Kelli O’Hara, Eddie Redmayne, Camille A. Brown, and More React to Their Tony Nominations!

We have the list of 2024 Tony nominees, and we’re chatting with the members of the illustrious class of 2023 to hear their first reactions to the big news. Check out some of their reactions below.

Kelli O’Hara – Best Actress in a Musical – Days of Wine and Roses
It never gets old! This has been such a celebration. It’s been 22 years since we had this idea, and to have it end this way, just to be recognized, and to do this together, is really rewarding. It wouldn’t even have made sense without Brian. We’re a team.

Leslie Kritzer – Best Featured Actress in a Musical – Spamalot
[crying] I still can’t believe it. I’m totally a mess. I’ll say it 8 million times today, but my mother passed away a year ago and I just really wanted it for her, so for it to happen is so meaningful. I’m so grateful and I love what I do. I love my show and all the people I got to work with. This is just a dream. I’ve wanted this since I was a kid, I’m not gonna lie. It’s the thing you dream about for a long time.

Brian d’Arcy James – Best Actor in a Musical – Days of Wine and Roses
It’s very, very special. I’ve been lucky enough to be in this boat before, and there’s something about this time, maybe because we’re older and savoring what you have, and the lives we get to live, that makes it really special. This is the best way it could have happened. I revere Kelli so much as an artist and I’m a good friend of hers, as well, so it’s super fun to be able to cheer her on from the sidelines, but also know that it was more than the sidelines. It was a real duo. We really were given a gift in creating these two characters. It’s an extra way to celebrate.

Paula Vogel – Best Play – Mother Play
Thanks to the brilliance of Tina Landau’s direction, Mother Play with only three weeks of rehearsal has opened cold on Broadway with Tony nominations for the play and the actors.  My colleagues gave me a tremendous gift and I am grateful. I am grateful to be in the category with these wonderful writers.

Eden Espinosa – Best Actress in a Musical – Lempicka
I’m proud of our show and I’m proud of the work that we’ve done. I’ve invested nine years in this piece, so make it to Broadway after all this time is the biggest gift. I have nothing but the warm fuzzies today, love and pride. To originate something and see it from its inception to getting to actual Broadway is sometimes a very long journey. There are a lot of when doubt creeps in. All of this happened at a time in my life when I released all of that desperation or need. All of this came when I didn’t need it anymore, if that makes sense, which makes it all the more beautiful.

Shaina Taub – Best Musical – Suffs
I grew up in Waitsfield, Vermont, watching the Tonys every year with my mom. I remember watching Rent and Ragtime and Lion King and all these great shows, and just dreaming of being a part of the community, so it’s just completely surreal and amazing to get to be a part of the community this year and the Broadway community is everything I ever could’ve dreamed and hoped. It’s so supportive and generous and wonderful. Being nominated with so many friends I came up with. To have my own show and to be acknowledged for writing…it was a really hard show to write with so many years of hard work. I’m just so proud and especially proud of my collaborators Leigh and Nikki, who have been with us from the start, from our very first twenty minute reading of Suffs. It’s an amazing day because I’m actually headed out—we’re in the middle of recording our cast album. So we’re going to spend all day in the studio recording and then do the show at night, so I just can’t wait to see my cast mates, we all love each other so much, it’s such a sisterhood. I’m just so glad we get to be together today.

Leigh Silverman – Best Director of a Musical – Suffs
I feel really genuinely so grateful not only for the recognition for me, but really for the whole show. This show is the product of many people coming together and working so hard at the top of their game to tell this story with dedication and a unrelenting passion to tell this story. I am so grateful that our excitement about this story at this time told this way has been recognized. We’re going to record the cast album today, so we’re going to celebrate by singing some Tony-nominated music!

Jill Furman and Rachel Sussman – Producers – Suffs
Rachel: I got married on Wednesday at City Hall — it’s been kind of a crazy week! So I found out watching in bed with my pregnant wife and our puppy, I had my phone next to me texting Jill the entire time. In this moment in our world in this election year, a show about voting rights, about women who changed the world, feels so profound. It’s an honor to be able to share our show with audiences and have it recognized, especially right now.

