Issue Date: June 15, 2008
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:
WHOOPI GOLDBERG hosts the 62nd annual Tony Awards, but she tells us she'd rather be called "storyteller" or "narrator." She wants to tell the tale of New York theater and convince viewers that "the theater is for them ... for everyone." Her own unforgettable theater moment was in the '60s, when she saw James Earl Jones in "The Great White Hope." "I'd never seen anything like him or this play; I was stunned and transported."
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"It's starting to spread over my thought and my body," S. EPATHA MERKERSON tells us from the Los Angeles airport the morning 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), Merkerson laughs. "Maybe I'll carry a purse." Even though the stage offers Merkerson, 55, both "immediacy" and strong female characters, "it's also a harder pace of work. I might 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."
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Everyone who's tackled "Macbeth" on Broadway has been snubbed by Tony, 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 environment 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 never going to be clear of the blood until this production ends."
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She has made movies and had a hit TV series, but PATTI LUPONE tells us that she belongs in theater. "There isn't the curse of the close-up, especially for a woman," says LuPone, 59. Plus, there's a live audience, which she has adored since she tap-danced onstage at Ocean Avenue Elementary at the age of 4. She is an audience's advocate, protesting "outrageous" ticket prices. She says lower prices for students is smart: "The last two shows I've been in, there were tons of enthusiastic kids. I'd love to see more."
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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 Heights," about his NYC neighborhood, when he was a sophomore at Wesleyan University. Miranda, 28, fell in love with musicals when he performed in them in junior high and high school, and "my mom used to blast the soundtrack to 'Camelot' in our Subaru."
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More of Broadway's Tony-nominated talent
ANDREA MARTIN, 61, enjoys her Frau Blucher role in "Young Frankenstein" "amid the inspired lunacy of Mel Brooks." Since she played the fairy 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."
Martin: Walter McBride, Retna
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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 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!!!' "
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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." "It's hard because I have my own accent, and we had to introduce a French accent on top of that."
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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 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."
 Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
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