Sweet Charity". Applegate broke her foot during "Sweet
Charity's" out-of-town tryout. The injury led the producers
to cancel the Broadway engagement untiuntillegate persuaded
them to get the show back on stage.
"I've been through an unbelievable couple of months and
you know, you hear about the foot, you hear about the show
closing but to live all of that is a whole other experience
and so much growth happens in that time. But for this to
happen, it makes us all feel so vindicated and we're just
thrilled," said Christina Applegate.
One of the actresses who was passed over for a
nomination is Natasha Richardson. Richardson plays the role
of Blanche Du Bois in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named
Desire. Her aunt, actress Lynn Redgrave expressed
disappointment at the lack of this nomination at a Tony
Awards press conference on May 10th.
The Tony Awards are presented by Tony Award
Productions, a joint venture of the League of American
Theatres and Producers and the American Theatre Wing.
The 59th annual awards will be presented on June 5 at
Radio City Music Hall in New York. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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