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[0:00] Donna Murphy: Hi, I'm Donna Murphy and you're listening to And the Tony Goes To...

[0:07] Donna Murphy: It's a look back at Broadway's most magical night and all of the winners reminisce with delight. With their talents and brilliance they always impress, and the Tony goes to my special guest.

[0:23] Donna Murphy: Have you ever dreamed of winning a Tony Award? Did you ever practice your Tony acceptance speech in the bathroom mirror? Did you grow up watching the Tony Awards every year? Do you have a collection of Tony Award shows on VHS tape that you refuse to throw out? Well then this is the podcast for you.

[0:41] Donna Murphy: Every week I interview your favorite Tony Award winners and together we go down memory lane as my guests share intimate and never before shared details about their Tony experience. By the end of every episode you're going to feel like you just won a Tony. Welcome to And the Tony Goes To...

[1:01] Ilana Levine: I'm your host, Ilana Levine. And the Tony goes to my special guest, and the Award goes to Donna Murphy, Passion.

[1:19] Donna Murphy: Hi Mom and Dad! I'm so glad you're here, Mom and Dad. I want to thank everyone associated with Passion. The courageous producers, Steve and James, for trusting me with this incredible role and for guiding me with their conviction and their artistry. And our cast and crew and orchestra and designers for all of you for your commitment and patience and humor. Everyone needs a good mole joke. And God has blessed me with so many opportunities and people who have challenged me and given me an opportunity to learn and grow. Mom and Dad, my family, friends, agents, colleagues, I thank you all. Joan Lader, I love you and I love you Sean. Thank you for everything.

[2:18] Ilana Levine: Welcome Donna Murphy.

[2:20] Donna Murphy: Hello.

[2:22] Ilana Levine: I am so happy you're here and that we got to listen to that speech together. And I'm wondering what sort of comes up for you in listening to it again.

[2:33] Donna Murphy: Well, what comes up for me is remembering being in my seat and we'll talk about sort of everything that preceded that, I imagine, a little bit later. That when I got on the stage and was given the award by the amazing Alan Alda, who I just had adored for many, many years and had this sense that even though I didn't know him, he was a real mensch. So that was meaningful. And then I looked at the Tony and then the next thing I did immediately was look up to see if I could find my parents in the mezzanine or the balcony. I can't remember where they were. And I found them. I looked and they were right where I looked. And I did not know where they were sitting. I don't know that I ever saw the tickets.

They were purchased tickets. They were not given to me. But I just looked and I looked straight at them. And my mother got so excited that I saw her. I thought she was going to fall over into the orchestra because she jumped up and just started waving. But I just was so thrilled that they were there for that moment.

[4:17] Donna Murphy: I also had two of my sisters and a brother-in-law and my step-daughter, Justine. My youngest step-daughter. So that and I had so... My feelings were so full and I felt like there was... I had to make a choice to contain them to be able to try to say what I needed to say or hoped I would remember to say or think of to say. And yet I can hear the emotion in my voice in listening. And I also remember... I'm now recalling what I didn't say. And that's always tricky because it's such a huge moment. Particularly for me, that was the first time I ever originated a role on Broadway. It was the first time I'd ever been nominated for a Tony Award. It was the first time I'd ever been to the Tony Awards.

And it all happened so fast off of us opening. I didn't even know... I don't know if this is possible that we were in previews. Because I don't know if this is allowed. But I feel like somebody told me about a nomination for an earlier award. Like an Outer Critics or a Drama Desk nomination. And we hadn't even opened. Maybe they just were talking about them. I can't remember. But I was like, Awards? Awards season? Wait, we're just opening the show. Awards were not on my radar because we were one of the last shows, if not the last show, to open in that season.

[6:32] Donna Murphy: We were opening very close to the cut-off date, certainly for the Tonys. And I don't know how the other awards worked. But anyway, it was just the last thing on my mind. And then it was just... The process of rehearsal was a whirlwind. The process of previews were an intense whirlwind. The opening the show. All of that was just... It was so much. And it just, as they say now, all the feels. All the feelings throughout that. And then this. So it was like, this was this huge combined celebration of just being there. And this is not just being falsely modest. Just being there was so huge. And a lot of it was connected to that I was there for that show. That I had been acknowledged for that show and that performance. Collaborating with my idols in the musical theater and in the theater period. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. And so many other people associated with the show that just... I felt so privileged.