Jill: We’ve been developing this for the better part of a decade, and every step of the way it felt more and more timely. It’s so rewarding and profound to have arrived on Broadway in this election year when women’s rights are on the ballot. We’re so proud of the team for all the work and the passion and the commitment and we’re just excited.

Lamar Richardson – Best Revival of a Play and Musical – Appropriate and Merrily We Roll Along
Today’s two nominations mean the absolute world to me as a Black multi-hyphenate artist in this industry. After a decade of working as an actor, to now also be a 3-time Tony Award-nominated producer following my second Broadway season is surreal. As one of the youngest Black producers to accomplish this, my heart is bursting with gratitude, and I pray that I can be a visible representation of what disrupting a homogenous space looks like for those coming up after me. Huge congratulations to the entire companies of Merrily We Roll Along, Appropriate, and The Wiz!

Jocelyn Bioh – Playwright, Best Play – Jaja’s African Hair Braiding
It is hard to put into words the deep gratitude I have for the incredible experience of creating Jaja’s African Hair Braiding. I’m so honored that our beautiful production was recognized by the nominating committee with 5 Tony nominations. This is a dream bigger than any I could have imagined sitting in the chair of a Harlem hair braiding shop as a kid. That little girl never thought a day like today was possible, but it is one I will never, ever forget.

I was watching. I was sitting with my husband and my 10-month0old baby. I watch the Tony nominations every single year for probably the last 20 years, I always think it’s the most exciting and incredible morning, and every year there’s been more people that I knew nominated and more friends, and I just never imagined a moment like this for me, so it’s been pretty surreal. Jaja’s is a play I feel like I’ve been writing my whole life and it’s the culmination of so many things and me being true to who I am as a writer, my voice, putting Black diaspora culture on a Broadway stage in such a unique way and getting a nomination, it feels historic. There’s actually a chance. A Black woman has never won Best Play before. Even the thought of something like that happening for me is really incredible and exciting.

Paul Tazewell – Best Costumes – Suffs
It’s just a warm feeling being honored being acknowledged for all our hard work. This season has been  a challenging one, just getting the work out, and to be acknowledged for the work that we do–my design team and myself and all the makers–it’s really delightful to be acknowledged publicly and celebrated in that way. I celebrate all of the other designers that made it on the list along with me, and it just speaks to great work and I really cherish that. I am going to actually be doing some of our final touches for Death Becomes Her here in Chicago, we have our first preview performance tonight–I’ve been working on the next big thing! So I’ll joyfully carry the feeling of being nominated and move onto what we have going on with Death Becomes Her.”

Orin Wolfe – Producer – Illinoise
I’m so happy for Justin, Jackie, Timo and the entire Illinoise family.  We love what’s happening at the St. James and I hope this recognition continues to bring more people to the theater.

Jessica Stone – Best Director of a Musical – Water or Elephants
I have two teens and they were fast asleep and my husband was in DC, so I was alone the couch and was holding my breath about Best Musical because its an award that encompasses everyone. It takes an army and reflects the collaboration between Rick, Shanna, and Jesse, the company and the creatives of the production. To celebrate I am going to have a toasted everything bagel with cream cheese and have a manicure.

Shana Carroll – Best Choreography – Water For Elephants
I was nervous to watch the stream and my husband didn’t tell me a he was watching it in the bedroom and he ran and told me I got the nomination, I didn’t believe him but that would be a awful thing to joke about. My kids were home from school today so I became this great family moment. I feel like we try to dream big, but I never thought that this would happen, this was an impossible milestone to reach when you didn’t think that was possible. I’m also so proud to be nominated next to my arranged marriage co-choreographer Jesse Robb in this nomination. We worked so well and created something beautiful together.

