It was an ordinary day. Reading an article in my morning newspaper titled "Jonathan Groff wins Tony Award. I knew the name well, since my cousin Susan Reese, was a good friend of his during his high school years. Story reads...Jonahan Groff is halfway to an EGOT. The Lancaster County, Ronks native on Sunday night won the Tony Award for best leading actor in a musical, after two previous nominations, for his role of composer-tuned-film producer Franklin Shepard in "Merrily We Roll Along." Groff shares a Grammy Award with the cast of "Hamilton," leaving an Emmy and an Oscar in the coveted EGOT status. "I grew up in a house surrounded by cornfields in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania," an emotional Groff said in his acceptance speech. "I was raised by my parents, Jim and Julie Groff, and my brother David Groff," who were all sitting next to Groff in Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater in New York Sunday night. "Thank you for letting me dress up as 'Mary Poppins' when I was three, thank you for letting me act out scenes from 'I Love Lucy' on my 10th birthday, thank you for always allowing my freak flag to fly without ever making me feel weird about it," Groff said. "Even if they didn't always understand me, my family knew the life-saving power of annoying the flame of a young person's passions without judgement.
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| Jonahan Groff, good friends with my cousin Sue Reese |
"Thank you to all my teachers back in Pennsylvania, especially Sue Fisher, who told me I could do this for a living." Fisher was Groff's English teacher at Conestoga Valley Middle School and spotted his talent early. Groff starred in "Merrily," the popular Broadway revival of a Stephen Sondheim musical, at the Hudson Theatre until the production closed July 7. In reverse chronological order, the musical tells the story of a deterioration 20-year friendship among three creatives. Earlier in the evening Sunday, Groff's "Merrily" castmate Daniel Radcliffe won his first Tony for his featured role of Charley Kringas in the show. Their other co-star, Lindsay Mendez, was nominated for featured actress but didn't win. The three stars performed the song "Old Friends" from "Merrily" on the CBS telecast of the 77th Tony Awards. Groff was previously nominated for Tonys for his breakout role as Melchior Gabor in the musical "Spring Awakening" and for playing King George III in the original cast of "Hamilton." Groff shared the 2016 Grammy Award with the other principal soloists in the cast of "Hamilton," for best musical theater album. He was also nominated for an Emmy Award for playing King George in the filmed version of "Hamilton," on Disney+. He has won the Obie and other awards for his off-Broadway theater work. He performed on local stages before moving to New York - and Broadway - after high school. Groff's role in "Merrily," along with his recent guest appearance on the popular British science fiction show "Doctor Who," have brought the Conestoga Valley High School graduate a new level of attention. In the past few months, he has been interviewed by a host of major newspapers and magazines and on both day- and nighttime network talk shows. He is also known for his TV performances in "Glee," "Looking" and Mindhunter," and film roles including those in "Known at the cabin," Disney's animated "Frozen" films and "The Matrix Resurrections." "Merrily We Roll Along," a quick-closing flop when it debuted on Broadway in 1981, became the must-have theater thicket of this past year, which many theater writers and critics have attributed to the performances of Groff, Radcliffe and Mendez. The production of "Merrily We Roll Along," which had a total of seven Tony nominations, also won for best revival of a musical and for best orchestrations (for Jonathan Tunick). Neat having a cousin who is best friends with a star! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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