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NEW YORK -- The Tony Awards were first handed out by the American Theatre Wing back in 1947. That means that Broadway's highest honor turns 60 this year.
The annual celebration airs live on CBS this Sunday (8 p.m. ET/PT). Last week, more than 120 Tony-winning actors gathered at the Shubert Theatre for a more private birthday party.
The variety of stage and screen stars in the house -- including Joan Allen, Harry Belafonte, Matthew Broderick, Glenn Close, Blythe Danner, James Earl Jones, Bebe Neuwirth and Natasha Richardson -- offered a testament to Tony's enduring cachet, for both theater fans and insiders.
Between hugging and chatting, some of the troupers paused to reflect on the event, and to remember the night -- or nights -- they got to take Tony home.
*"There are lots of people I admire here that I haven't met, and people I know. It's good to see old friends." -- Ralph Fiennes, a winner for Hamlet (1995) and a 2006 nominee for Faith Healer.
*"It's funny; when they called me up for this, I asked, 'Are there going to be any dead people there?' They had no sense of humor." -- Ron Leibman for Angels In America: Millennium Approaches (1993).
*"There's something about the Shubert that feels more like a theater than any other. I did (1953's) Can-Can and (1964's) Bajour. And I've been around so long that I've seen the names of all the other theaters change!" -- Chita Rivera for The Rink (1984) and for Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993). She's nominated this year for Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life.
*"I remember sheer terror, before, during and about two months (after I won the Tony). But it was very pleasurable." -- Liev Schreiber for Glengarry Glen Ross (2005).
*"My mother, my sister and my daughter were with me when I won. I remember a silence after the announcement was made. Then in the days that followed, as I heard different things from people, it seemed so many people were cheering at the same time at different places on Earth. I felt I had received a real blessing." -- Phylicia Rashad, A Raisin in the Sun (2004).
*"I usually left out people's names (in accepting), because I always felt I owed something to the whole community. The sense of competition is overtaken by the sense of responsibility. And to humble myself, I said, 'You know what? In Calcutta, there are two guys right now, sitting on a sidewalk, rehearsing a play. They're saying, "What's wrong with the second act?"' We ain't the only ones, you know? " -- Judd Hirsch for I'm Not Rappaport (1986) and Conversations With My Father (1992).
*"I thought I was fairly ambivalent about awards ... but then that night ... I thought, 'This prize is mine!' I would have knocked out anyone who was in front of me." -- Blair Brown, Copenhagen (2000).
*"I stayed awake for the next 24 hours, because I wanted to prolong the day I'd won the Tony." -- Tonya Pinkins, Jelly's Last Jam (1992).
*"It was a very, very good time. We happened to have had a very good year that year." -- Harvey Fierstein, Hairspray (2003); also a winning actor for Torch Song Trilogy (1983).
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