The 2008-2009 Tony Award nominations were announced this morning May 5th by Tony Award winning actress Cynthia Nixon and Tony Award winning actor Lin-Manuel Miranda at the New York Public Library for Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium, 111 Amsterdam Avenue (betw 64th & 65th Street).
BroadwayWorld.com spent the following hours checking in with the nominees to get the scoop on how they heard about the happy news and to hear their reactions!
Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical
David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik, and Kiril Kulish - Billy Elliot, The Musical
Kiril: It's amazing, we are in shock! We are at CBS on The Early Show and we got the news right on the set. David: All of our friends are texting us! Kiril: When we heard we were nominated, it was just overwhelming. Trent: It's my Broadway debut - all of ours, so its so exciting, everyone is crying!
Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical
Brian d'Arcy James - Shrek, the Musical
I was up, my wife was heading out to work, and I walked my daughters to school and I came back I sat on the couch and turned them on, had my little moment to take it in, and it was wonderful to see and hear the news, to see everyone from the show nominated. We've worked on the show to bring this well known story, these characters to life, so it's just wonderful to be recognized for that. It's such a collaboration, and having the show be honored with Best Musical, to be able to share that with everyone, it's just such a gift, you know. And we do, you know, pardon the pun, try to bring the heart to it, you don't plan on what may come with awards and all, but it's a great feeling, and pulls you along, there is a feeling of pride. I'm so proud for the show.
Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical 
Gavin Creel, Hair
I watched, I turned on the tv on at 8:30am, to get the information, and you know deal with it accordingly, I'm glad it was a happy surprise. The show is just incredible, the great thing is I feel we win every night. One of our cast members, Allison Case who plays "Chrissy", she says "We Won-We Win" when something great happens, it is truly like we win, and we feel it everyday. No one expected the show to do as well as it has, you know, nobody expected the audience to flip out the way they do, and none of us is taking it for granted. It is such a great group of people, everybody, the cast, the crew, the amazing band, we are all just very grateful.
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical
Josefina Scaglione, West Side Story
It's awesome, its great, my best friend from Argentina is here, so she heard the news and she woke me up with 'WOWOWAHHH, you got nominated! So, I felt great about that. We are doing the show, and working, so the nomination, were such a great thing. We enjoyed it, the hard work brings these kind of things, we do our best, it's so exciting.
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical
Christopher Sieber, Shrek The Musical
I was driving from my house in NJ on my way to the city. So, my agent called me at 8:40 AM and said you've been nominated for a Tony. And it's raining, it's cats and dogs , . I had to pull over, because I needed to take a break, a couple deep breaths and then I pulled back into traffic, because that all I needed, you know the headline, Christopher Sieber Nominated for Tony, Dies in Firey Car Crash! I had to get in early, so I had no choice but to drive in, but it's a beatuful day, really. I'm just so happy that I'm sharing it with everyone, I love it. I'm happy that we are nominated for best musical, Sutton and I have been with it from the very start, when it was a just a little act one, ya know. So to have helped create this thing, and to see it be nominated for best musical means a lot. I'm just thrilled for my friends who are nominated too, it's just so, it's a beautifl morning, a beautiful morning!
