Quotable Quotes: 2004 Red Carpet
Who: Tony Award nominees and presenters
What: The 2004 Tony Awards
Where: The red carpet in front of Radio City Music Hall
When: Sunday, June 6, 2004
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"It's the pinnacle. It's the peak. It's the actor's award. It's the dream. There's the Oscars, there's the Emmys, but the Tonys represent something very special because not everyone can do eight shows a week. Sometimes I wonder how I do it myself!" --Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Best Actress in a Musical nominee for Avenue Q
"It's about celebrating excellence in theater and trying to make it a party. It's not focusing on the competition, but just continuing to raise the bar. And damn…the bar has been raised pretty high this year!" --Donna Murphy, Best Actress in a Musical nominee for Wonderful Town
"I'm feeling relaxed. This is my hometown. I've spent more than half of my life on the stages of Broadway." --Tovah Feldshuh, Best Actress in a Play nominee for Golda's Balcony
"It's a fun event. I wasn't expecting to be here. It was a surprise. We didn't expect to get nominated. The whole thing's a bit mad, but I'm glad I'm here." --Boy George, nominee for Best Original Score for Taboo
"To make my debut and be embraced and welcomed into the community this way is just a dream." --Jennifer Westfeldt, Best Featured Actress in a Musical nominee for Wonderful Town
"This time I'm up for a play and not a musical, which feels very grown up. My hair is shorter! I'm eight years older and I'm married, which is quite grown up. And I'm still in this business, which is quite an accomplishment." --Daphne Rubin-Vega, Best Featured Actress in a Play nominee for Anna in the Tropics, on the difference between this and her nomination in 1996 for Rent
"It's nice coming back around a second time because you know what things to worry about and what things not to worry about. It's easier to be able to enjoy the whole experience." --Michael Cerveris, Best Featured Actor in a Musical winner for Assassins
"How'd I get myself ready today? I had 47 bottles of champagne." --George C. Wolfe, nominee for Best Direction of a Musical for Caroline, or Change
"I got up at one o'clock. I played the Playstation. I got a haircut and got dressed and that was it!" --Euan Morton, Best Actor in a Musical nominee for Taboo, on his pre-Tony activities
"I checked my e-mail and got a protein shake! I just kind of prayed and took a deep breath and talked to my family. I'm just crossing my fingers. Honestly it's just an honor to be nominated. I know everyone says that, but it's very true." --John Tartaglia, Best Actor in a Musical nominee for Avenue Q
"I had a disaster. I tried to relax by putting teabags on my eyes but I had a nervous reaction so I had squares over my eyes until about an hour ago. I hope I don't have too much makeup on!" --Susan Hilferty, winner for Best Costume Design for Wicked
"I spent the night in a hotel so I could wake up on my own time instead of on my children's time. After rehearsal, I had a two-person oil body massage and they dusted me with herbs and then put me in a steam tent and they put oils in my nose and in my ears. And then I had tea and a pedicure and went back to the hotel and just lay down until everyone came to make me beautiful." --Tonya Pinkins, Best Actress in a Musical nominee for Caroline, or Change
"I did a matinee, so I'm sort of punch-drunk and stupid at the moment." --Jefferson Mays, Best Actor in a Play winner for I Am My Own Wife
"I got up late. My husband gave me flowers. I took my time today. That was the best thing I could do." --Daphne Rubin-Vega
"I did a show today, which was nice because A it was nice to have something else to think about and B it's good to be reminded what this is all for and in recognition of. I had one of the best show's I've had in a while and I think it was because I'm so grateful that I get to do this period." --Michael Cerveris
"My boyfriend and I checked into the Four Seasons and had a day at the spa. Now we're slathered in peach and juniper and we're ready to go." --Doug Wright, winner for Best Play for I Am My Own Wife
"Me! I watch Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and I just zsuz it up. That's what they told me to do." --Hunter Foster, Best Actor in a Musical nominee for Little Shop of Horrors, on who did his hair
"I should have eaten. I'm so hungry. But I'm all packed in the dress now." --Kristin Chenoweth, Best Actress in a Musical nominee for Wicked
"I always dress up. There doesn't have to be an occasion. I'm a freak!" --Boy George
"I thought it would be good to go with the full Scottish regalia--including the Scottish boxer shorts, which I'm hiding underneath for later points in the day." --Euan Morton
