Tony Interview Special: JERUSALEM's Mackenzie Crook on His Love Affair with Theatre

Yesterday morning, past Tony winners Anika Noni Rose and Matthew Broderick announced the 2011 Tony Awards nominees live from the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in New York City. Today, BroadwayWorld talked to this year's nominees to hear their exciting stories of their reactions to the news. JERUSALEM star Mackenzie Crook went on the record about his nomination and his long journey with the show!

Congrats on your first Tony nomination! How does it feel?

It has been crazy, and lots of fun! There have been lots of people texting and emailing to congratulate me- people who I haven't spoken to in years, so that's really nice. It's been lovely- just a lot of people giving their congratulations- it's been great!

And you've been involved with the show for quite some time now, correct? What kind of evolution has the show gone through since the West End production?

An incredible evolution to be honest! When we first got into rehearsals on that first day almost two years ago, we had a script, but it was a skeleton of a script. And Jez [Butterworth] was there with us during the rehearsal period and he was constantly bringing in new pages every day; new characters sometimes!  So they'd have to go and audition people for new characters. So the script that I was first sent doesn't bear much resemblance to what we are now doing, but it became obvious, as we were doing it, what the story was that we were telling. It's been a very long and enjoyable process.

Audiences seem to be responding in a fabulously positive way to the show. Why do you think it is that they connect with the piece?

It's a joyful show and it's so difficult to summarize it into a couple of sentences- I've spent the past couple of years trying to do that. People ask 'What's it about?' and there's really no way of saying what it's about unless you've got 15 minutes to spare, while I explain all of the different levels of it.

I think they get a very rich experience. They come and can think about it for days afterwards. So many people come back a second time, because they need to see it again and enjoy it some more. There's so much in it. It's very funny but it's also very dark and tragic on some levels.  So people leave with a whole host of emotions.

With the recognition that the show got yesterday morning, did you find that last night's performance was extra energized?

I think it was an electric performance actually! I don't know how clued in the audiences are and if they know about nominations and stuff, but it seemed like a very electric atmosphere- it was very exciting.

You've done plenty of work on stage, having starred in shows both on Broadway and in the West End, but a lot of people now you from your TV and film credits.  Do you prefer one to the other?

At the moment I'm very much enjoying the theatre.  I came to it later- I started in stand-up, then went to TV, then went to film, so I feel like I'm sort of a beginner. I'm just learning, but I'm loving it. I'm absolutely having a love affair with the theatre at the moment!

JERUSALEM, the critically acclaimed and multi-award winning play by Jez Butterworth and starring Tony and Olivier Award-winner Mark Rylance (Boeing-Boeing, La Bête), began previews on April 2, at the Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street). The production, directed by Ian Rickson, opened April 21.

The American Theatre Wing's 65th Annual Antoinette Perry "Tony" Awards, which are presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, will air on CBS on Sunday, June 12th from 8:00 - 11:00 PM (ET/PT time delay).