Andrew Garfield Dedicates Tony Award to 'LGBTQ People Who Have Died for the Right to Live'
Andrew Garfield is the toast of Broadway.
The actor, 34, was a big winner at Sunday’s 2018 Tony Awards, taking the Radio City Music Hall stage to accept the Tony for his performance as AIDS patient Prior Walter in the acclaimed revival of Angels in America.
Garfield dedicated the award to the “countless LGBTQ people who have fought and died for the right to live and love as we are created to.”
He added, “We are all sacred and we all belong, so let’s just bake a cake for everyone who wants a cake to be bake,” referring to the recent Supreme Court ruling on Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.
This was the second nomination for Garfield and first win. He was previously nominated in 2012, for his featured role opposite the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in Mike Nichols’ revival of Death of a Salesman.
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Angels in America first premiered on Broadway in 1993, and made waves for its searing look at the AIDS crisis. It’s since gone on to be considered a seminal work in the history of American theater — even winning playwright Tony Kushner the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The play, subtitled A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, is told in two parts: Part One, Millennium Approaches and Part Two: Perestroika. Running time for the full show clocks in around eight hours.
This production, in honor of the play’s 25th anniversary, debuted at London’s National Theatre last year before its transfer. Directed by Marianne Elliot, it also stars Nathan Lane, Lee Pace, James McArdle, and Denise Gough.
It made history this year as the most Tony-nominated play ever, with 11 nominations.
A strickly limited engaged, Angels in America is slated to close at the Neil Simon Theatre on July 15.
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Earlier this year, Garfield spoke to Entertainment Weekly about performing in a play that feels so relevant to society now.
“It doesn’t get any better as an actor; to feel purposeful as an actor is a rare thing, I find,” Garfield said. “To find a story that is so in tune with the cultural moment, what the universe and the world seems to be crying out for, what humanity and the culture seems to be crying out for. … It’s a time where we need community, it’s a time where we need to remember the things that make us human and all of our commonalities.”
“So, it does feel like going on a march every night,” he continued. “It feels like we’re on a march every night for seven-and-a-half hours. Even though it’s very costly for us and for an audience, I think it’s one of those things that’s very worthwhile to do because I think if we weren’t doing this we would be struggling to find something that was as meaningful to do as performers. And if we weren’t doing that, we would be going on marches. It’s the time to march.”
The 72nd annual Tony Awards, hosted by Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban, are airing live from Radio City Music Hall on CBS.