Our personal favorite nominations are those going to the shows Caroline, Or Change, Company and A Strange Loop in the musicals category. In the plays we’re thrilled to see Dana H., For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf and The Lehman Trilogy amongst the nominees.

We’ve had conversations with many of this year’s nominees and you might want to take another look at what they shared with us. They include:

Simon Russell Beale who is nominated for his performance in The Lehman Trilogy.

“I’m a slightly stocky, middle-aged Englishman with a beard and I’m now pretending to be all sorts of different things just because I say so, rather than with any other help. And that’s quite fun. It’s not about emotional expression or effort. It’s about just keeping the mind focused. If you make a mistake, and I don’t think we’ve ever done a perfect performance actually, but if you make a mistake, you just have to forget it and move very quickly on.”

A side note: Beale is nominated as are his on-stage colleagues Adam Godley and Adrian Lester. Separating one performance from another is a fool’s game. They should have been nominated as a trio in the same way in which the three boys who originated the role of “Billy Elliot” in the musical of the same name were.

Shoshana Bean who is nominated for her performance in the Jason Robert Brown musical Mr. Saturday Night.

“I think that I’m a culmination of all the things I’ve soaked up in my life. I’m very Streisand, there’s Frank Sinatra, Chrissie Hyde, John Mayer, Aretha Franklin…while it may seem original, we’re all using the same ingredients. What matters are your proportions. I go left when people think I’m going right. I don’t look at it as strategic decisions, it’s what I’m lead to do. It’s literally been what felt like it needed to happen.”

Dale Franzen who is a co-producer of nominees Caroline, Or Change and For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf.

“I would say I am much more leaning into stories like that that I feel have such a harder time of being told. Let’s be honest, men aren’t telling those stories. They keep telling the stories that they want to see and I think that women have been shortchanged. I want to be part of changing that. That is not to say that if I’m sent something that I feel is really extraordinary and it happens to be written by a man or it’s a male story that doesn’t mean I won’t get involved. But I would say right now what I feel drawn to moving our stories forward.”

Matt Doyle who is nominated for his brilliantly comedic performance in the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Company.

“I have a lot of experience in being incredibly anxious over general anxiety disorder and panic disorder. And I know the feeling very well of the surprise and the fear that Jamie experiences during that song. Also the staging is so smart and so brilliant. I think half of what you’re seeing on stage is me turning that kind of delight and excitement and thrill of what I get to do and what the audience gets to see every night into something that is coming off as surprise.”

Deirdre O’Connell who is nominated for her breath-taking performance in Dana H.

“It does feel like there is an infinite number of discoveries to be found. As a ride it’s pretty endless. I feel like it would be interesting to try to do a long run of it. It think you’d have to build breaks into it. the way the fatigue manifests itself is more like it sounds echo-y to me or I’m having a hard time hearing it right now. I could be wrong. It could be easier in terms of the doing it.”

Jayne Houdyshell who is nominated for her performance in the revival of The Music Man.

“I really am a creature of theatre. I came up in the theatre. I chose the life of an actress because of my love of the theatre. It’s always been foremost home for me. I’ve had a few small opportunities to do television and film work. While I appreciate it very much, I don’t feel like the real trajectory of my career is about that or will probably ever be about that. I just am most a home in the theatre.“

To read the full interviews with each artist, please click on the link built into their name.

Once again, congratulations to all 2022 Tony nominees!

Main Photo: Opening Night of “Company” (Photo by Rebecca J. Michelson)

The post Congratulations 2022 Tony Nominees appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Dana H finds the playwright focusing on a story very close to home. The play is based on his own mother’s experiences when she was held captive for five months in Florida by an ex-convict with whom she was working as a psych ward chaplain. Hnath’s mother, Dana, gave interviews to Steve Cosson and the playwright used those interviews as the source for his one-woman play.

Deirdre O’Connell plays Dana H. She is best-known locally for her performance in Lisa Kron’s In the Wake at the Kirk Douglas in 2010. New York audiences know her from a multitude of performances including Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation for which she won Obie and Drama Desk Awards for her performance.

Les Waters, former Artistic Director of the Actors Theatre of Louisville, directs this production. He was the director of the Mark Taper Forum production of The Christians.

Dana H is 75 minutes without an intermission. There is a warning that due to strong depictions of violence and dark themes that the play is recommended for ages 16 and over.

Read our interview with Deirdre O’Connell about her experiences with Dana H here.

For tickets go here.

Photo of Lucas Hnath courtesy of NYU/Tisch where Hnath is an Associate Professor in the Department of Dramatic Writing.

Update:  This post has been updated for its run at the Vineyard Theatre in New York.

2nd Update: This post has been updated reflecting the extension of the run at the Vineyard Theatre

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