2009 Tony Award Nominees: 'Best Performance By A Leading Actor In A Play'

 

Jeff Daniels ("Alan" in God Of Carnage)
Broadway: Fifth of July (Drama Desk Award), The Golden Age, and Redwood Curtain. Off-Broadway: Circle Repertory's Johnny Got His Gun (Obie Award), Lemon Sky at Second Stage (Drama Desk Nomination), and Blackbird at the Manhattan Theatre Club (Drama League Nomination). As Founder and Executive Director of Michigan's Purple Rose Theatre Company, he has written twelve plays, including Guest Artist (Runner Up, Steinberg New Play Award), Across The Way (Finalist, Steinberg New Play Award), and this coming fall at the PRTC, Escanaba. As an accomplished singer-songwriter who has toured across the country, proceeds from his recordings (jeffdaniels.com) support his theatre. Mr. Daniels has appeared in over fifty films, including The Squid And The Whale (Golden Globe Nomination), Something Wild (Golden Globe Nomination), The Purple Rose Of Cairo (Golden Globe Nomination), Gettysburg, Pleasantville, Terms Of Endearment, The Hours, 101 Dalmatians, Dumb And Dumber, Speed, The Lookout, Fly Away Home, Good Night And Good Luck, Infamous, Arachnophobia, Ragtime, State Of Play, as well as the upcoming Arlen Faber, Away We Go, and Paper Man

 

Raúl Esparza ("Charlie Fox" in Speed-the-Plow)
Broadway: The Homecoming (Tony nom., Drama Desk Award), Company (2007 Tony nom.; Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Awards), Taboo (Tony nom., Drama Desk Award), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Cabaret, The Rocky Horror Show (Theatre World Award). Off-Broadway: The Normal Heart; Comedians; tick, tick...BOOM! (Obie Award, Drama Desk nom.). Regional: Company (Cincinnati Playhouse); Sunday in the Park With George and Merrily We Roll Along (Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration); Slaughterhouse-Five and Fur (Steppenwolf); Cry, the Beloved Country, Richard II and A Christmas Carol (Goodman Theatre); The Washington-Sarajevo Talks (Victory Gardens); Arcadia and What the Butler Saw (Meadowbrook Theatre); Messiah (National Jewish Theater); Mixed Blessings (Coconut Grove Playhouse). HOLA José Ferrer Acting Award. 2006 Sundance Theatre Lab. Film: Wes Craven's 25/8, Sidney Lumet's Find Me Guilty. Television: "Pushing Daisies" (recurring).

 

James Gandolfini ("Michael" in God of Carnage)
James Gandolfini is best known for his performance as Tony Soprano in HBO's "The Sopranos," for which he received a Golden Globe, four SAG Awards and three Emmy Awards. He made his Broadway debut when he appeared with Jessica Lange and Alec Baldwin in A Streetcar Named Desire. His numerous film credits include Romance & Cigarettes; The Man Who Wasn't There; The Castle; The Mexican; Get Shorty; the upcoming The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3; Where The Wild Things Are; In the Loop and Welcome to the Rileys. He executive-produced the Emmy-nominated HBO Documentary Film "Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq."

 

Geoffrey Rush ("King Berenger" in Exit the King)
Geoffrey Rush has appeared in over 70 theatrical productions and more than 20 films. For Shine, Rush received Oscar, Golden Globe, SAG, BAFTA, Film Critics' Circle of Australia, Broadcast Film Critics, AFI, NY and LA Film Critics' Awards. Film highlights: The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG), Quills (Oscar nom.), Shakespeare in Love (Oscar, Golden Globe noms.). Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Film: Munich, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Candy, Intolerable Cruelty, Finding Nemo, The Banger Sisters, Swimming Upstream, Lantana, Frida, The Tailor of Panama, Mystery Men, Les Misérables. Stage highlights: Sydney Critics Circle Award, Variety Club Award and the Victorian Green Room Award for The Diary of a Madman; Sydney Critics' Circle nominations for The Government Inspector, Uncle Vanya, and Oleanna and received the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award (1994).

 

Thomas Sadoski ("Greg" in reasons to be pretty)
Thomas Sadoski originated the role of Greg in the off-broadway production of reasons to be pretty. He made his Broadway debut in 2004 playing Mary-Louise Parker's husband in the critically acclaimed Manhattan Theatre Club production of Craig Lucas' Reckless, directed by Mark Brokaw. His first job after graduating Circle in the Square Theater School was understudying and going on for Mark Ruffalo in Kenneth Lonergan's This is Our Youth at Second Stage Theatre; his current appearance in Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo marks his fifth production with the company. In 2006 and 2007, Sadoski starred in David Sedaris' one- man show Santaland Diaries at Long Wharf Theatre to capacity audiences. He is also a regular at the Williamstown Theater Festival (5 seasons), where he has worked with such directors as Michael Greif, Joe Mantello and Darko Tresnjak. Sadoski has worked extensively developing new plays at New Dramatists, The Lark, The Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center and The Sundance Institute, as well as in productions at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Studio Dante and Naked Angels, among others. His TV work includes appearances on "As the World Turns," "Law & Order" and "Law & Order: CI" and an upcoming role on "Ugly Betty." Films include The New Twenty, Loser (directed by Amy Heckerling), Happy Hour, Company K and Winter Solstice.