For the Tony Awards, Ensembles Take the Spotlight

variety.com:

Gordon Cox Theater EditorIn a Broadway season filled with star turns and individual standouts, maybe the biggest breakout performance came from … ensemble casts.From the queens of “Six” to the Thoughts of “A Strange Loop,” and from the community of “For Colored Girls …” to the triad of “The Lehman Trilogy” to the town council of “The Minutes,” Broadway rebounded from its long shutdown with a slate of shows that emphasized the collective effort that’s central to any theatrical experience.

This year’s Tony nominations are packed with competing castmates from shows that highlighted the skill, the labor and the pleasures inherent in a group of talented performers simultaneously shining as individual artists and working together as a seamless whole. “Honestly, it’s why I do theater,” says Jesse Tyler Ferguson, the “Modern Family” alum now up for a Tony for his work among the cast of “Take Me Out.”His previous Broadway stint was in the one-man show “Fully Committed,” and he didn’t love going solo. “I was like, ‘This is no fun!’” he says. “The beauty of the theater rehearsal process is getting to find your character through other people and letting them affect the way you do your part.”Uzo Aduba reaches for a sports analogy: “I ran track for a long time, and in my mind, being in an ensemble is kind of like when I would run the 4 x 100 relay,” she says.

The “In Treatment” and “Orange Is the New Black” star is Tony-­nominated for her perform­ance in the Lynn Nottage comedy “Clyde’s,” but even her title role shared the stage equally with all her fellow castmates. “It takes every single member.

It’s not what serves you, but what serves the team and the story.”Rachel Dratch, nominated for her work in the raucous comedy “POTUS” and.