Nominated for Best Featured Actor in a Musical

My voyage with Titanique began literally [with] a text to my agent, like, "This sounds fun?" It was just an article of the fact that it was coming to London. I always have my eyes on things, so I was just like, "Check it out."

The week after that, I was having a Zoom with a director. A week after that, I signed my contract. I wasn't even supposed to be free at that point. It was just timing, things, destiny. So thank gosh, because it's changed my life forever.

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Nominated for Best Original Score

Technically, [my Salesman journey] began in high school when I read the play, which is a very, very long time ago. Then I talked to the director, Joe Mantello, about the script and Arthur Miller's script — we had this copy of his notes, which was amazing. For me, it starts with emotion and intuition and all of the things that are unsaid in the play. How do I feel them stronger?

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Nominated for Best Sound Design of a Play

This show happened very fast. The first moment I remember well was, we gathered the creative team on a call with Nick Yarris, who is the subject of the show, and we had an hour with him where he just told us about what his life was like. We got to ask questions [about] what was it like to be in prison for all that time, and what did it sound like, and what did it look like?

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Nominated for Best Featured Actor in a Play

It began in 1984 when I walked into Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, because whatever August Wilson was doing, I wanted to be a part of. That's where it began, and this is where I am now. And this is not the end of it. I'm probably in the middle of it. If my prayers are answered, I'll be doing a few more.

I haven't been with August for the last eight years, nine years since Jitney. To come back into the realm of August Wilson's work is just the greatest honor because it's so familiar to me. Our friendship that we had, his mentorship, our debates — that all comes back to my mind as I do this play, and I realize the joy it brings me to be a part of his work.

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Nominated for Best Costume Design of a Musical and of a Play

Both journeys — with Liberation as well as Cats: The Jellicle Ball — really began with a keen sense of imagination. I'm still very much an organizer here in New York City, so when I first read the play about a group of incredible, ordinary women doing something so extraordinary and to galvanize and to lead their own community, it mirrored so much of what I do in my personal life.

I would also say the same for Jellicle Ball. I've been organizing balls in New York for about 10 years now, so it just felt right. [...] In both [shows], what to me is the through line and the connective tissue is that we see an entire group of people [...] who are coming together to make some real change. And they're doing it in their way: with joy, with love, and a fierce sense of style — if I, you know, can say so myself.

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Nominated for Best Direction of a Musical

I was first asked to come on board as a dramaturg back in 2018, which feels like a very long time ago now. I did three workshops supporting the writers, developing the text, working on structure, and all of those sort of things. And each time there was a new workshop, it was like, "You're probably not going to be the director [...] because we're looking at big fancy people."

Halfway through the third workshop, they said, "It seems like it should be you," because I really clicked with the writers. Since then, we've done [the show in the] regional U.K., off-West End, West End, Boston, and now New York.

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Nominated for Best Play

The play started, actually, on a neighborhood Google group. The neighborhood in the play is very similar to the landmarked neighborhood that I happen to live in. My wife sat on a board which is very similar to the board in the play — but it's not my neighborhood.

On a Google group, someone got very, very passionate about drainage ditches and rainwater. Then people started to pile on, and dozens and dozens and dozens of people had very sporadic, passionate opinions about something I found so numbingly dull. And I thought, "I wonder if that if there's a play in that," because it was never really about the drainage ditch. It was about people wanting control, and the legacy of the neighborhood.

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Nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Musical

My journey with the show began when I was in high school and I would listen to the songs on my iPod. I would listen to the selections from the concept album.

With the revival, I got a call right before I went on my honeymoon with my husband, and my team was like, "Would you be interested in auditioning for Svetlana?" And I was like, "Can I think about it?" Because I wanted to maybe do a play, or I wanted to maybe turn away from singing a little bit because I was feeling very anxious about it.

Then I said, "I’ll audition when I get back from my honeymoon." So I did, and I was very relaxed, and that really helped. It was honestly one of the best and most fun and free auditions I’ve ever had in my life, and that has translated to the room and the show and beyond.

