Monday, June 11, 2007

Two. Time. Tony. Award. WINNER!!!!

Congratulations on your Tony win for your amazing performances in The Coast of Utopia Jennifer Ehle!

I will try to post photos and whatnot as soon as possible, but here are a couple of things to tide you over:
[Edit: I have been adding things as I go. I apologize in advance for the disorganization.]
  • Visit our forum to read a complete transcript of Ms Ehle's beautiful, beautiful, beautiful speech. (Courtesy of the lovely Kerry!) You can also read a bit of our own squeeeeing at the live chat while you're at the forum. Brace yourself!
  • From Broadway.com's "Live from the winners' circle:"
    9:15pm Jennifer Ehle sweeped in looking gorgeous in a fitted navy satin 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 declared, "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." 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?!
  • BroadwayWorld has photo coverage of the red carpet arrivals. But, where is Jennifer Ehle?!
  • There are a few Tony arrival pictures at Playbill, including one of the Utopians.
  • Playbill also had live updates from the press room:
    9:09 PM A very glamorous Jennifer Ehle — Tony winner for Best Featured Actress in a Play — was just escorted onto the small stage of the press room. About the show's limited run ending, Ehle says, "I haven't been sad the way I thought I would. I thought I'd be devastated. We e-mail obsessively. There's never been a cast that's stayed in touch so much."......9:13 PM "Yay!!!" That was Ehle's response when told her Utopia director, Jack O'Brien, won the Tony for Best Director of a Play. "I'm so happy he won," she added. "It was not very suspenseful, but it's wonderful." As for her own future projects, she said, "I just planted about 70 zinnias, and I'm going to watch them grow."
  • There is similar quotage from Jennifer Ehle at TheaterMania:
    Jennifer Ehle, winner of Best Featured Actress in a Play for Coast of Utopia, says, "I haven't been sad the way I thought since we closed. I haven't been devastated. We email among ourselves incessantly." Asked about competing against her co-star Martha Plimpton, and about having bested her mother, Rosemary Harris, for her first Tony Award for The Real Thing, she says: "This form of competition is not natural among actors. If I am blessed to be nominated again, I hope it's not against my mother."
  • Broadway.com's red carpet photo coverage is now online, and there is a cute picture of Jennifer Ehle with Ethan Hawke. The same site has pictures from the winner's circle and a few more of the arrivals.
  • There are wonderful photos of Ms Ehle on the red carpet and giving her acceptance speech at getty images. (Search for "Jennifer Ehle").
  • WireImage also has tons and tons of Tonys photos!
  • More fabulous pictures of the winners can be found at BroadwayWorld. Also at BroadwayWorld are photos from the Tony Awards cocktail party, which took place the evening before the awards ceremony.
  • Oy! Jennifer Ehle made BwayBaby18 of BroadwayWorld's worst dressed list.
  • There is more quotage from Jennifer Ehle at the Tony website's press room blog:
    [...] Now here's Jennifer Ehle, who just won her second Tony, this time for her performance in The Coast of Utopia. She said she loved all three characters she played in Tom Stoppard's epic play, and that she's performed in different plays at different times in repertory and hopes to again. That is, she said, "A theatre actor's natural habitat." [...]
  • BroadwayWorld has posted a "video teaser" of backstage interviews, which includes a short interview with Jack O'Brien. They will be posting their full coverage tomorrow night.
  • Broadway.com has video footage of the red carpet arrivals, but none of Jennifer Ehle unfortunately.
  • SCORE! The Tonys website has now posted their interviews with the winners! Jennifer Ehle, Tom Stoppard, and Jack O'Brien are among them. The Tonys website also has a few pictures from inside the winnner's circle, not excepting Ms Ehle, and they have posted transcripts of the acceptance speeches. (Note: Kerry's previously mentioned transcript gives more of the lovely details!) Ahh, this same wonderful site now has video footage of the red carpet interviews. Jennifer Ehle, Martha Plimpton, and Ethan Hawke are all interviewed together!

You can see a complete list of this year's winners and nominees at Playbill (or just the winners at Broadway.com). The Coast of Utopia won a total of seven awards, which is the most that any non-musical has ever won in the history of the Tony Awards. Go Utopia!

Here is a list of the awards that went to The Coast of Utopia:

  • Best Play
  • Best Director of a Play: Jack O'Brien
  • Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play: Billy Crudup
  • Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play: Jennifer Ehle
  • Best Scenic Design of a Play: Bob Crowley and Scott Pask
  • Best Costume Design of a Play: Catherine Zuber
  • Best Lighting Design of a Play: Brian MacDevitt, Kenneth Posner, and Natasha Katz

1 comment:

Allegra said...

FYI:

Jennifer also got an EW mention for best plea:

BEST PLEA
Jennifer Ehle, kind of a surprise winner for Featured Actress in a Play for her sterling three roles in Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia, hoping that the play's success will allow theatres to consider the idea of repertory again. Hear, hear!

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20037400_20038186_20042105,00.html