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Video: Tom Stoppard and Sonia Friedman Celebrate Tony Win for 'Best Play'
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May 17, 2024
Just last night at the 76th Annual Tony Awards, Leopoldstadt, currently running at the Longacre Theatre, took home a Tony Award for 'Best Play'. After leaving the stage at the United Palace, playwright Tom Stoppard and producer Sonia Friedman checked it with BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge to share their initial reactions!
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0:00
Well, I mentioned on stage that I won a Tony in 1968
0:12
And to actually bookend my life, 55 years between that Tony and this one, that's a kind of arc
0:24
which even I am somewhat astonished by. I think it's a history-making moment
0:32
and probably will never happen again and he's forgotten the three in between
0:38
the three Tony's in between those ones and his very... The thing which I couldn't get over
0:44
I was sort of waiting to be interviewed and it said behind the guy the 72nd year
0:51
and I was thinking my God I did the 21st year I've been around a while
0:59
Okay. Yeah. What this has meant to you as a producer to produce this incredible piece of work
1:05
Well, Leiposhtat came into my life, 2018, and the world was a very different place
1:14
And whilst Tom was written this big epic extraordinary piece obviously we had no idea what was coming at us
1:26
and we opened it in London in early 2020, and we all know what happened then
1:33
Then we shut it down. But the theatre marquee stayed up throughout the lockdowns in London
1:42
and I would go there, a pilgrimage, all on my own, empty streets
1:50
and sit outside that theatre. And it gave me so much courage
1:57
because I'd look at this play and what Tom had written about
2:03
and it put everything in perspective. This was a pandemic. It was a bit tricky
2:11
A lot of us were suffering. but it wasn't genocide and it wasn't the Holocaust
2:19
and holding that perspective through these last few years has been really mentally
2:27
important for me and then we brought it back it was even better post pandemic it was stronger it was richer it was more resonant and we knew we had to get it to New York as quickly as possible
2:44
because we always believe that this play would actually find its natural home in this city
2:51
And I'm very grateful to say we were right, because the audiences here continue to write to us, stop us, and say thank you
3:02
Thank you for telling our story. Thank you for telling a story that I can introduce my family to
3:09
so that they understand my story. And so this Tony's for them, actually
3:18
It's for them, it's for obviously everybody involved, but it's for the last four years
3:26
and for the last many, many decades of people who have suffered
3:32
Tom, for you, sitting to watch how this beautiful cast, what they give to an audience every night at the theatre
3:40
what that means to you? I don't know about other writers, but I'm always slightly in awe of the actors in my plays
3:51
I feel very much in their debt In the case of this play there an extra layer to this because the cast as a whole they bonded in a certain strong sense And so one feels one is being represented by the building and
4:11
everybody in it. So I sit there just conscious that I'm privileged to
4:23
Just be in a seat and watch these people giving their all
4:28
and being as accurate as they possibly can. And they take their job in this play very, very seriously
4:41
They, you know, it's an ensemble piece. So, you know, it's not that anybody has, you know, the leading moment
4:53
But they are doing this because they all as a collective believe that this story matters
5:02
and they want to communicate Tom's words to the world
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