[8:01] Donna Murphy: And so... I really felt like now that I've done this, if nothing else wonderful happens for me in my creative life, I've had... I've reached the heights. I've traveled with the best of them. I've learned so much. I have the privilege of telling this complicated, difficult story that brought me so much joy. And the support... That was the other thing is that I just was overwhelmed by the support of the community. So many people who would say... Because I'd been in the business for a while. I had my first job when I was 20. And I think I was 35 when I received this award. And I'd been working pretty solidly through that time, except for a short break that I took. But so many people who were saying to me that it meant a lot to them to see that... Somebody who'd been doing good work for a while and was being recognized.

And I wasn't a TV or a movie star. And yet I'd been cast in a leading role. I wasn't a Broadway star at the time that I was cast in Passion. And that it imbued people with hope for their own lives and their careers. And it just made them feel good to see somebody that they had watched over the years and had their ups and downs and kindly expressed their respect for me. And that was meaningful to them. And they were cheering me on. And I just felt like I was in the biggest, greatest group hug that you could ever imagine. And for something that I would have paid to do that job.

[10:20] Donna Murphy: Right. I would have paid somebody to do that job. Okay. There we are with my usual brief, succinct answer to your first question. Dear God help us. Who do I love interviewing more than you on the planet? Nobody. Nobody.

[10:44] Ilana Levine: I want to talk about what it was for you to collaborate, as you just mentioned, with your heroes. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. I want to know. I'm not going to share with you something you don't already know. But I will repeat what Mr. Sondheim has said, which is when you came in to audition for what was originally the workshop of Passion. When you sang I Read to Live, which is a really important song in the musical. It was basically ready to be performed publicly. You felt like, and I am slightly, I'm not quoting him exactly, but the sentiment was, had there been an audience, had the show begun previews the next day, the distance from where you were at that audition to where you went with the final performance of that song was a very short walk.

[11:40] Donna Murphy: Now I don't know if you feel that way or if really it was an experience where you were able to step into the shoes of a character that you read in sides or a script that were handed to you. And there was an understanding very quickly of what to do with this part.

[11:59] Donna Murphy: Well, it wasn't instantaneous. But I got the audition. I was called about the audition. And I know we talked about this on Little Known Facts. But it bears repeating that I got the material. I heard of the audition. I got the material. And I just said, there's no way I can come in tomorrow for this audition. I was working another job at Lincoln Center. Hello again, right? Hello again, exactly. But I was, I read this and I went, oh, my God. Because first of all, it was coming from, as I said, Stephen and James, who I just had meant so much in my life before this opportunity. Just in the work that I was privileged to view and listen to over and over and over again. And I'd auditioned for them a number of times on different projects. And so I initially said, this is something I so want to pursue. I'm so excited about the idea.

[13:56] Donna Murphy: So I said I can't go in tomorrow and is there any other time you're seeing people and at that time they did not have another scheduled audition. But it all worked out, and I've told that story elsewhere. I went in about four days later and everything just fell into place. The show I was doing I ended up with like two or three days off. It was an ensemble show, so that was not unheard of and I just immersed myself. That was the thing when I really spent time with I read which was the first and only thing at that point that was written for Fosca to sing as I understood it. The whole character was in that song. Her intelligence, her self-loathing, her hunger, her desire to connect, her self-pity, her awkwardness, her forwardness, her hopefulness, just it was everything.

It was just all there and to be able to play all those things or at least take a shot at it, I needed time to integrate the music and the words and the woman. It wasn't going to work for me to not have a sense of her physical life, and so I just sort of, you know, that three days, it was a little immersion into my imagined life of this character and those circumstances. I knew there was a film; I didn't want to watch the film. I didn't want to get another person's performance in my head. I just really wanted it to come from the information that they provided me with and my imagination. I worked with Paul Ford, a wonderful pianist who at that time worked on all of Steve's shows and was really a partner with Paul Gimignani, our fantastic musical director and conductor.

They allowed me, I asked could I play with the key because it was written in a real like just a more upper soprano range. I could hit the notes; I could sing it, but I felt like the melancholy, and I discovered this over those three days, the melancholy of this woman and also the weight of her illness and the weight of what she carried with her in terms of self-blame and shame. I just thought I feel like it's in a lower key. So we played with keys and they said that's fine. And so that's what I did. When I went into the room, I did feel like I really had a very clear intention of what I wanted to do, not for them, but with the character for myself. It's just what I wanted to play with and let them see, you know, not necessarily get the job.

