Tony Award Countdown: 30 Years In 30 Days, Nathan Lane and Gregory Hines Get In Touch With Their Feminine Sides, 1995

Welcome to BroadwayWorld's Tony Award Countdown: 30 Years In 30 Days, a look at some of the Tony Awards' most memorable moments from the past three decades.

Broadway wasn't singing many new songs during the 1994-95 season. Only one completely new musical, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black and Christopher Hampton's SUNSET BOULEVARD, opened by Tony Award time. The other eligible entry as the season's best was the Leiber and Stoller revue, SMOKEY JOE's CAFE.

One of the biggest star attractions of the season was designer John Napier's eye-popping drawing room set, featuring a grand staircase, that was lowered onto the stage in SUNSET BOULEVARD for star Glenn Close to make her entrance. The 1995 ceremony was held at that production's home, the Minskoff Theatre, allowing viewers to see Close, one of the evening's three co-hosts, grandly descend from its height.

She was joined by her colleagues for the evening, JELLY'S LAST JAM Tony-winner Gregory Hines and Nathan Lane, who had made such a hilarious impression playing a musical theatre aficionado in Terrence McNally's LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION! that many assumed him to be the favorite to win the Supporting Actor in a Play prize. McNally's comic drama took the Best Play award, but Lane wasn't even nominated, a point that was played up for laughs with the ceremony's opening patter.

Hines and Lane proved to be a formidable comedy team in the classic funnyman/straight man style. Here they provide a taste of Lane's not-nominated performance.

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