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Nominated for Best Revival of a Play

I had a play called After Ashley at Actors Theatre of Louisville in the Humana Festival, which was very successful, and the artistic director felt I was a little paralyzed that I couldn't repeat that success. So he gave me a commission, and then I had to write a play. So the beginning of the journey was, I had a success behind me and I was worried I wouldn't have another one. It all turned out okay.

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Nominated for Best Leading Actress in a Musical

My journey with Rocky Horror began when [director] Sam Pinkleton called me and said, "Do you want to be Janet Weiss — my Janet Weiss?" And thusly it began. Full-throttle, deep Rocky Horror fan now. I get to watch it every single night and be in it every single night. I hope I get to be 80 years old and get to see the next revival and shout from the back.

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Nominated for Best Direction and Best Lighting Design of a Musical

My journey with The Lost Boys began in summer of 2021, when we were not doing theatre, really. I got an email from my agent saying, "Patrick Wilson, James Carpinello, and Marcus Chait" — who I knew and loved as actors on stage — "are producing The Lost Boys as a musical." And I was like, "That's amazing. What's The Lost Boys?" I watched the movie with my husband and some friends and was like, "This is wild."

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Nominated for Best Scenic Design of a Play

I was in tech for a show called Misery on Broadway in 2012 or 2013. The producer of that show, Mark Kaufman, who's the head of Warner Brothers Theatrical, said to me, "I think we're going to do Dog Day Afternoon. I really love this set. I'd love to talk to you about it." And in that moment, the pin dropped.

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Nominated for Best Leading Actor in a Musical

It began in Rhodes, in Greece, where I accepted the job. Very funny. I did an audition, and I later then found out when I was in Greece that I got the job, on holiday with my family. I said yes and then I carried on with my day.

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Nominated for Best Play

Even before Laurie Metcalf asked me to write a play for her, I had this weird idea for a play about people watching television. It's actually the first time I met Laurie, when she asked me to write a play for her. She said, "Do you have an idea?" I said, "Yes, I have an idea for a play about people watching television." And to her credit, she didn't run away right then.

Nominated for Best Lighting Design of a Musical

In the summer of '85, I had Chess on cassette tape, and I played it and played it and played it and played it.

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Nominated for Best Sound Design of a Play

I think it began when I was a child, before I even knew the show happened. Because by the time I learned about the show, I was like, "Wow, that reminds me of family on stage" — the choices people make, the obstacles people have. Of course, it's not 1911 family, but just that meeting at a crossroads trying to figure out what's next, I was familiar with that. In a poetic way, I think the journey started way before I knew who August Wilson was.

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Nominated for Best Direction of a Musical

I saw Ragtime when I was 18 years old. I'm from Louisiana, and Ragtime was one of the first Broadway shows I ever saw. I never recovered from the way it manifested these epic possibilities of the theatre, that it was possible to have both an epic spectacle that could also take on some of the most serious questions of our time.

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Nominated twice for Best Costume Design of a Musical

They both started with these 10-day workshop-type performances. Ragtime started at Encores! [at New York City Center], and Schmigadoon! started at the Kennedy Center. They take about five years off your life [...] I avoided them for years because it's like, "Who would want to do something insane like this and try to put up a show in 10 days?"

But what I've discovered, and now I love, is that you have to distill it down to the essentials. You have to trust your gut, and you have to work fast and put your best instinct forward. That's actually helpful because you really have to think about what's important — and save a lot of money because you can't spend it. I guess that's where the journey began, and there are a lot of things from both original 10-day workshops that we've carried through because they just worked.

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Nominated for Best Choreography

Lauren Yalango-Grant: [Our journeys] began at the same time in the same exact spot, which was in our car driving up to [director] Michael Arden's home upstate. He was like, "You guys have to listen to this song. Did you guys see The Lost Boys when you were kids?" We were like, "...Yes." And he was like, "Okay, this is The Rescues. It's my favorite band, and this is one of the first songs they've written for The Lost Boys."

It was "My Brother's a Vampire," and it blew our minds, and we were like, "How do we get ourselves in the door here?" And thank god Michael ended up asking us to choreograph it.