I kind of didn't believe that that was possible. I thought there's no way they're not going to hire Patti LuPone or Bernadette Peters for this job. I mean honestly, both of whom I think are just remarkable and had been people they've collaborated with. Yes, exactly. But I wanted to just, you know, do my best and there was no way to go halfway with this. There was no way to sort of dip your toe in for me anyway. But I do think there was still a long journey between what I did in that room as deeply connected as I felt to it. There still was quite a journey from that to me performing it for an audience.

[18:13] Ilana Levine: Do you remember when you found out you got it?

[18:34] Donna Murphy: Yes, it wasn't right away, but it was I feel like it was just a few days. But I later was told that they knew and yet I also was told that that was the first time he heard the song. So I never went deep in the questioning about this, but that meant there must not have been an audition that day that I couldn't go in or they didn't audition Fosca's, you know, they maybe they saw other roles. Yes, and I must have been the first person who came in that on that day that I did go in. I know other people auditioned because I heard from, you know, some of my colleagues who auditioned. But anyway, so it was pretty soon thereafter and I was blown away and a little intimidated and nervous about it, but mostly just thrilled.

The collaboration in the process was so fascinating and such an education, watching how these guys worked, watching how they collaborated, seeing how much initially came from James. I mean, I'm sure out of conversations that he and Steve had together because this piece was Steve's idea to musicalize this piece, which was based on a small Italian not particularly well-known novel called Fosca and then a film. It was Steve's idea, and so I'm sure they collaborated just in talking about how to approach telling the story, etc., which was mostly through these letters. But James would write these scenes and these monologues and then Steve would set them to music. I was shocked in some cases at how much of James's poetry, if you will, and not if you will, it was poetry, but it sounded like it was coming out of this character's mouth as the way she talked.

You know, we would stage the scene as a monologue or if it was, you know, a scene with dialogue we would stage it, and when the music would come in, which to me I always said if it came over my fax machine, I always felt like it was like gold that was being spun from a wheel, you know, that was just like something that was somehow coming into my hands. I would cry every time I saw there was a fax from Stephen Sondheim coming in.

[21:47] Ilana Levine: What did you witness? You talked about James's incredible book from which so much of this is born and much of it you were saying began would maybe be a monologue and then is it that it would go from monologue to song? Did you witness the decision about when that would happen, when things would be sung or when they would remain spoken text?

[22:20] Donna Murphy: Only in the case of the train song, as people call it, or "Loving You." Okay, because that was a moment that since the workshop other company members were saying this is a song, it's got to be a song here. And I said, you know, well, then it probably will be knowing these guys when they're ready for it to be that, you know, and it was the last piece of music to come in for me. We played that scene and that scene was rewritten many times because the reception, you know from the audience it was so, I want to make this clear, "Loving You" did not exist until we were in previews. It was a scene, and the first night it went in it was longer and I got it one night on a day off over my fax machine, you know, and there was a section that preceded "Loving You" before that.

There was this kind of rolling, it felt like the motion of the train. What's really unfortunate is that fax paper at that time was that type of weird feeling paper that faded and I do not have a copy of the original fax of that, so it literally faded away. I have the faded pages and I'm sure Steve has it somewhere and I'm a fool that I have not said, "Steve, please can I get that so I have it?"

[24:19] Ilana Levine: Well, I'm sure when he listens to this...

[24:22] Donna Murphy: Yes.

[24:25] Ilana Levine: Mr. Sondheim, fax machine!

[24:30] Donna Murphy: Crank it up, Donna! Crank out the old fax machine!

[24:35] Ilana Levine: Yes, you must! So that because that is incredible.

[24:38] Donna Murphy: Yeah, and so they said, you know, we rehearsed that afternoon, everything, but we didn't rehearse that. I thought, well, it's not going to go in tonight, of course. And then James said, so let's look at the new song. I said, oh, okay, and I had basically learned it because I just I didn't know what was going to happen with it. I wanted to, once I knew who this woman was and once I was really inside the musical vocabulary of Steve and Sondheim and James's direction and the world they created together in this story, I did not find it difficult to learn the music or the lyrics. It just was further extension, a further extension and further exploration of this person that I felt that I knew very, very well.

