Tom Stoppard

My sincere thanks to the Tony Awards committee and the Tony voters. I feel a bit nostalgic, actually, because this year it’s 40 years since I first came here with a play and I’m sentimental enough to want to start by thanking the New York theatre for having me in for good times and good friends. It was a different planet in 1967, the Broadway theatre -- they had a little ashtray clamped to the back of every seat, and the author got 10 percent of the gross.

Jack O’Brien mentioned pretty much everybody whom I should thank. He somehow never quite mentioned himself. Among the friends I’ve made here are, of course, Bernie Gersten and André Bishop. Jack has directed me three times of the four times at being at Lincoln Center. One says you can’t imagine what I owe him, but if you’ve seen The Coast of Utopia, you can imagine what I owe him. Thank you, Jack, Thanks a lot.

André Bishop

Thank you. We are very pleased and we are very honored and we thank all the Tony voters and all the members of the Tony committees for giving us this lovely award. But, of course, we want to thank the great Tom Stoppard for writing a wonderful, wonderful play and the magnificent Mr. Jack O’Brien for directing it so beautifully.

Bernard Gersten

Thanks to that extraordinary company that has brought us as close to theatrical utopia as we are ever likely to get. And thanks to the great state-of-the-art board of directors of Lincoln Center Theater who urge us on in our follies; and finally, thanks to our colleague, friend and co-venturer Bob Boyett; and to my friend, the one who has made my life in the theatre for the past 16 years and filled it with ineffable joy, André Bishop.

Finally, and personally, congratulations to Cora’s and my darling daughter, Jilian, and her soon-to-be hunk of a husband, Brian, on their impending marriage. Thanks, Tony voters!