Linda Cho – Costume Design – The Great Gatsby
I was in my bathrobe this morning and was trying to figure out where the nominations were being announce. It’s exciting and lovely to be part of this community. We all know each other and have worked together, we have all had successes and flops, and this feels like being able to take a turn on the merry-go-round and be able to celebrate everyone in this season.  On Mother’s day and  my birthday I get to tell my family what to so today is gonna be one of those days.

Shoshana Bean – Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical – Hell’s Kitchen
Thank you American Theatre Wing for this honor! I’m thrilled to be nominated alongside these talented women whom I love and admire. Most of all I am so proud of our entire Hell’s Kitchen family and am endlessly grateful we get to tell this story together every night. Congratulations to everyone!!

Kecia Lewis – Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical – Hell’s Kitchen
I am overjoyed to be nominated, which is to me an acknowledgment of my work and the work of ALL of the nominees. After 40 years of working in theater, it feels GOOD!

Natasha Katz – Best Lighting Design in a Musical – Hell’s Kitchen
Beautifully surreal to find out about 2 Tony nominations while boarding a plane!! I’ll celebrate with some airplane food.  I’m thrilled. More celebrations on landing!! I’ll lift a glass to everyone!!

Kristoffer Diaz – Best Book of a Musical – Hell’s Kitchen
This team is the best team, and I could not be more thrilled to be nominated alongside so many of my dear, dear friends. It’s gonna be one hell of a party at the Tonys.

Will Butler – Best Score and Orchestrations – Stereophonic
What a lovely morning. Everyone’s so happy. David wrote a hell of a play, and we all put our hearts into it. To see the work recognized, my own included, is great. Me and Justin Craig spent a lot of time in that room with that band, and I’m so moved that people recognized that. It’s really, genuinely moving. And just fun. I’ve been sitting in my house and it feels like the biggest party ever. Doing the work is such a reward and being in the room with this play and these actors and Tom and Sarah and Juliana singing my songs, that is its own reward.

Rick Elice – Best Book of a Musical – Water for Elephants
It’s what they call a Labor of Love. It takes a long time to get shows on. Eight years, in this particular case, including that period of time during Covid, when we really had the time to attack it, just the writers, which is something we could do. Big props to Jessica Stone, of course, for getting the show on. I feel a little heartbroken for the actors, who are so good, and I’m quite anxious to get down to the theater later to tell them how great they are and make sure they understand it. It’s one thing to write it and get on with your life, but it’s the people who make it happen eight times a week that are the real heroes of our little story. I don’t want them to be unsung, so I’m I’m gonna go sing their praises.

Camille A. Brown – Best Choreography – Hell’s Kitchen
I’m feeling great. Oh, my gosh. I think that’s an understatement. I am originally from New York City, born and raised here, so to be able to have the opportunity to put my observations and perspectives on a Broadway stage, to Alicia Keys music, and then to be acknowledged for it, it’s truly special. Shout out to the cast and dancers. They are just fantastic.

Jim Parsons – Best Featured Actor in a Play – Mother Play
Anyone who works on a Paula Vogel play feels like you’re being given a gift, a sacred gift. And I knew I was going to say yes before I even read it. I’m maybe even more exciting than I wish I were for an award. It’s so special. I’ve never been nominated for a Tony and since theater is my first love, it’s just meaning ul to me in a different way. This project has been so special. That’s the other thing. It would be just as special without it, but it is a really nice symbol for what’s been such a nice experience.

Tom Kitt – Best Orchestrations (Co-orchestrator) – Hell’s Kitchen
It is a tremendous honor to be nominated in this great season, and I send heart-felt congratulations to all my fellow Tony nominees.  I’m immensely grateful and proud to share this with Adam Blackstone, and it’s been one of the greatest thrills of my life to collaborate with Alicia Keys on her incredible music.  I also want to congratulate the entire brilliant company of Hell’s Kitchen whose artistry inspired my work every step of the way.