That makes it a very different experience, especially when the music and lyrics are so beautifully written and when they've been birthed from or birthed, however the hell you say it, from material that you've been playing. I've been playing the intentions and sometimes the actual words, saying the actual words, you know, with my scene partner already. So we rehearsed it and James said, great, let's put it in tonight. I said, oh, really? I said, well, there's no orchestration, right? He said, it's okay, we'll just do it with piano. People love that; it reminds them that it's previews. So now we're like at the end of our rehearsal time for preview period, a few hours in the afternoon, and I, you know, have a dinner break. I'm thinking, holy crap, I am doing this tonight. And we did.

[26:50] Donna Murphy: That one night was the only time that we did the long version. And I remember I was asked afterwards how I felt about it. And I said, I love it. But I feel a little bit like it's a medley. I feel like the first part is one song. And the second part is another. And it feels like the audience... I just wonder if the audience who is questionably tolerant of this character and each of her reappearances to pursue this man that she is obsessed with and is her reason for living at that point. I don't know if they're ready for... I don't think I said this to them at that time. Maybe later I did, but for Fosca's club act. And James said... I don't think there was like a big discussion about it. I don't remember that.

They just both agreed. And the next night it would just... James wrote some different dialogue leading up to really just the heart of the song. And it's a very short song. But there's a lot of gravitas to it. And it made a huge difference in how the audience came to ultimately, those who could understand Fosca, because it gave them insight into her knowledge that loving him and him being loved by her was not necessarily something that he would feel good about. And loving you is not a choice and not much reason to rejoice, but it gives me purpose. Anyway, I won't just recite the entire song. People really saw a self-knowledge and a vulnerability and an intelligence. It was hard for me to understand how people didn't see that.

I'm not patting myself on the back as an actress, but it was just so much a part of, I thought, who she was. But from a late 20th century point of view and perspective, I think there were just people who couldn't get Glenn Close and Fatal Attraction out of their head, that kind of stalking. But anyway, so the collaborative nature was just so constant. And the finale of the show, there were so many versions of that. And there were so many versions of the flashback sequence. And those were the hardest to actually, or the flashback sequence in particular, that was the hardest to keep relearning and playing one version at night and learning another one during the day, with sometimes very nuanced differences.

But I just felt like it was such a healthy collaboration. And even though we were doing something that was difficult material for certain people to take in as audience members, and some other actors in the piece felt very difficult to play. I'm not saying it wasn't challenging. It was deeply challenging for me. But it just always felt like I was exactly where I was meant to be. And I so trusted the people I was working with from Steve and James to the designers, I mean, Jane Greenwood, the detail, like, you know, should we be doing a fitting and she'd say, Oh, I just, oh, I just want to see that little bone right, right at your wrist, not that, no, no, that bone, that bone. So we're just going to lift this the tiniest bit see, because you use your hands so much as her.

And I really, I think people are pay a lot of attention to that. And even if it's only one person, I want maybe somebody's going to notice just how delicate your bones are there, but how that one bone protrudes. And it just so you're so vulnerable, and she's physically so vulnerable. And there's Jane or like subtly changing the shade of green, because all I wore, I never I didn't wear black. I wore different shades of green, because she thought, and I agreed that Fosca wanted life. She really wanted life. And she loved nature. And she loved beauty. And she spoke of flowers and gardens. And she said, So, you know, these can be very subdued greens, but they did shift. And they shifted with purpose.

And then I did wear this red dress for the Christmas party. At the end, that was her fancy dress. It was still very modest by comparison to certainly Marin's gorgeous gowns, and what would have been the gowns of the period. But, you know, Jane was just a genius collaborator, as was every, every member of that design team and my cast. Oh, for God's sake, you know me, I could I could just go on.

[32:40] Ilana Levine: When you think about being such a serious piece of theater. I know you as a person, I find you to be one of my most hilarious friends.

[32:56] Donna Murphy: So I know I'm a goofball. We all know that. Well, we don't all know that. But you know, how did you resist? Or did you not resist bringing that part of yourself? When that is often so, so welcome in the kind of things you do?

