Fancy Meeting You Here!

Tony Award host Whoopi Goldberg and a host of nominees including Patti LuPone, Boyd Gaines, Laura Benanti, Laurence Fishburne, Martha Plimpton, Patrick Stewart, and Laurie Metcalf attend the annual Meet the Nominees Event.

By Joseph Marzullo,Brian Scott Lipton • May 15, 2008 • New York

The annual Tony Awards Meet the Nominees event was held on Wednesday, May 14 at the New York Hilton. Former winner Whoopi Goldberg, who will host The Tony Awards on Sunday, June 15 at Radio City Music Hall -- to be broadcast live on CBS -- was among the stars who dropped by.

Another former Tony winner, Laurence Fishburne, is the only American nominated as Best Leading Actor in a Play -- for his work as late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in the solo show Thurgood.

Here's Lord and Lady Macbeth -- first time nominees Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood, who star in Rupert Goold's celebrated revival of Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth.

Mary McCormack and Mark Rylance were nominated for their hilarious work as unlikely lovers Gretchen and Robert in Boeing-Boeing, which is also up for Best Revival of a Play.

Here are a quartet of extremely deserving nominees: S. Epatha Merkerson (Come Back, Little Sheba), Laurie Metcalf (November), and Rondi Reed and Amy Morton (August: Osage County).

Deanna Dunagan was the third member of the August cast to earn a Tony nomination, for her role as the tough-talking, pill-popping matriarch Violet Weston.

Martha Plimpton earned her second consecutive nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Play -- this time for playing the roles of Pope Joan and Angie in Caryl Churchill's feminist drama Top Girls.

Jim Norton is a Best Featured Actor in a Play nominee for his hilarious work as a blind and frequently drunk Irishman in Conor McPherson's The Seafarer.

Moving onto musicals, Laura Benanti, Patti LuPone, and Boyd Gaines are all nominated for their work in Arthur Laurents' critically acclaimed revival of Gypsy.

Tom Wopat and Faith Prince were recognized for their stunning portrayals of Tom and Aggie Hurley in A Catered Affair.

There's been lots of happy talk on the set of South Pacific, which earned 11 total nominations, including nods for actors Loretta Ables Sayre, Danny Burstein, Kelli O'Hara, and Paolo Szot.

British star Daniel Evans earned his first Tony nomination as Best Leading Actor in a Musical for Sunday in the Park with George.

Andrea Martin, a former Best Featured Actress in a Musical winner, is nominated this year for her hysterical performance in Young Frankenstein.

The beautiful de'Adre Aziza is a first-time nominee for playing multiple roles in the hit musical Passing Strange, which earned 7 total nominations, including Best Musical.

Olga Merediz and Robin DeJesus were recognized for their work in In the Heights, which leads the Tony pack with a total of 13 nominations.

For TheaterMania's story on the nominees' reactions to the big news, click here.
For a complete list of nominees, click here.
To vote for your Tony Awards winners, click here.