Danya Taymor – Best Direction of a Musical – The Outsiders
To be recognized among this incredible group of artists is a gift and an incredible honor and beyond my wildest dreams. That so many of my fellow Outsiders collaborators have also been recognized for their work across disciplines really affirms the power of deep collaboration. And thank you to Susie Hinton, who at 15 years old wrote the novel The Outsiders, an unflinching, raw, real portrait of what it actually feels like to be a teenager growing up in the great class divide chasm of America–it’s a story for everyone that can help us all hold one another close through the hardest of times. It’s an honor to be able to share this story with a new generation of theatergoers.

Justin Levine – Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Orchestrations – The Outsiders
I’m truly speechless. This show has been such a huge part of my life for the past eight years. I’ve made dear friends, found chosen family, and I’m so excited we get to celebrate each other in this way. So proud and grateful for the whole Outsiders company and everyone on my teams who put their soul into this!

Jonathan Clay – Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations – The Outsiders
I am beyond words. To get to share in this moment with my best friend and songwriting partner from the age of 15 is something truly special. To say that we’re honored would be an understatement. I’m so incredibly proud of our team, and so thankful to everyone who believes in this musical. Stay Gold.

Zach Chance – Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations – The Outsiders
I’m currently overwhelmed, humbled, and honored. It’s been an almost nine-year journey, and I couldn’t be more proud of the entire Outsiders team.

Matt Hinkley – Best Orchestrations – The Outsiders
My unofficial reaction is that I’m literally alone in my house just wandering around and yelling. My official reaction is that working with Justin, Jonathan, and Zach these past nearly-seven years has very honestly been one of the most wonderful and rewarding experiences of my life; with Danya, Adam, and the rest of the team, it’s been done with such enjoyment, love, trust, and respect. The fact that it’s translating to the wider world is simply beyond words.

Michael Greif – Best Direction of a Musical – Hell’s Kitchen
It’s such an honor to be part of this incredible season on Broadway, and direct (or co-direct) three musicals that were all so beautiful in their own ways. I’ve been so inspired by the wonderful actors and collaborators I’ve worked with on Days of Wine and Roses, The Notebook, and Hell’s Kitchen and am happy to see so many of them recognized. I’m proud to be nominated alongside so many of my talented colleagues and to celebrate an art form I love so much.

Eddie Redmayne – Best Actor in a Musical – Cabaret
This production of Cabaret has been the journey of a lifetime. It means a huge amount that the show has been recognized across so many aspects of the production, and personally, to be considered alongside the immense talent in this category is a wonder.  Diving into the miraculous world of Kander, Ebb and Masteroff nightly is the stuff of dreams. To do it with the brilliant Rebecca Frecknall at the helm, alongside Gayle, Ato, Bebe, Steven and our incandescent cast and formidable crew is beyond those wildest dreams. Thank you for embracing us and this production.

Gayle Rankin – Best Actress in a Musical – Cabaret
I am so wildly proud to be nominated inside of Rebecca’s incredible vision. It’s been the honor of my career, so far, to play Sally. I’m over the moon for the love and support The Broadway League and The American Theater Wing has shown our production and I can’t wait to get back on stage tonight.”

Scott Brown and Anthony King – Best Revival of a Musical – Gutenberg
We didn’t wake up this morning planning to eat dreams, but we’re eating them now. This show was the very definition of a group effort, and today that group — Alex Timbers, Josh Gad, Andrew Rannells and a murderer’s row of incredible musicians, artists, designers and producers — is gonna knock off work early and have a biscuit.