[33:15] Donna Murphy: Right. So it was interesting, because I remember James saying to me, you know, she has quite a sense of humor. It's just very dark. And she did, she used sarcasm, you know, in a defensive way, with, with Giorgio, quite often, but also, you know, with, with the soldiers, I mean, it was just, it was her armor, and a way to use her intelligence because she had very little outlet for it. And so, but I will say that, you know, there were things that happened on stage, like, and I, I did make a reference in the, in the, in my Tony acceptance speech to a mole, a mole joke, you know, so the moles, the moles on my face, I certainly didn't have any moles during the workshop. Okay. And when we were designing her look for Broadway, there was lots of conversation about what they were going to quote, unquote, do to me, to make me less attractive, which always made me laugh, because I, I, I'm a vain person, and I like to look my best.

But I've never thought of myself as a beautiful person. And I have never heard so frequently how attractive I was, as when I was doing that, when I was rehearsing that show, or when I was in that workshop, and people, you're, you're too beautiful, you're too attractive. And I thought, wow, you have to be playing somebody. For at least in my case, I have to be playing somebody who is repeatedly referred to as everything from, you know, hideous, to, you know, dog-like to grotesque, you know, grotesque, you know, and ugly, you know, just on and on and on to, and the flip side is that people will tell you how attractive you are, and you're not, you're not ugly enough, you're not unattractive enough.

And as an actress, my, my back went up. And I was like, first of all, I am an actress. Second of all, I'm a character actress. I can be a leading lady, but I'm a character actress. And I have been, I now recognize blessed, at times I thought cursed, with features that can go lots of different ways. And I promise you, we can do this. And, and it would make me nervous when I would hear people saying, you know, how are they going, what are they going to do to you? And I would say, I'm going to act it, it's, we'll figure it out. But I did, you know, in the, in the novel, there was a reference to Giorgio coming into her room that night that she wrote the letter to, to visit her when she was very ill, and the moonlight reflecting off of her extremely high forehead.

It was said much more, more poetically in the in the book, in the novel. But so I had this image of her having this really high forehead, which I do not. And so I said, Do you think we could extend my forehead with like, you know, in in the wig in making the wig, and we tried that. And it involved like a small prosthetic just to, you know, not have it be a hairline. And to, you know, add a little bit more height to my forehead. And it was really tough to do. And James referred to it, you know, as my Star Trek. That is a helpful visual aid. Yeah. So we understand what you mean. Yeah. I mean, I didn't look like I had an ass on my forehead. Right. But I ultimately didn't go with that. Well, we did the invited dress, right.

And that was the only appearance it made. He added on your forehead. Yes, he did. I mean, James came and talked to me, he said, I know you feel strongly about this. I know how hard we worked on this. It's too much. It's too much. And we're realizing how much of this really is coming from what's inside of you. And so we don't need that. But, and I can't, I honestly right now can't remember whether I also had a mole, also had moles at that point, if we then moved to the moles. Right. And so they kept experimenting with the placement of the moles and how many moles there were. And Jerry Schoenfeld, God rest his soul, you know, had an opinion. He didn't want any moles on me. Or, you know, he was literally examined where my moles were each night.

He might have been in Maren's dressing room, trying to examine, you know, got it. Yeah, like, he was very involved, but in my dressing room, all he cared about is where the moles were. Anyway, and so the moles, I was just gonna say in terms of the humor thing, yeah, sorry to interrupt you. Just that sometimes they would fall off. And I would come off stage and I, you know, would let them know. And they had to have, you know, like spare moles ready. And one time I came off and I just said, rolling, rolling, rolling. There's a mole rolling. And that became like this theme song that people would try to crack me up with. Because I didn't know where they were, you know, on the stage. I didn't know when it came off.

But they were glued on by our amazing makeup artist, Kelly. Kelly, it's gonna kill me not to remember your name, Kelly. And somebody told me that she recently passed away. And that is, I mean, literally, Kelly Gleason, she was a genius. And I just heard a few months ago that she passed away. And that just broke my heart. She worked so hard with us. And so ultimately, I think I had two moles. But there was humor. I knew how to laugh at myself. I just didn't have a lot of time for it. You know, I had quick changes. And I remember, like the guys used to say, my quick changes sounded like somebody having either like giving birth, or having some kind of a seizure. Because, first of all, they were so fast, some of them, and there was a lot to be.

