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This special preview of
Sunday's Tony Awards
will get you ready for the show on
CBS at 8 p.m. ET. You'll see familiar
faces, like some of those pictured
here, plus diversity rarely evident
at such ceremonies a refreshing
mix of ethnicities, nationalities, ages
and showbiz backgrounds. Here,
meet some of the nominees:
■ Everyone who’s tackled Macbeth
on Broadway has been snubbed by
Tbny, which means PATRICK STEWART
is going boldly where no Macbeth has
gone before. “The Tony is the primo
theater award in the English-speaking
world, and it has always been my
dream to get a nomination,” says
Stewart, 67. This Macbeth takes
place in a sterilized, Cold War envi
ronment with lots of gore. “There is
blood everywhere,” Stewart tells us.
“Every night... I scrub my fingers
because it gets into
(the cuticles. In fact,
my fingernails are
i never going to be
clear of the blood
until this produc
tion ends.”
MACBETH
Patrick Stewart
■ ANDREA MARTIN,
61, enjoys her Frau
Blucher role in
Young Frankenstein
'amid the inspired
lunacy of Mel
Brooks.” Since she
played the fairy
Wm kJ- jfll
fafe... I
godmother in Cinderella as a child, i
knew I was going to have a long list
of character parts, 'cause I certainly
wasn't cast as Cinderella at age 12."
2
USA WEEKEND • June 13-15,2008
By LORRIE LYNCH
■ WHOOPI GOLDBERG hosts the 62nd annual Tony
Awards, but she tells us she’d rather be called
j “storyteller” or “narrator.” She wants to tell the
tale of New York theater and eon
*r' ’ vince viewers that “the theater is
'I for them ... for everyone.” Her
AKL own unforgettable theater mo
merit was in the '6os. when
she saw James Earl Jones
The Great. White
, if anything
H Bk - .
H wk
■ She has made movies and had a hit TV se
ries, but PATTI LuPONE tells us that she be-
longs in theater. “There isn't the curse
of the close-up. especially for a woman." 1
says LuPone, 59. Plus, there's a live
audience, which she has adored since '
she tap-danced onstage at Ocean Av
enue Elementary at the age of 4. She
is an audience’s advocate, protest-
ing “outrageous” ticket prices. h
She says lower prices for stu- Mh .hv
dents smtui: "Tht- kis! <- A ,
shows I've been in. there
were tons of enthusi- |
astic kids. I'd love
to see more.”
More of Broadway's Tony-nominated talent
knees and bowed to me” backstage, says
Dunagan.'And Alec Baldwin left a note
that said, 'I hope I get to work with you
someday. You ... are ... fantastic!!!'"
News
To ask a question, e-mail whosnews@usaweekend.com or click on “Contact Columnists" at our website. Include name, city, state.
GYPSY
Patti LuPone
■ DEANNA DUNAGAN,
an Oklahoma clan's
matriarch in August.
Osage County, still
appreciates her fans
after 35 years in the
theater. Tracey Ullman
'got on her hands and
Read more from our Tony nominee interviews in Lome’s Who’s News Blog at
©blogs.usaweekend.com
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'4■
COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA
S. Epatha Merkerson
spend a 15-hour day on Law & Order, but in that 15-hour day,
I get to rest and relax in my trailer,” she says. “You can’t do
that onstage. The energy is unlike any other medium. You use
everything when you’re onstage.”
|
■ Brazilian opera star
PAULO SZOT found that
the biggest challenge in
his Broadway debut was
mastering speech. "I am all
the time concerned about
people understanding me
onstage," confesses Szot,
38, who plays the French plantation owner
in South Pacific. 'lt's hard because I have
my own accent and we had to introduce
a French accent on top of that."
■ “It’s starting to spread over my thought
I and my body,” S. EPATHA MERKERSON tells
us from the Los Angeles airport the morn
ing of her nomination for Come Back, Little
Sheba. “It’s very exciting.” Asked if
she’ll find a better place to hide an
acceptance speech than in the bosom
of her dress (she memorably lost her
Emmy speech there in 2005), Mer
kerson laughs. “Maybe I’ll carry a
purse.” Even though the stage offers
Merkerson, 55, both “immediacy”
and strong female characters, ‘lt’s
also a harder pace of work. I might
f ■ Imagine if any of those dreams
you had in college actually came
true. That’s what happened for LIN
MANUEL MIRANDA, who wrote In the
about his NYC neighbor-
hood, when he was a sophomore
k at Wesleyan University. Mir
anda, 28. fell in love with
musicals when he per
formed in them in
>:-o. junior hie!’. ami
high school, and “my mom used to
\ blast the soundtrack to Camelot
j&\ in our Subaru.”
Stew, 46, was born to be a songwriter,
and it's hard not to sing your own
songs. "I have little scraps of paper of
songs I started when I was 7." E 3
IN THE HEIGHTS
Lirt-Manud Miranda
Contributing: Gayle Jo
\ Carter, Kathy Rowings,
Jon Tollestrup
■ If STEW, the
quadruple-nominee
for Passing Strange,
ever composes
another Broadway
musical, he says, "I will
not make the mistake
of casting myself." But
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STEWART PHOTOSHOT/LANDOV. STEW BRUCE GLIKAS, FRMMAGK. MIRANDA: JOAN MARCUS. GOLDBERG CRAIG BLANKENHORN.CBS. LUPONE. MERKERSON. MARTIN. DUNAGAN AND SZOT WAITER MCBRIDE, RETNA