Nikki M. James – Best Featured Actress in a Musical – Suffs
I am completely overwhelmed and beyond proud of this show and of the work that all the humans who have touched it have done to bring this story to life. Obviously I have to single out Shaina Taub. I cannot say enough things about how much I love and respect Shaina. And how grateful I am to her and Leigh for trusting me with Ida. Playing Ida B. Wells is a humbling experience and an honor. I also have to thank the incredible team of family and friends, my husband most of all, who have rallied around me and held me up while I juggled being a good mom to my daughter and being the artist I aspire to be. “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” – Ida B. Wells, The Light of Truth: Writings of an Anti-Lynching Crusader

Jeff and Rick Kuperman – Best Choreography – The Outsiders
We’re deeply honored to be recognized alongside the extraordinary artists who are our fellow nominees. And we’re grateful that the creativity of our collaborators across so many departments is being celebrated this morning. That’s perhaps what feels most special.

Bradley King – Best Lighting Design of a Musical – Water for Elephants
In a year absolutely filled with such incredible talent, I’m beyond humbled to have been nominated with David. Working on Water for Elephants was an absolute dream come true, and I could not have asked for better collaborators to share the love! I’m also so thrilled to see so many of my friends and colleagues recognized for their exceptionally beautiful work this season! I can’t wait to party with everyone!

Jennifer Costello and Peter Schneider – Producers – Water for Elephants
It is an honor for Water for Elephants to be nominated in this incredibly diverse and rich season. We thank our amazing cast, company and the entire creative team for their passionate and inspired collaboration.

Juliana Canfield – Best Featured Actress in a Play – Stereophonic
It does feel really nice. Doing the play is such a pleasure, and I love doing it. So this feels kind of like…I don’t know, it’s icing and sprinkles and a cherry on top. But the cake was just as delicious. Yesterday, our cast won a Drama Desk Award for best ensemble, and it was such a thrilling piece of news to get. It’s a play about a band, and our band is only as strong as each of its musicians and engineers. Any of us being nominated speaks to the strength of the whole group. I’m so excited and so thrilled.

David Adjmi – Playwright, Best Play – Stereophonic
You fall in love with every piece you make and sometimes, other people don’t. I got used to that. I gave myself the narrative that I’m this weird guy who writes these polarizing plays and that’s fine. This one had a different kind of reception, and I am in shock. It just feels unreal and I don’t trust it. I’m not used to the kinds of things. I don’t know how to explain how much my collaborators gave of themselves, and how egoless they were in the pursuit of making something excellent. I’ll never forget it. These people are first-class human beings. I got so, so, so lucky.

Adam Rapp – Best Book of a Musical – The Outsiders
I’m thrilled to receive this nomination. Helping to bring Susie Hinton’s beautiful novel to the stage has been a true honor. It’s been one of the greatest collaborations of my life.

Stephen Gabriel and Ira Pittelman – Producers – The Who’s Tommy
“We’re so thrilled Tommy was recognized for Best Revival of a Musical! Special thanks to Pete Townshend, Des McAnuff, Lorin Latarro, the 29-member cast led by Ali Louis Bourzgui, and the incredible music and design teams.”

Sarah Pidgeon – Best Featured Actress in a Play – Stereophonic
Today is so surreal. To be nominated alongside such talented artists is an honor and to see Stereophonic receive so much recognition — I am incredibly grateful. There was 10 years of work put into this show before I joined, and since then I’ve seen people work tirelessly and pour their whole selves into this story. I’m so lucky to get to do it again tonight. Thank you to the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing. When we began working on the show, David Adjmi told me that Diana is just so happy to be in the studio working alongside her band and I share that feeling every night walking into the Golden Theatre.

Kara Young – Best Featured Actress in a Play – Purlie Victorious
The significance of Purlie Victorious being honored in this way feels very important in the grand scheme of things. As I’m speaking to you, I’m getting emotional. It feels like Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee are being nominated. The legacy of them is so important in our American fabric. People didn’t know about this play but the play is so rich and so revolutionary, and so important. It feels bigger than just me being nominated.

Celia Keenan-Bolger – Best Featured Actress in a Play – Mother Play
I will say, I thought that after I won [for To Kill a Mockingbird] I could relax. I don’t know if it’s because I really care about this play that I wanted it so badly. I’m not sure I could have felt as happy if it wasn’t all three of us. We’re so dependent on one another that the system doesn’t function if we’re not all there. I also have to say, to be included in this season of great plays — and the fact that every nomination for Best Play is written by an American writer — that part of it feels very significant. We’re in such a golden age of American plays.

