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Video: Meet the 2023 Tony-Nominated Directors of a Musical
May 17, 2024
Best Direction of a Musical Tony nominees include: Michael Arden (Parade), Lear deBessonet (Into the Woods), Casey Nicholaw (Some Like It Hot), Jack O'Brien (Shucked), and Jessica Stone (Kimberly Akimbo).
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I love this. You have two pins today. I do. I do. It's exciting. It's exciting
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Alright, what's made this all so special of working on something like it hot
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Well, you know what? The cast. Yeah. It's always about the people. I mean, it's always about the show, too
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But what I love is, it's about this group of people working really hard on the show
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And that's what I love the most. I love people that want to have a good time and work hard. And that's what we have in this cast
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They're incredible. Absolutely incredible. Take me back to the youngest Casey, that first show you were in
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when you were really, really, really young. And what older Casey would tell younger Casey? My..
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That's a toughie. It's not a toughie. It's just amazing. You know, I was a dancing Indian in Annie Get Your Gun
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You know, so, and there's like, yeah. Yeah, it's just amazing. I don't even know what I would say
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I think I would just give him a big old hug, and that would be enough
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And just say, you're fantastic. I can't even say it myself. As an adult, at my age
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I can't even tell myself I'm fantastic. But it's great. It's great
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How excited are you to be sitting here today, Jack? You can't imagine. I mean, first of all, as I said
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just to wake up in the morning is a treat these days. But to be with this crowd, amongst these people
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and of course, you know, it isn't a competition, because we're not alike. None of this is similar
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We can't be yoked together, because we're all coming from different places
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But to suddenly realize you're being celebrated for something you did right, no better feeling in the world
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What made Chuck so special for you? Well, you know, I've never, ever heard an audience
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laugh harder or longer in my life. I couldn't believe it. I was terrified that by the time we got to the second act
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they would be sort of throwing things at the stage, saying, shut up
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But they didn't. And the piece sustained itself, got realer, got more touching
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I think it's a surprising evening. I don't think people know what to make of us, really
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I don't think we've ever seen anything like it. But yet they're on their feet at the end of the show
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Well, we need a laugh. We need to feel good about ourselves
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and we need the humane sort of generosity of laughing together at the same thing
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and realizing that's our humanity. How many years have you worked in the business, Jack? God
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Well, OK. My Broadway debut was 1969 for APA Phoenix, Cockadoodledandy
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And my first nomination was 1977, which was Borgy and Bess. So I've been at this pop stand a long time
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What a way to come back this season with Chuck, right? I know, I know
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I'm over the moon when I'm so happy. And I love my company, and I love everybody
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We had such a good time, Richie. I cannot tell you what fun we had
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Well, it must be evident, because you can't manufacture that if it isn't real
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Have you been able to put it into words? I mean, the whole journey that Into the Woods has been on
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and here you are on Tony nomination day. It's been such a miracle
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You know, when we did it at Encores! initially, we had two weeks of rehearsal
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and we really thought it was going to be just this singular moment in time that we had all this talent come together
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around this beautiful show. And then the fact that we got to bring it to Broadway
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and then we got to, it was supposed to be only eight weeks, and then we got to extend and extend
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and now it's still, it's on tour with many of the Broadway cast members
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It's just been the most incredible gift, and I love this show so much
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But you had so many different cast members go into this show. It was like, oh my god. And all of them were amazing
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Yeah, totally. They were incredible people. Yeah. You know, I think that we just, I
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wanted to create this invitation for great actors to play and to really take Stephen James, the work
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of the music, the lyrics, the book, and really make it their own
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So each person that came in, we never asked for a replica performance
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It was really like, let's find your version of this that's true to the story
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And it's just amazing that they were all so good. What's made this so special for you
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I mean, the fact that we get to do parade on Broadway
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is like reason enough for me to celebrate. But to be here celebrating the designers, the production
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the actors, and to represent all of the people who there are no categories for, I
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feel like that's my job, is I'm like a representative of these folks
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And for Christmas Carol to have our design team nominated, to be part of two wildly different shows this season
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is just so cool. And I get to be around people I idolize and obsess
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And I get to meet people here today and tell them how much I love them
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and how much their work means to me, and how they all make me want to be better and inspire me
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every day. Yeah, because you're all doing the same things eight times a week. But today, you get to see each of your other people
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that you've worked with. You celebrate each other today. Well, directors especially. We're like in our own little jerk tech caves, usually
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So to get to celebrate together and just celebrate the season is truly cool
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It's really special. I mean, this sounds like sort of false modesty
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It's not. The most special thing is that our show is nominated
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Because that, to me, belongs to every single one of us, which is the truth
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It really takes teams of incredible people over years with a new musical
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And so that is testament to all of them. So that's the thing I'm most excited about
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How special has this show been to work on for you? Incredibly special
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Because it's about all the things I think about and care about in terms of who do you want to be
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and what do you want to do with the time that you have on this planet
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And I've worked with some really smart, funny, amazing people. And so it's really, really special
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When I look at it on stage, it reflects what the process was, which is just
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filled with a lot of wit and heart and imagination and laughter
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And it's been really an incredible experience. So this is cherry on the sundae
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Your show brings so much joy. It's brought a new audience to the theater, too. It's like young kids coming to the theater
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That must make you feel so great when you're sitting in the theater and watching, right? Yeah
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You know, because that's what we want. We want our younger audiences
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We want to be. It's funny, it feels sometimes like it was such a part of our culture, mid-20th century
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that all these families would go to the theater. And we want that to continue
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We want our new generation
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