What do Darth Vader, the White Shadow and the head vampire from “The Lost Boys” have in common?
Theater's equivalent of the Oscars — a Tony award!
Honoring the best of Broadway, the American Theater Wing brought together the shining stars of Broadway's past and present for a very special Tony's class photo.
Now, if only all those luminaries would stop schmoozing and sit down!
“I want to make a nice photo people,” the director laughed. “This is for you!”
So, Darth Vader, aka James Earl Jones; Ken Howard, aka “The White Shadow”; and Edward Herrmann, aka Max from “The Lost Boys” took their seats at New York's Shubert Theater, along with a host of other stage stars including; Glenn Close, Ralph Fiennes, Chita Rivera, Joan Allen, Judd Hirsch, and the queen of the Great White Way — Liza Minnelli.
Liza, dressed in a crimson top with shiny gold disk earrings, told Access that for all their cosmopolitan sophistication, the Tony winners are quite a rowdy bunch.
“Oh it's wonderful, I mean we did this once in Hollywood,” Liza laughed. “And it was so much more fun here because the people are so much louder and the ruckus! There's more ruckus. It was such a ball.”
It was a theater-lovers dream as star after star kissed and cried up and down the hallowed aisles of the Shubert.
Ralph Fiennes (a 1995 winner for “Hamlet”) hung out with Natasha Richardson (the 1998 winner for “Cabaret”).
Glenn Close (a 1995 winner for “Sunset Boulevard”) chatted with Swoosie Kurtz (a two-time winner). Harvey Fierstein (the 2003 winner for “Hairspray”) — fresh off his “Today” show triumph serenading Katie Couric on her last day — chatted with everybody.
“We're all theater people and we're all in our own theaters and were locked behind dressing rooms and stuff, and we don't get to see each other all that often, so, when they do something like this we see people that we haven't seen for years,” Harvey gushed. “It's fun and you do it because that's what we do.”
Liev Schreiber — sans gal pal Naomi Watts — was impressed by the star wattage.
“It's pretty amazing,” said Liev, last year's winner for “Glengarry Glen Ross.” “You look around the room and you see, Fritz Weaver, James Earl Jones, Patti LuPone, Liza Minnelli and Ron Silver. I mean, I could go on forever. It's very humbling and very, very encouraging.”
When it came time for their huge close-up however, the Tony winners did what they do best. They flashed a collective smile that lit up the theater.
Harry Belafonte (the 1954 winner for “Almanac”) expressed the overall mood of the day.
“It's very nice to be around your peers and around so many magnificent people,” Harry said. “And always at an occasion like this is a chance for all of us to come together and you see people you haven't seen in a long time, it's just a happy feeling.”
Even Harvey Fierstein was a little starstruck.
“Well I'm always in trouble, what are you going to do,” Harvey laughed. “You're born that way, but I got to sit next to Ralph Fiennes. I mean that was pretty good, pretty good. He said he was going back to bed. I'm going to follow him.”
The 60th anniversary winners will be announced June 11 during a three-hour show to be televised at 8 p.m. on CBS.