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Nominated for Best Orchestrations

Along with my co-orchestrator, Doug Besterman, [my journey] began with this TV series back about five years ago, where where we all created the world of Schmigadoon! orchestrally. However, since it was a TV show, we were able to have 50, 60 musicians. And then, of course, there were two seasons, and then there was a pre-Broadway tryout last year leading to now, and the number of musicians obviously needed to be diminished quite a bit. We have 14 in the pit now.

It was both a challenge and a real joy to figure out how to [...] take the 14 musicians and figure out a way to help them sound as full and rich and lush as the story really demanded, and to help our audiences really feel like they were in a Broadway theatre just like it was back in 1940.

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Nominated for Best Leading Actress in a Musical

When I was about 13 or 14 years old, I saw the out-of-town tryout before it went to Broadway — in Toronto, because I grew up just outside of Toronto.

I was blown away by the piece, and I waited for Audra McDonald after to speak to her and ask her questions about how she got to be where she was because I was so enamored with her performance. She was so generous and kind. Flash forward 20 years, and she's a friend, and our kids are friends, and she's the icon forever, of course.

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Nominated for Best Orchestrations

My journey with The Lost Boys can be traced to one particular moment when I was walking down the street here in Midtown. One of our producers, James Carpinello — who I go back to Rock of Ages with back in 2008, when he was performing on stage — gave me a call and said, "I have a story I'd like you to consider and a couple of demos I want you to hear." I was about 45 seconds into listening to the original demo of "No More Monsters" when I called him back and said, "Don't need to listen to any more. I'm in."

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Nominated for Best Orchestrations

My journey with Chess really began in the first reading we did in 2017. The only song I knew from the show was "Anthem," and it was from playing voice lessons in college or something like that.

So when [director] Michael [Mayer] called me that he was going to do a reading [...] it was obviously so overwhelming because the music is so amazing, but there's also a million recordings of Chess. Anybody who knows the show will know that's the conversation: "What's your favorite recording?" I listened to everything I could find and tried to find my way into it.

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Nominated for Best Scenic Design of a Musical

Andrew Moerdyk: I remember seeing it when I was, like, 9. I'm probably the biggest Rocky weirdo of the group. I've been obsessed with it since I was a kid and forbidden to watch it as an early teen. It was really formative in my upbringing.

Kimie Nishikawa: I first heard of it in high school but really never watched it until a few years ago. [...] I had misunderstood that it was some wrestling situation. I don't really know why.

Santiago Orjuela-Laverde: I've heard and seen images when I was younger but always thought of Rocky Horror as something with boxing and horror, something like actual horror films. Then I got into, "Oh no, it's this amazing, crazy world," also a couple years ago.

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Nominated for Best Direction of a Musical and Best Choreography

My journey with Schmigadoon! began from Cinco Paul. He sent me a direct message on Instagram; he said, "Is this the choreographer from Hail, Caesar!?". It was a movie I did with the Coen brothers over 10 years ago. But I said, "Yes, it is," and he said, "I have a project I'd love to talk to you about. It involves Golden Age musicals."

Cinco went on to tell me it was going to be an Apple TV series and about this couple who are having problems with a relationship that get trapped in a Golden Age musical, and that he wanted me to choreograph all of the dance numbers. So we did. Two Emmys later, two nominations later, we found this bond between us in the way we collaborated together. And then when Schmigadoon! came to the stage, he and the producers asked if I would direct it.

It's been the greatest gift of my life. It's rare that you get to take everything that you've learned over your life [...] from learning dance to working with [director] Bart Sher at Lincoln Center, and all these classic Rodgers and Hammerstein pieces and Lerner and Loewe [...] and then get to put it into this beautiful piece.

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Nominated for Best Scenic Design of a Musical

I saw Cats when I was probably 14. I saw [...] one of the national tours when they came through California, and I was obsessed with it. I loved it. By then I knew I was going to be in theatre. I had already found my home: I knew I wanted to design scenery, which is a crazy thing to know that young.

