Tony Awards pre-coverage

The Tony Awards are in less than twenty-four hours, which means the various guests and honorees have spent the evening preparing for the big day in whichever ways they see fit. In some cases, this means attendance at the Tony Awards Cocktail Party held to celebrate the recipients of special awards, including among others the Isabelle Stevenson Award and the Tony Honor of Excellence in the Theatre. Among the guests I had the opportunity to speak with were Billy Elliot actor and Tony nominee David Bologna; Shrek actor and Tony nominee Christopher Sieber; Shrek actor John Tartaglia; Isabelle Stevenson Award recipient and Broadway luminary Phyllis Newman; American Theatre Wing member and Broadway verteran Lucie Arnaz; and [title of show] mastermind and Tony nominee Hunter Bell. Enjoy!

David Bologna
How do you feel about being here?
I’m pretty excited! I’m really, really psyched for this.

And the big day tomorrow…
It’s gonna be a crazy day. Lot of preparations—crazy time there. [laughs]

Well, you’re light years ahead of the game here [age-wise].
[laughs] Yeah.

How did you end up involved with Billy Elliott?
I was doing theatre back in Texas, which is where I’m from, and a friend told me about the auditions in Dallas, so I went up and did the audition and that was in February 2007. And then a year later, in April 2008, they called me back for an audition up here, so I did a couple callbacks here and then at the end of May they told me I got the part.

As you know, the show is a West End transfer. Did you have a lot of involvement with the original creative team?
The creative team, yeah, because all the people who did the production in London worked on the production here. Not really the cast from the original London show, but I know the three Billys [each of whom plays the title role at specified performances] caught a flight to London and studied the show there.

Could you tell me a little about your role as Michael?
Michael is an eccentric person. He’s Billy’s best friend, and he… likes to wear women’s dresses and clothing. [laughter] He’s a really wild individual, and I think he really gives the message to Billy and to the audience to express yourself and to forget what other people think about you and to follow your dreams.

Thanks for talking!
Yeah! It was great.

Christopher Sieber
Hi, it’s nice to meet you!
Nice to see you!

You excited for—?
Tomorrow? Tomorrow, I’m excited for, because it’s going to be over. It’s been the longest five weeks of my life, so that’s going to be great.

So—[a street performer dressed up in full costume and body paint as the Tin Man walks by on the sidewalk]
That was bizarre. [referring to the street performer] You’re a grown man! Hello!

It’s New York.
Well, yeah.

I mean, granted, it’s not Hollywood Boulevard.
No, not at all. But it’s starting to come like that over there, down on 42nd Street.

Well, that is Times Square. So: Shrek the Musical. How did you get involved?
My friend Jason Moore asked me to come and do a reading about three and a half years ago.

It’s been a long time coming!
Yes, it’s been a long time coming, so this show means a lot to me. And I helped create it, so it definitely means a lot to me. But [then] we only had half an act with about five songs and ended up with the big show we have now. And along the way a lot of scenes have been cut, hundreds of songs have been cut, but a lot of the stuff that I created is still there, so that’s good! Yeah.

Regarding the fact that younger people aren’t as involved in theatre—I don’t need convincing, myself, but give a compelling reason why people should come to the theatre.
To come to a Broadway show? You should come see a Broadway show because there’s nothing like it. It’s live performance right before your very eyes, and it’s dangerous because anything can happen with the performances—and it’s exciting, because it’s happening right before your very eyes! It’s unlike anything else. I would say to come see a Broadway show, definitely.

Well, it’s not me you need to convince.
Oh, good.

Thank you so much!
It was nice talking to you!

John Tartaglia
Hi, it’s nice to meet you!
Nice to meet you too!

All right, the Tonys: looking forward to them?
Very much so! This is my… fourth Tony Awards, and I’m still very excited. You never get used to it. [laughs]

The previous three times, what were—
Well, for a show I’ve only been nominated once before—for Avenue Q—but I got to go the next year as a guest and another year as a presenter and now this year for Shrek. So it’s kind of like a familiar place to be. [laughs]

So how did you get involved with Shrek?
Uh, Jason Moore, the director. He called me, and he knew [the role of] Pinocchio would be kind of close to my heart, partly because of the puppetry aspect but also because of the other puppetry parts of the show, so he asked me if I was interested in doing it and I was thrilled to be asked. It was a nice, lucky experience.

