Tony Awards: Star-studded group nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
NEW YORK -- In Sunday's Broadway and Beyond, a look at a star-studded category. Stars of stage and screen are vying for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play.
A trio of actors from Broadway's "Take Me Out" are nominated, CBS2's Dave Carlin reported.
That causes no tension - they're on the same team, said Jesse Williams, best known from TV's "Grey's Anatomy."
"You've been in ensemble stuff, so you know how to share the..." Carlin said.
"Yes, yes, that's true," Williams said.
"They win, you're happy, you win, you're happy," Carlin said.
"Yeah, it's all a win," Williams said.
"Is it?" Carlin said.
"Yeah. This is crazy. You know, this is, I've never done a play before," Williams said. "It's a big challenge and I respect it. You know, I respect the community, I respect the stage."
"To have three in the same category is slightly unusual," Carlin said.
"Yes, I have been nominated for my performance but I very much am here representing the company, because I do, it as an ensemble piece," said Michael Oberholtzer. "I have affection and love for all of them."
"It's hard to be competitive against those people that you admire and love so deeply," Jesse Tyler Ferguson said.
Here's what Ferguson said about the major themes of "Take Me Out," the hit revival about a star baseball player coming out as gay.
"Racism and homophobia and toxic masculinity and, unfortunately a lot of those themes are still so relevant today, and we have so much work to do in doing better about those things," Ferguson said.
Another nominee is Alfie Allen, who was in TV's "Game of Thrones." Allen is a menace in Martin McDonagh's "Hangman," a roller coaster of a play about capital punishment in England.
"It's just mad, you know, different reactions every night. Some people gasp, some people find it hilarious," Allen said. "It's a thriller of a play. It's a dark, it's a dark thriller. It can be sort of, the comedy can be morbid sometimes."
It's Allen's first Tony nomination.
Fellow nominee Chuck Cooper is a Broadway treasure, having won a Tony in 1997 for his performance in the musical "The Life." He's nominated this time for his performance in "Trouble in Mind" by Alice Childress.
"We ask newcomers, how does it feel to be nominated your first time? How does it feel to be a veteran and come back this way into the community?" Carlin said.
"It feels like a very well-tailored, putting back on a well-tailored suit. It's like, oh, I remember this jacket. I remember this," Cooper said.
"Trouble in Mind" was first performed in 1955. It's about racism in the theater that resonates today.
"And shine light on Alice Childress. Alice Childress, what a playwright. Oh my God, what a gift to the theater and what a gift that I got to be in her play," Cooper said.
The sixth nominee in this category is Ron Cephas Jones for his performance in "Clyde's" by Lunn Nottage about a sandwich shop where the owner may or may not be the devil.
Six nominees in four shows. Who takes home the Tony? We'll know in just a matter of weeks.
The Tony Awards airs Sunday, June 12. Act One, a live event hosted by Darren Criss and Julianne Hough, will stream at 7 p.m. on Paramount+. Tony-nominee and Oscar-winner Ariana DeBose will host this year's awards ceremony at 8 p.m. on CBS2.