Meet the 2023 Tony Nominees From Play Revivals

Every year, the Tony nominees gather to meet the press and share what's going on in their heads in the week after the nominations were announced. From little theatre kids all grown up to artists celebrating their community, the nominees were filled with expressions of gratitude and joy.

Get to know the 2023 nominees with moments from their interviews and Playbill's portraits. The four-part series continues here, with the nominees from play revivals.

READ: Meet the 2023 Tony Nominees from Musical Revivals

Wendell Pierce

"It has been not only a high watermark in my career, but a high watermark in my life. It is the most powerful journey of self reflection I've ever been on. It changed me not only as an artist, but as a man. Fearing that my best days were behind me, this emboldened me to remember that my best days are ahead. And that while I may have fear, I do have courage. I have the power to act in face of fear, and accomplish almost anything that I want to accomplish when I put my mind to it."

Pierce is nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for his role as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman.

Amy Herzog

"It's still all feels a little bit unreal. It started feeling unreal the moment Jamie Lloyd contacted me and asked me to do this adaptation for him and for Jessica Chastain. I knew immediately how lucky that was. I can't believe I got to adopt this play I've loved my whole life. It was joyful. Every moment of the writing was fun. The rehearsal process was easy and wonderful. We had this incredible cast. Sometimes mana just falls down from heaven. And that's what this whole thing has felt like."

Herzog's new version of A Doll's House is nominated for Best Revival of a Play.

LaChanze

"Seeing the faces of people when they come out of these theatres, seeing them moved, seeing them transformed by what they just experienced, that's the reward. And if I can keep doing that, then I'm doing something well."

LaChanze is twice-nominated this season as a producer on Best Revival of a Play nominee Topdog/Underdog and on Best Musical nominee Kimberly Akimbo.

Corey Hawkins

"When you talk about nominations or winning—and let me be clear, this is very much an honor to be a nominee and to stand amongst my fellow colleagues—but winning is getting to go on stage night after night and share your stories with people eight times a week. Being able to say that you've done that and you've done it well, that's winning."

Hawkins in nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for his role as Lincoln in Suzan-Lori Parks' Topdog/Underdog.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II

"I know that we inspired countless young, Black kids to want to be on that stage, as well. I was one of the kids who didn't know that I could be an actor. I found this play when I was 20 years old. And this was the play that gave me confidence to pursue acting. It let me know that I had a space in the theatre and then theatre led to everything else I've been able to do in my career thus far, in film and television, etc. So, it was a gift. Definitely a gift."

Hawkins in nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for his role as Booth in Suzan-Lori Parks' Topdog/Underdog.

Miriam Silverman

"I still don't really believe it. Like, what? Is that true? It means a lot, getting to do this play on Broadway, this Lorraine Hansberry masterpiece that I adore, in front of thousands of people every night.

Silverman is nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play for her role as Mavis Parodus Bryson in The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window.

Brian Anthony Moreland

"My heart is full. It's literally bursting. August Wilson wrote The Piano Lesson well over 45 years ago; it premiered 35 years ago at Yale. And to have the show back on Broadway means that it can withstand the test of time, that the power of August Wilson and the lessons within that piano are valid for us all—to really embrace your past, to recognize your present, and build for your future to leave something behind for somebody else. I feel like the work of August Wilson is the thing that he left behind for us to learn from."

Moreland is lead producer of The Piano Lesson, which is nominated for Best Revival of a Play.

Jessica Chastain

"This whole day just reminds me of the awkward, shy, confused kid that I was and how the theatre community found me and saved me. I'm happy to be a theatre nerd. It's changed my life."

Chastain is nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for her role as Nora in A Doll's House.

Suzan-Lori Parks

"The reward, for me, is the love that I get from people who say 'I studied your play in high school,' or 'I'm seeing it for the very first time,' or 'This is the very first play I've ever seen.' Topdog/Underdog is a story of two Black men. But kids who don't look like Lincoln and Booth, grown folks who don't look like Lincoln and Booth, who haven't had the experiences that Lincoln and Booth have had, it resonates with them. The play is specifically about Black men, but there's a ripple effect. And the ripple effect is that it's about humanity. It's about being alive and trying to find love in your life and connection in your life. And everybody feels that."

Parks' play Topdog/Underdog is nominated for Best Revival of a Play.

See the rest of Playbill's exclusive portraits of the 2022 Tony nominees.