Thanks so much; it was great to meet you!
It was nice to meet you! Thank you very much.

Phyllis Newman
It’s lovely to meet you.
Thank you!

How do you feel about being here tonight and being honored?
I’m just miserable and so unhappy. [laughter] I hate being honored and I hate getting dressed up, but I’m doing it because I’m a humanitarian.

[laughter] Well, it’s the typical lead-in question.
No, the truth is I feel very honored. This has never before happened; I have never had an award for doing good work, so I’m thrilled. I’m thrilled also because this raises the issue of women’s health, and it’s been fifteen years [that I’ve been running the Women’s Health Initiative], so I’m very proud.

Well, it’s about time.
Yeah, I agree with you. I agree! [laughter] No, I don’t mean for me! It’s about time to recognize the whole issue.

Of course. How, fifteen years ago, did you decide to develop the Initiative?
Well, it’s a part of the Actors’ Fund. I knew that women’s health was badly in need of support—and the Actor’s Fund is really my partner and really responsible for it, and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS started funding us as well, right from the beginning and for fifteen years, so it’s like we’re all part of this community but there’s never been a women’s thing. And I am a feminist, and I’m proud to be one, so that was the area I wanted to explore.

And it’s great to see the Broadway community come to support this cause—
Oh, they’ve been great!

Ever since it was introduced.
And it’s still the only women’s thing connected with the entertainment industry.

Which is unfortunate, that it’s the only one.
But that’s all right! We got it; we got it!

It was great to meet you.
And you.

Martha Plimpton
It’s great to see you.
Hi, good to see you!

How are you preparing for the big day tomorrow?
Well, tonight I’m going to go out and have some drinks with friends and have dinner with my sweetheart and try and relax a little bit before the mayhem begins tomorrow. And clean the apartment. [laughs] So everyone who comes over doesn’t see my underwear all lying around.

With regards to Pal Joey, you’re not exactly known for being in musicals, so how did you decide to do this particular project?
Well, uh, Jack O’Brien thought he’d call Joe Mantello, our director, and he thought it might be a good idea if they gave me a shot at a musical, so here I am! Really, it was a conspiracy among my friends and colleagues. [laughs] And I was more than happy to try it, considering I hadn’t done a musical since I was a little child and certainly never on Broadway, so, you know, it was a happy event.

Well, look how that turned out, what with your nomination!
Yeah, exactly!

You think you’ll keep going or do you think you’ll hang up your, uh, dancing shoes?
Oh, you know what? I just go with whatever seems like it’s going to be fun, so if something comes up that looks like it’s gonna be fun I’ll do it. You know what I mean? I’ll try not to plan too much, because you know what they say about making plans.

Yeah. Did you collaborate a lot during the rewriting of the musical’s book?
No, I didn’t, because Richard Greenberg was working on the book as his adaptation of John O’Hara’s original book. They intended to combine two characters to make Gladys Bumps a little bit more full, to fill her out a little bit more, and I think they decided to do that fairly early on before I was a part of the production. You know what I mean? So there wasn’t that much to change by the time I was in it, because it had already been written in 1940.

Thanks so much. It was great to speak with you!
You’re very welcome. Nice to talk to you.

Lucie Arnaz
All right, the Tonys are tomorrow and—
Right. I’m excited about the Tonys because I’m presenting the Wing Minute this year. You know, there’s always that short little bit where they come out and talk about the American Theatre Wing—they along with the Broadway League give out the Tonys. And it tends to be a very stuffy… but it’s not gonna be this year, because we’re talking about some of the things that we love that the American Theatre Wing does other than the Tonys, and I’m all about that! I’m always like— [in a voice] “We’re more than the Tonys!” So I get to do that this year.

