Tony Interview Special: Adam Godley on the Warm Glow of Bway!

Tuesday 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. BroadwayWorld talked to this year's nominees to hear their exciting stories of their reactions to the news. ANYTHING GOES's Adam Godley went on the record about starring in the classic Cole Porter show, and why he loves Broadway!

I'm sure that the past 24 hours have been quite a whirlwind for you! What's been going through your head since the nominations were announced on Tuesday morning?

It's exactly as crazy as everyone says. It happened at 8:30 in the morning when the nominations are announced, and then the phone starts ringing and all of the congratulations start coming in. It feels like this gift that somebody gave you. As an actor you're so aware of how lucky you are to be able to work, and to get a job. And then to be doing this show and working with the people I'm working with- and then you turn around and people are nominating you for awards as well. It all seems absurd!

I feel incredibly fortunate none-the-lees, and I feel so privileged to be here on Broadway doing the show. And to get a Tony nomination is just crazy!

And ANYTHING GOES is such a classic piece of musical theatre- what has it been like for you to step into such an iconic show and such an iconic character for that matter?

It's a huge benefit to have such a fantastic script. We start with a script with all these pages bound together, and you start to read it. And it's so funny and so delightful. Cole Porter's lyrics are so funny and so brilliant. I've heard them hundreds of times now and I still hear things that I didn't pick up.  So when you've got genius writing like that, you're really ahead of the game.

And again it is one of the great classic American musicals. It's enormous fun to dive in and make it work and be a part of it.

Do you have personal favorite onstage moment that you'd like to share?

To be honest, all of it! Every scene as I've said is beautifully written and I love doing it all- I relish it all. I love setting up this character as somebody who you think is one thing and he turns out to be another. And there's this sort of reveal towards the end. So obviously I love that moment. The number is so enjoyable that it's sort of a mixture of terror and fun.  Before I go on every night it's terrifying, but once I go out there and the audience is getting it and enjoying it, it's enormous fun.  And it's such a great feeling once I've done it.

And I have to say, the curtain call, when the lights go up and you see the audience for the first time and you see people's faces- that's a really moving moment because we've all worked like crazy to make this show good. And to see their smiles and their gratitude is truly a beautiful moment and very moving to see that.  That's why we do it: for the audience.

You've done a lot of work in the West End as well.  Tell me about making that transition, and do you prefer one to the other?

The lovely thing is that when you're an actor who's mainly worked in British theatre and you come into Broadway, and it's like a club. It's like this global club of people who work in the theatre. And it's the same the world over. The backstage feels the same. The same sort of personalities are involved, and it all feels very familiar.

 I think there's a sort of warmth, and a celebratory atmosphere that New York and Broadway does probably better than anywhere else in the world.  And it's wonderful to be bathed in this warm glow of people's enjoyment of things. I think that Americans are wonderfully expressive of their appreciation- and that's lovely and unexpected. It's interesting.  It's slightly different but fundamentally the same thing. Theatre is theatre is theatre; anywhere in the world.

Is there anyone in the Broadway community that you're dying to work with in the future?

My goodness! I don't think so, I'd like to work with everybody and lots of different sorts of people. I've done lots of kinds of plays- dramas and tragedies and musicals and comedies and classical plays. I'm just so happy to keep working!

Anything Goes stars Tony® Award winner Sutton Foster as "Reno Sweeney" and Tony® and Academy® Award winner Joel Grey as "Moonface Martin." Anything Goes is directed & choreographed by Tony® Award winner Kathleen Marshall. Tickets are available by calling Telecharge.com at (212)239-6200 / (800)432-7250 or online at www.Telecharge.com/AG. Ticket prices range from $87-$137. Tickets can also be purchased at The Stephen Sondheim Theatre Box Office (124 W. 43rd St). 

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).

Photo Credit: Kevin Thomas Garcia

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