FLASH FRIDAY: Memorable Tony Award Acceptance Speeches from Dorothy Loudon, Lily Tomlin and Natalia Makarova

We all know that if Lin-Manuel Miranda picks up a Tony Award or three at this year's June 12th ceremony, he'll be rapping his acceptance speech, which has become his trademark.

Perhaps it's because live theatre tends to attract unique personalities, but just about every Tony Award telecast contains an acceptance speech that gets a little nutty. Who can forget Patti LuPone thanking just about everyone involved in her post-EVITA career after winning for GYPSY, or Mary Louise Wilson letting out a primal howl of joy when accepting for GREY GARDENS.

Here are a few that are certainly worth watching for their off-the-cuff humor and unbridled gratitude.

Before ANNIE came along, Dorothy Loudon was well known among Broadway fans for giving show-stopping performances in shows that stopped running very quickly. Her previous nomination for Best Actress in a Musical was for her 4-performance run of THE FIG LEAVES ARE FALLING. So when she was awarded the Best Actress Award for ANNIE, it was a prize that came after years of earning it.

The country started discovering the brilliance of Lily Tomlin with her weekly TV appearances on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," where the show's quick succession of brief comedy bits became a perfect vehicle for her multitude of characters such as precocious Edith Ann, The Tasteful Lady and telephone operator Ernestine. In 1977 she brought some of them to Broadway with her first solo show, APPEARING NITELY, which she co-authored with her then-partner and future wife, Jane Wagner. Tomlin then picked up the 1986 Best Actress Tony for Wagner's solo play, THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE.

Russian ballet star Natalia Makarova didn't have Broadway in mind when she defected from her homeland and began performing regularly for American Ballet Theatre, but the 1936 Rodgers and Hart musical ON YOUR TOES, had a perfect non-singing role for her as the tempestuous ballerina who dances the jazz ballet "Slaughter On Tenth Avenue." Her 1983 acceptance speech for starring in the musical's revival certainly ranks among the Tony Awards' funniest. The reason presenter Peter Michael Goetz, appearing in BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS at the time, is in his pajamas and bath robe is because that year all the presenters came out wearing their stage costumes.