The Tonys are also working on becoming more accessible to a wider audience—which I think is great because a lot of people aren’t as interested now in Broadway as in the past.
Well, like see what you said? The Tonys are just the award—they’re just one of the many things the American Theatre Wing does. The American Theatre Wing is making the effort to produce Springboard for the young kids coming into New York. They do that wonderful theatre seminar. They do the Downstage Centre program on radio. They give grants to off-Broadway theatres. It’s terrific, what we do! And it’s really a privilege to serve on the board of the directors. But so yes, especially with the internet these days you can go online and go through all the years of interviews—about seventeen a year, that’s like six hundred, seven hundred interviews—and download them all and watch them. So if you’re in the business, you’re trying to learn about the business, you can go through this list of directors, choreographers, actors, stage designers and hear about how they do what they do. It’s better than going to college for theatre, I sweartagawd!

[laughs]
It is! And I have a daughter who’s a theatre major, and what she learned in school you could literally learn by doing the Springboard thing and coming to the intern—that’s another thing we do, our intern project, where you can just work with somebody. It’s pretty amazing, when you think about it.

Is there anything that you’ve sought to pass on to your daughter in terms of lessons in drama?
“Don’t do it!” [laughter] No, it’s never really a done deal. You never “make it” in this business; you’re always proving yourself. You’re always auditioning. You’re only as good as the last big hit you had. That’s true of every version of this business. So if you don’t love-love-love-love-LOVE getting up and doing it every day, get another job. And she understands, she does. And she has her yoga certification now, so she’s thinking it through! [laughter]

Thanks so much. It was nice to meet you!
Good to meet you too.

Hunter Bell
Hi!
[Hunter gives me a bear hug] Hi, sweetie! How are you?

I’m good! How are you?
Fantastic!

I am so happy for you for this nomination! I’m almost as excited as you guys.
Hey, I’ll take it! I’ll take it!

Are you going to start singing the Tony Awards Song when you get onstage?
Well, we did—I don’t know; that’s a good idea! We did an Actor’s Fund night at Feinstein’s and Jeff actually wrote the whole song, so we performed that. Maybe we’ll let it drop after the Tony Awards and see how it goes.

Oh my god, there’s a full version?
There’s a full version that we can rock out.

No!
I’m just sayin’, maybe if we’d gotten the Best Musical nomination we coulda rocked that out, but maybe we can put a leak on iTunes or something. [laughs]

Yeah, a stealth—
Stealth, that’s exactly it! A sneaky, kind of underground-y… you know. But I’m totally excited. I’m freaking out.

So what have you been working on lately?
Well, like I said, we did an Actor’s Fund benefit at Feinstein’s, and that had a lot of cut material from the show, and then my [title of show] peeps and I are doing R Family Cruise—Kelli and Rosie [O’Donnell] do that gay and lesbian cruise line, so we’re going to do that and do some pieces on that. And Jeff and I are working on a project that’s super-secret and super awesome—

Aw, it’s super-secret?
Well, maybe that’ll have us tour the West Coast a little bit, but we’ve just been trying to keep busy and create, create, create, yeah!

Speaking of that Shakespeare in the Park play [you and the other reporter were discussing], it’s got Audra MacDonald, Anne Hathaway, and Raul Esparza.
Oh my god, that’s hot!

I know, right?
That’s hot. Anne Hathaway’s the real deal! She can really sing!

She sang at Sondheim’s birthday celebration a few years ago, didn’t she?
I saw her in… was it Carnival? The Encores! show. I think that was her. She’s got cred; she’s got cred.

She’s got cred! I think she was a soprano before going into…
Being a movie star? [laughs] But, yeah, so we’re writing a bunch of stuff and doing the cruise and we’re going to enjoy the New York summer a little bit. Are you good?

I’m good!
It’s nice to see you.

It’s been too long. I wish I could’ve interviewed you guys again before the show slid off the radar.
We’ll set something up again. We will. We’ll come back soon and then we’ll have some stuff to talk about for reals. It’s nice to see you, sweetie!

Good to see you again!
It’s good to see you too.

The Tony Awards air on Sunday, June 7th at 8pm EST.