The Best Quotes From the 75th Annual Tony Awards Press Room

After Tony winners accept their award onstage at Radio City Music Hall, they head across the street to the Tony Awards Media Room, where members of the press get to ask questions and find out even more of their thoughts on their win, work, inspirations, and more.

Here are our favorite quotes from the 2022 Tony Awards Press Room.

Best Original Score co-winner Toby Marlow (SIX: The Musical) on his historic win as a Non-binary theatre artist: "It feels really amazing to be a part of a season where there’s so much queerness on stage explicitly—queerness in the people, in the actors, in the creators of the shows. It feels really wonderful, and I really hope that, with more and more queer people storming Broadway in lots of new and different ways, that that’ll be reflected more and more in the shows we’re watching because representation is pretty fab. Love the queers. Happy pride!"

Best Featured Actress in a Play winner Phylicia Rashad (Skeleton Crew) on the art of acting: "As a young person, I had very firm ideas about things, as often young people do—and I still have firm ideas, and one of my firm ideas is to not have them. To open my vistas, open my mind to understanding. Acting is a very compassionate art, and oftentimes when we’re beginning as actors, the thought often is to ‘show someone what you can do,’ but that isn’t what acting is at all. Acting is understanding another human being and embodying that."

Best Scenic Design of a Musical winner Bunny Christie on working with Stephen Sondheim on the dramatically reimagined revival of Company: "He’s obviously protective of his own work, but he was very up for creating something new for a new generation, making it seem relevant. [He was] really admirably forward thinking."

Best Director of a Musical winner Marianne Elliott (Company) on the first time Sondheim saw the set model for Bobbie's tiny box apartment: "He started crying. And, I thought my career was over, but he said, 'No, this was exactly what I had originally imagined—that it was extremely claustrophobic, her and her friends."

Best Book of a Musical winner Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop) on what he would tell his younger self: "I would tell him to relax, have fun, and save his money. But I would also tell him, 'You’re okay. There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re anchovies, and not everyone loves anchovies—until they do.'"

Tony-winning Company producer Chris Harper on being name checked in an iconic, viral Patti LuPone quote: "You don’t see that coming, do you? The great thing about Patti is you never know what’s going to happen with Patti LuPone. I love her so deeply and completely. She’s hilarious—I’ve never left her dressing room without a smile on my face.”

Best Featured Actor in a Musical winner Matt Doyle (Company) on the notes Sondheim gave him about his performance: "He loved the line ‘I'm the next bride,’ which is why I said it tonight onstage [in his acceptance speech], because, especially coming from the perspective of a gay man, now, when [marriage equality] wasn't even a right that we had in the last revival [of Company] in 2006, it was so important to him that that was joyful and celebrated. At first I was playing it in a really internal way…and walking off quietly. And he was like, ‘That is not it. You need to yell that line!’ So when we came back from the pandemic, I just remembered I have to yell that as joyfully and as big as possible—and that was something that I know he was thrilled about nightly.”

Tony-winning A Strange Loop producer Barbara Whitman on taking risks: "The last musical I did was Fun Home, and it gave me the courage to do A Strange Loop. The more you do it, the more you get the courage. I learned a lot on Fun Home and applied a lot of those lessons to A Strange Loop. Now I can take the lessons and apply them going forward. The more you can make it happen, and the more it works, the more it gives you the courage to try again with something that might be even riskier, or more unusual."

Best Leading Actress in a Musical winner Joaquina Kalukango on becoming a part of an instantly iconic Tony Awards performance moment: "I just keep thinking of the women who came before me. I keep thinking of Melba Moore. I keep thinking of Jennifer Holiday. I keep thinking of Pearl Bailey. I think of all these women who paved the way. I even think of Phylicia Rashad. It's an honor to be a part of the community. I love the community so much, and I think we've all really had to embrace each other because this has been a really tough year, full of uncertainty, to sort of come back. It just feels like we’re so happy to be here, to be present, and to tell stories again."