Kenny Leon – Best Director of a Play – Purlie Victorious
I’ve been nominated a couple of time and won once, but I’m so proud of Purlie Victorious‘s nominations. I was talking to the Ossie Davis estate this morning and telling them that I hope we honored their father. I didn’t know that this would mean so much to me.

Lindsay Mendez – Best Featured Actress in a Musical – Merrily We Roll Along
My God, I’m so honored to be part of this season. It’s such an incredible end to the Merrily story, that this show is having its moment right now. I’m just thrilled.

Maria Friedman – Best Direction of a Musical – Merrily We Roll Along
I am so honored to have been given the opportunity to bring Merrily home to Broadway and absolutely thrilled for the entire company and my fellow creative team. I feel enormously lucky that Steve trusted me with this work and know he and George Furth would be so happy today. I first encountered MERRILY as an actor in 1992 in Leicester as Steve and George first revisited the show and have, now, had an almost 12-year journey with this show as a director. It’s been an immensely personal and profound experience. I can’t believe a girl from Hackney is a Tony nominee and that I have the great thrill to share this nomination with my sister, MERRILY producer Sonia Friedman. My only heartbreak is that I’m not holding hands with Steve and George right now.

Jonathan Groff – Best Leading Actor in a Musical – Merrily We Roll Along
I feel so lucky to be a part of this show and to be sharing this experience with every member of our incredible company. Maria’s dream for this production was to showcase the brilliance of Merrily, and the acknowledgement of 7 nominations this morning means so much to all of us. The Tony Awards were my gateway to theater as a kid, so to be included this year as a nominee is a surreal dream-come-true feeling, and it means even more to be sharing the joy and celebration with my Old Friends.

Michael Stuhlbarg – Best Leading Actor in a Play – Patriots
Thank you to the Tony nominators for this tremendous honor. It has been an absolute privilege to be back on Broadway with the extraordinary company and creative team of Patriots, and you honor us all in remembering us with this today. Thank you!

Brandon Stirling Baker – Best Lighting Design of a Musical – Illinoise
Receiving this Tony nomination is beyond words, shows like this are so very rare, and even more rare to find a beautiful family like the company of ILLINOISE. This is a dream come true and [I’m] forever grateful.

Matthew Rego, Michael Rego, and Hank Unger, The Araca Group – Producers, Best Musical – The Outsiders
It has been an honor working with this group of talented, passionate, and singular artists, witnessing their determination as they endeavored to create a piece of theater that was bold, poignant, and thrilling. Today, we are beyond grateful for the recognition that this entire team has received through their years of hard work, grit, and love. We celebrate them today and every day as we carry on the legacy of S.E. Hinton, bringing her iconic story to life on stage.

Cody Spencer – Best Sound Design of a Musical – The Outsiders and Here Lies Love
I am humbled and honored to be nominated with this wonderfully talented group of designers. I could not be more proud of my work this season and I am grateful to the members of the American Theater Wing and the Broadway League for the recognition.

Alicia Keys – Best Musical – Hell’s Kitchen
This moment has been a dream of mine since the days my mother would take me to see Broadway shows as a child. This show is my mother’s dream realized, and every day I think back to those moments and how she has given me the gift of experience theater and art. I am deeply grateful for the continued accomplishments of Hell’s Kitchen and the full circle moment this experience has brought.

Dorian Harewood – Best Leading Actor in a Musical – The Notebook
My manager woke me up this morning to tell me I had been nominated! I wasn’t sure I heard her correctly and I could not be more honored. Coming back to Broadway after 40-some years to work on such a beautiful show was a dream come true. The icing on the cake is being nominated with my onstage wife, Maryann Plunkett, and our book writer Bekah Brunstetter. Thank you to Michael Greif and Schele Williams for taking me on this journey, to Ingrid Michelson for the most beautiful score, and to my fellow Notebook cast, you’ve helped me fly!