[40:17] Donna Murphy: And I was preparing for whatever state I was supposed to be in on stage. So I was doing different things to help. I don't mean like hurting myself actually, but getting myself worked up into these states or using my imagination, whatever it took. But nobody wanted to be near me during those fast changes. And there was no like chatting with somebody while I was doing a fast change or doing a change. So the laughter, I don't think I ever cracked up on stage when we were doing the show. When Peter Gallagher and I were doing the workshop, there was some cracking up that happened. He was Giorgio in the workshop. Yes, he was. He was. And Jerry Shea was just so delicious and such a beautiful partner.

Um, when Peter chose not to do it and I was, I was there for several auditions, you know, people that I read with, actors who came in, some wonderful people. And, um, and Jerry was, there was just a, well, he wouldn't say there was an ease about it, but the ease in his, his goodness and his masculinity and his, um, the sort of not knowing how to deal with me kindly and, and yet tell me, get the hell away from me. I'm not interested. You know, he, but he just, he, I thought he had a beautiful, you know, balance. He did that balancing act very wonderfully. But I also just want to say that Peter did, Peter was fantastic. Um, but we really cracked each other up sometimes and made James mad a few times.

Um, so my humor was, you know, like after the show, before the show, occasionally off stage, you know, if I lost them all, um, and the guys knew everybody knew, I love that company so much. And I wish that I felt like I had the freedom, you know, to go out and after the show, but I just, you know, I had to take really good care of myself. And my stepdaughter was living with us, I think at that time. And I just, I could be wrong about that. She might've been in her freshman year of college. No, I don't, I, okay. I don't have the math on that yet. Um, in my head, I know she was, I think she was still living with us. And so, you know, I had to be careful about how I took care of myself and, um, get my rest and not, you know, my, my vocal, um, what's the word I'm searching for?

Anyway, it's a Joan Lehner phrase, but just how you take care of yourself vocally and talking in restaurants, you know, with a lot of ambience sound is not a good choice when you just need to use all of your energy, really be saving it for the work. And that's what I had to do. But I was really in great voice throughout that process because of the work I'd done with Joan and, and really hard work because I had to figure out, I did not want to compromise on some of the physicality choices that I was making. She, so she said, okay, then we have to find where some other place, you know, if you're, if there's a lot of tension in her body, which there is, then we have to find some place that you are releasing it so that you can sing in a healthy way.

And when you're singing in a bed and, you know, you have to be supported by a lot of pillows so that you can, you know, maintain this weak countenance that you want to present, but you must be strong in how you are producing the sound. And she very patiently worked with me and design people there worked with me, you know, to make that possible. And I was in such good voice that I did two workshops of new musicals while I was doing the show, where I actually did, you know, week long workshops of new musicals, not right away. But I realized, I said, Joan, do you think I can do this? And she looked at the music for both of these things. And they happened to be pieces that I was singing in my upper range.

And she said, it will actually be great for you. Because it's just going to keep, it's going to stretch this other part of the instrument. If it was something that was asking you to. Anyway, I'm going on, you know, well, it is Tangent Queen.

[45:01] Ilana Levine: Well, you're the, you're the Tangled Queen.

[45:03] Donna Murphy: Tangled Tangents.

[45:05] Ilana Levine: Tangled Tangents with Donna Murphy, that's going to be your podcast.

[45:08] Ilana Levine: Donna, the role of Fosca is one of the most complex, layered, beautiful, memorable, breathtaking performances as embodied by you in the history of musical theater. I know that that must be a lot to take in. I know you are told that a lot, not just by fans globally, but by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. So I just want to thank you for what is truly one of the most remarkable conversations where we've really just begun to kind of peel the onion of this incredibly layered performance in this beautiful play that miraculously, as you described earlier, just slid in under the wire to be nominated. And it won Best Musical, which was this extraordinary feat for all of you. And I want to just ask you a couple of very light questions as we finish up, which is, where do you keep your Tony Award? And actually your awards?

[46:18] Donna Murphy: Okay, so my, my Passion Tony is here in my little slice of office, as I call it, in my New York apartment. It's on a little shelf area. That is where I keep awards and, and some, you know, special mementos from, that are work related. And one, I guess, and there's a few photos, but they're work related, except for a photo of Sean and I. And, and a photo of Joel Gray and I. That's a screen cap at, at the Oscars one year when I went to the Oscars with him. And it's just the cutest thing. And it sits up there. But my Tony is next to other things that I've been blessed to be honored with. And so that's where that, my Passion Tony is. Can I just add a couple of quick things because they're so important in connection with, with that night?

[47:20] Ilana Levine: Of course.