"I was going to sign it but I thought, if by some chance I won, I'd be too terrified!" --Michael McElroy, Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Big River, on his acceptance speech
"If I win I'll probably just stand there and blubber away like the Irish girl that I am." --Beth Fowler, Best Featured Actress in a Musical nominee for The Boy From Oz
"No. No need for speeches tonight." --Alfred Molina, Best Actor in a Musical nominee for Fiddler on the Roof
"I would be so crushed if I was just sitting there at the end holding my speech in my hand and somebody was giving theirs. No way." --Anika Noni Rose, Best Featured Actress in a Musical winner for Caroline, or Change
"I hope I don't win. I hope Michael [Cerveris] wins. I'm happy for what I've got and I feel like it's someone else's year." --Denis O'Hare, Best Featured Actor in a Musical nominee for Assassins
"It's a lifelong dream to be here. I remember watching the Tony Awards as a kid in my living room in Ohio and wanting to be a part of the Broadway theater. So now I'm achieving all of my dreams and it's almost like I don't have anything left to achieve." --Michael McElroy
"I'm feeling a little nervous, but I'm wearing a coat that's embroidered with the names of everybody in the production, so I feel like I'm in the arms of all my friends!" --Susan Hilferty
"I'm going to be on with LL Cool J. How about that?" --Carol Channing, presenter
"I haven't prepared a thing. I think it's better to just assume that you're going to stay in your seat all night." --Frank Langella, Best Actor in a Play nominee for Match
"My mom made me write it. She said it's bad luck not to. So if I don't use it now, I'll use it someday!" --John Tartaglia on writing an acceptance speech
"I would love to see an all African-American female sweep, to be quite honest. It would just be a neat thing to see. It would just really break my heart in a wonderful way." --Audra McDonald, Best Featured Actress in a Play winner for A Raisin in the Sun
"I'm just glad to be in the category with performers like Tonya [Pinkins] and Donna [Murphy] because to me they're just legends. I always sort of saw Glinda as more the supporting character but the fact that they put me in this category is very special." --Kristin Chenoweth on her category, Best Actress in a Musical
"Nothing scares him! He has this beautiful inner confidence. There's no bravura. He's very centered and he just loves what he does for a living." --Beth Fowler on Boy From Oz co-star and Tony host Hugh Jackman
"It's not everything but it would sure be nice to have one." --Robert Lopez, winner with Jeff Marx for Best Original Score for Avenue Q, on what it would mean to win a Tony
"It means that the other guys didn't win!" --Jeff Marx, winner with Robert Lopez for Best Original Score for Avenue Q, on what winning a Tony would mean to him
"It's a wonderful thing to have somebody say, 'You're one of a few.'" --Frank Langella, on his Tony nomination
"You try not to say that awards mean a lot because the work means the most, but it's great juts to be noticed and for people to honor you with something. I can't lie and say it doesn't mean a lot to me. It's something you always dream of." --Hunter Foster
"I'll tell you if I win one. Until then I don't know." --Omar Metwally, Best Featured Actor in a Play nominee for 16 Wounded, on what winning a Tony means to him
"If I win, I'll have a heart attack. I don't think I want to win! I've seen Hugh Jackman three times. He's phenomenal. If he doesn't win it, there'll be something wrong!" --Euan Morton
"You know, when you're a little kid back home somewhere in America watching the Tony Awards, you never dream you could actually be there, let alone work on Broadway. It's thrilling!" --Kathleen Marshall, Best Choreography winner for Wonderful Town
"I told myself that I wanted to take in every single second of this because it's once in a lifetime. I feel like I've kind of already won so much just by being in the show and being nominated." --Isabel Keating, Best Featured Actress in a Musical nominee for The Boy From Oz
"This is my dream. So I'm living in it. Right now I don't think [the nomination] has really settled and come into me the way it should, but I just feel extraordinarily blessed and in very good company and just sort of in love with everything!" --Anika Noni Rose
"It's the kind of thing that one dreams about when one's 14, staring in the bathroom mirror. The fact that it's come to pass--to be a nominee is a golden dream." --Jefferson Mays
"I'm pinching myself. But not too much 'cause I'll get red." --Stephanie D'Abruzzo
"Isn't this just surreal? This is just the strangest thing I've ever done in my life." --Euan Morton, on his first Tony ceremony
"I love everybody and I love everything." --George C. Wolfe