Will Brill – Best Featured Actor in a Play – Stereophonic
I have had the stupidest luck over the past two years. It’s so insane that I got to go from Case for the Existence of God to Fellow Travelers to Uncle Vanya to this. It’s been insanely cool groups of people and such good projects and I feel like there is a rift of the universe that I have benefited from. I saw my name, I was like “the hype was real, what an honor.” But then I saw my castmates names and it was so moving. I am in such awe of them, and to see a person you love celebrated is such a moving experience. I’m feeling really happy for them and really lucky. I have the best seat in the house. I get to watch all of those people act from three feet away. It’s the greatest gift.

Lynne Meadow – Producer – Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Prayer for the French Republic, and Mary Jane
On behalf of all of us at Manhattan Theatre Club, I’m so proud that all three plays we produced on Broadway were Tony nominated. Each play was very different, but equally great: Jocelyn Bioh’s vibrant and compelling comic drama Jaja’s African Hair Braiding was set in a hair braiding salon in Harlem in 2019, Joshua Harmon’s resonant and powerful Prayer for the French Republic took place in Paris in the 1940s and 2016, and Amy Herzog’s heroic and moving Mary Jane follows a resilient single mother in present-day Queens.

We’re so grateful to the brilliant playwrights who created these exceptional works and to all the talented artists who brought them to life on our stages (26 of whom made their Broadway debuts), and of course to the large and diverse audiences who gave us a season of standing ovations every single night.”

Lila Neugebauer – Best Direction of a Play – Appropriate
I was on the subway headed to a doctor’s appointment and I got a text from my sister saying, “Did you know you were going to be nominated for a Tony Award”? And I said, “No, not until right now.” It’s really moving and humbling to be nominated in the company of so many friends and colleagues who I respect and admire so deeply. And I think above all to see my collaborators from both Appropriate and Uncle Vanya nominated, that’s intensely beautiful. This work is an expression of collaborative creation and seeing them recognized is the best. I’m going back to Appropriate tonight, so I guess that’s how I’m celebrating. I’m going to stop by both shows. I’m going to celebrate with my companies.

Jesse Robb – Best Choreography – Water for Elephants
I am completely bowled over and in a state of absolute elation. Sharing this with the genius Shana Carroll is the greatest honor and I am so grateful to Jessica Stone, our producers, my associate Paige Parkhill and the entire company of Water for Elephants! I am so thrilled for all of us — we poured so much love and thought into this show, a truly remarkable group of artists. Young Jesse Robb is floored.

David Reynoso – Best Costume Design – Water for Elephants
I am so overjoyed and honored to be recognized in this way… Hearing my name called, I immediately burst into tears and then went to wake up my kids (We live on the West Coast). It is incredible to me to be able to have my name alongside these exceptional designers who I admire so much…. To have my work on Water for Elephants recognized in such a way is such a wild feeling… I never imagined in my wildest dreams as a young boy in Mexico that I’d get to experience something like this. This show has been such a phenomenal experience and I’m so grateful to have been part of a team of such exceptional artists who inspired me to bring my best work. Thank you Tonys for this! I am forever grateful.

David Zinn – Best Scenic Design of a Play – Jaja’s African Hair Braiding
When you’re making the model of a set for the first production of a play ever, you just want those pieces of cardboard and pins and paint and glue to serve the story as best as it can — it’s impossible to look beyond that. It was honor enough just to be allowed to be in the room with all these artists while we created Jaja, so for it to receive the love it has this week is a thrill, and a reflection not only of Jocelyn’s beautiful play but of Whitney’s amazing work assembling our company of brilliant actors and the designers who brought the world of Jaja’s African Hair Braiding to life. It’s a love letter to those women, and to New York, and it’s humbling to be honored for that work.