[47:21] Donna Murphy: First of all, Beverly Randolph was our stage manager, production stage manager extraordinaire. She passed away far too early in her remarkable life, but anybody who's worked with her knows that she was the cream of the crop. And Beverly asked me about a week before the Tonys, if I'd written a speech. And I said, no, no, I, I don't, you know, I just, I feel like that's bad luck. And not that I'm, it's not about luck, but I just, it doesn't feel, I just didn't feel comfortable doing it. She said, you're going to have to prepare something, Donna, because there's, there's a chance it could happen. And I'm not going to lay odds, tell you what my odds are, you know, that I would lay on it, but you, you don't, you don't want to have some idea of what you want to say.

So I started to try to gather my thoughts and between the dress rehearsal in the morning of the Tonys and my performance of Passion that afternoon, she sat in my room, my dressing room with me, and she said, okay, tell me what you're thinking of saying. And I'm going to put a stopwatch on it. And I started to talk and she said, oh, you're in big trouble. And so she sat there with me and I did my own, you know, kind of self-editing and I, it wasn't a speech. It was just, these are the people I wanted to acknowledge. And anyway, so she did help me get the time down. And it was within a very reasonable amount, although they still started playing that music so soon. And, you know, your head is just spinning, but she was just so gracious about it.

And she was gentle. She wasn't like cracking the whip and she wasn't saying like, look, you're going to win, honey. So you got to be better be ready. It was nothing like that. It was so gentle and it was so loving and supportive, you know, beyond the call. That's the one thing. The other thing I wanted to mention is that, you know, we performed on the Tonys and that was almost as thrilling or equally as thrilling as winning because to stand and we, they did a part of it that they had pre-recorded. And then we did the last section of it live and standing behind that curtain, waiting and just looking at all my cast members and waiting for that because we were hearing the pre-recorded section playing.

And then we were waiting for the curtain to lift and for, I wasn't going to be seen right away. I was going to walk into it, but anyway, I felt so proud. And we did that. It was just one of the most thrilling moments of my life, period. And then I had to change back. And I'm sure you've heard other people on this, on this podcast speak about the, you know, you're in character for your, for the dress rehearsal. And then you're, you have a show maybe and no, yes. And then you have a performance and then you get changed into your glamour, Donna, for the red carpet and to go sit in your seat. And then you go change to be in your Fosca costume. Well, my dressing room to get changed was like three flights up in the Gershwin.

We were not, they were not at Radio City at that point. And I, and my category was the next category after our performance. And some, I don't, I don't know if they went right to commercial. All I know is I had something like four minutes. So we rehearsed that multiple times in my dressing room and I somewhat altered my Fosca makeup. We just didn't do as much of like the, it was whatever. It was slightly different. I didn't have the circles under my eyes and I, and Jerry Schoenfeld insisted that I not wear any moles. So I made it back to my seat just in time for the end of what happened to be a commercial that I was the voiceover for. It was Clairol Natural Instincts and Deborah Messing was the actress on stage.

I mean, the actress on camera. And, um, and it was my voiceover and I was sitting there and, and Sean, you know, gave me a kiss, my husband. And he said, do you hear your voice? And I said, what do you mean? Was, was my, was my, my mic on while I was changing? What are you talking about? He said, no, right now, do you hear your voice? And then I looked up at the screen and they would up on the big monitors. You could see the, whatever was happening on television televised. And it was this Clairol commercial voiceover, but I literally was like, and then, and then it, and then it was, you know, my category and Dee Hody was sitting in front of me and she was a friend of both Sean's and myself. And when they announced my name, I leaned forward and I kissed your wife, Dee Hody. I kissed my wife, Dee Hody, and I did not kiss my husband.

[52:53] Ilana Levine: Well, I know that you kissed him many times that night afterwards. Um, Donna Murphy, I love you. I have to thank you so much for being on this show today.

[53:00] Donna Murphy: My pleasure.

[53:01] Ilana Levine: And The Tony Goes To is produced by Alan Seals for the Broadway Podcast Network. The music and lyrics for the theme song were written by Georgia Femusa. Theme song orchestration by Alexander Sage Oyen. Episodes are edited by Derek Gunther. Thank you to Parody Bill for the graphics. And please don't forget to go to the iTunes show page and rate and review the show. Thanks for listening. Excerpt from the Tony Awards used with permission of Tony Awards Productions.