I wrote a fan letter to John Napier, who designed the set and costumes for the show. I mailed it to the stage door in L.A., which is hilarious. He never wrote back. I'm still waiting for John to write me back.

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Nominated for Best Scenic Design of a Play

My journey with this show began in 2012 when I did Harvey [...] my first project for [director] Scott Ellis and Roundabout. It began a kind of rhythm and amazing relationship.

It may actually have gone back to 1978, when I studied architecture in London and was a fan of the London version of Art Deco. You pick up all these clues along the way and then, if you're lucky enough, you get projects where you can use those early experiences.

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Nominated for Best Direction of a Musical

Bill Rauch: Seeing the original production in the Winter Garden Theatre late in its original run.

Zhailon Levingston: Watching the proshot as a second grader, having rented it from Blockbuster.

Rauch: And how many times did you watch it?

Levingston: Every day for three years, but I'm not counting.

Rauch: And then [...] you put on your own version.

Levingston: It was all encapsulated in those three years, but [...] I used to throw musicals at my babysitter's house; I would put on shows. When I felt like I was too old to be doing this anymore, I told them I'm going to do the final show: a one-man version of Cats wherein I played Puss in Boots, which is not a character.

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Nominated for Best Lighting Design of a Musical

I was in tech for Eureka Day, and Michael Arden called me and said, "Would you co-lighting design The Lost Boys with me?" And I was like, "Are you crazy?" And then I said, "Obviously, yes."

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Nominated for Best Choreography

When I first saw the film when I was 11 years old, I remember something tingly and unsettling about it, and feeling really activated and excited by that and not being able to place quite why. Cut to a couple decades later, [director] Sam Pinkleton and I discussed a production that never happened out in San Francisco because it was set to rehearse in March of 2020. So you can imagine where that went.

But that was the beginning of seeding back to that material and falling in love with it all over again [...] it's been a multi-dimensional road to experience something that, very early on, meant something to me.

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Nominated for Best Costume Design of a Musical

I grew up in Mexico — Guadalajara — and I moved to the states when I was in middle school and high school. I went to a conservative middle school, and as I was carpooling on the way there, we'd always go by this mysterious-looking movie theatre that played The Rocky Horror Show. And I was like, "What is that?" It wasn't until years later that I got a chance to be exposed to the wonderful world of Rocky Horror.

I got the chance to work with Sam on a production that never got to see the light of day [...] so it feels really like a full-circle moment to now be able to see it through.

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Nominated for Best Costume Design of a Play

[At Roundabout Theatre Company], we did a reading of this a couple years ago as a benefit, and nobody thought it would go any further. After the benefit, I remember everyone left, and it was myself, the director Scott Ellis, and [set designer] David Rockwell, and we're like, "That was funny. Should we consider doing this?" [...] Two years later, here we are.

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Nominated for Best Direction of a Play

The first time [playwright] Bess [Wohl] and I met in person, we sat down over a glass of wine after I'd read her play, and just looking her in the eyes and hearing about what this meant to her and where the story came from for her — that was when it began. And when we shook hands over that, I knew we were going to go on an unforgettable ride.

Nominated for Best Book of a Musical

Chris Hoch: When I would misbehave as a child, my parents would boot me out of the house, and there was a West Coast Video down the block, and I would go there and just sit down. [...] They would show videos all day long on a loop. They would show Lost Boys all day, so I would watch Lost Boys two to three times a day.

David Hornsby: My journey with this musical started with Chris calling me up and saying, "David, I need a favor." He heard there was a possible position to write this musical, and I had not seen The Lost Boys, I'm embarrassed to say. So we watched it together, except he was in New York and I was in L.A., so he was on speakerphone with me and talked through most of it.

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Nominated for Best Book of a Musical

It started in L.A. at this immersive dinner theatre that we used to do movie-to-musical parodies at called Rockwell Table and Stage. And that's where the idea came about, and that was 10 years ago.

The journey has snowballed since from L.A. to New York: to under a Gristedes, which was our first venue, the Asylum; to then the Daryl Roth, which was beautiful; and now to the St. James Theatre. Are we okay? Somehow we've bamboozled commercial theatre, and here we are.

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