DANIEL DAVIS
Little Rock connection: A Gurdon native, he appeared on Betty Fowler’s locally produced show which aired on KTHV.
Tony Awards connection: Nominated for Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in 2000’s Wrong Mountain.
Category Archives: Tony Awards
ROCKing the TONY AWARDS – Claire Bloom
CLAIRE BLOOM
Little Rock connection: Performed at Wildwood Park for the Arts in the 1990s.
Tony Awards connection: Nominated for Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in 1999 for Electra.
ROCKing the TONY AWARDS – Agnes de Mille
Photo by courtesy Anderson Ferrell
AGNES DE MILLE
Little Rock connection: In 1951 she and her dance troupe performed at Robinson Auditorium.
Tony Awards connection: Won Tony Awards for Choreography for Brigadoon (1947) and Kwamina (1962). Was nominated for a Tony for choreographing Goldilocks. In 1993, accepted a special Tony for the 50th anniversary of Oklahoma!
ROCKing the TONY AWARDS – Joe E. Brown
JOE E. BROWN
Little Rock connection: Appeared at Robinson Auditorium in the national tour of Harvey in 1948.
Tony Awards connection: At the 1948 Tonys, received a special Tony Award for touring in Harvey while the original play still was on Broadway. He had previously played the role on Broadway earlier in the run (succeeding original star Frank Fay). The original production of Harvey was directed by Antoinette Perry, after whom the awards were named.
The photo on the right was a publicity photo showing Brown taking down a painting of Fay with Harvey to mark the fact that Brown was taking over the role.
ROCKing the TONY AWARDS – Barbara Loden and Elia Kazan
William H. Alden/Evening Standard, via Getty Image
BARBARA LODEN and ELIA KAZAN
Little Rock connection: The pair were married in 1967 in Little Rock at the home of Kazan’s son, who lived here at the time.
Tony Awards connection: Loden won a 1964 Tony for Featured Actress in a Play for her performance of a Marilyn Monroe-like character in After the Fall, Arthur Miller’s roman a clef about his marriage to Monroe. Loden was directed in the play by Kazan. He won Tonys for directing Miller’s All My Sons (1947) and Death of a Salesman (1949) as well as MacLeish’s J.B. (1959). He was nominated for directing Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs and Sweet Bird of Youth. As a producer, he received Tony nominations for The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, Strange Interlude and Tartuffe.
ROCKing the TONY AWARDS – Debbie Gravitte and Christiane Noll
DEBBIE GRAVITTE and CHRISTIANE NOLL
LITTLE ROCK connection: Both have appeared with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. The pair appeared together during one of the Broadway Pops concerts in 2007. Noll returned in 2010 to appear in the Valentine Pops concert.
Tony Awards connection: Gravitte won the 1989 Tony for Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance in Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. (She was then known by her maiden name, Debbie Shapiro.) Noll was nominated for a 2010 Tony for Actress in a Musical for her performance in the revival of Ragtime.
ROCKing the TONY AWARDS – Jane Lanier
JANE LANIER
Little Rock connection: Choreographed Ring of Fire for the Arkansas Repertory Theatre.
Tony Awards connection: Nominated for a 1989 Tony for Featured Actress in a Musical for Jerome Robbins’ Broadway.
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