Jonathan Groff wins Tony Award for leading actor; gives shout-outs to Lancaster, family, teachers in speech

• By Mary Ellen Wright/LNP | LancasterOnline

Jonathan Groff is halfway to an EGOT.

The Ronks native on Sunday night, June 16, won the Tony Award for best leading actor in a musical, after two previous nominations, for his role of composer-turned-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,” 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 like ‘Mary Poppins’ when I was three, thank you for letting me act out scenes from ‘I Love Lucy’ on my tenth 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 fanning the flame of a young person’s passions without judgment.

“I walk through life with an open heart because you let me know that I could,” Groff said to his family.

“Thank you to all of 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.

He thanked “Merrily” director Maria Friedman for letting him “accept, respect and express both the lightest and darkest parts of myself.”

Groff will star in “Merrily …,” the popular Broadway revival of a Stephen Sondheim musical, at the Hudson Theatre until the production closes July 7. In reverse chronological order, the musical tells the story of a deteriorating 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 did not win.

The three stars performed the song “Old Friends” from “Merrily…” on CBS’ telecast of the 77th Tony Awards.

In his speech, Groff called Mendez and Radcliffe his “soulmates.”

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.

“I moved to New York exactly 20 years ago this year and I got a job waiting tables and became a volunteer for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and all I wanted was to be a part of this community,” he said.

He thanked those involved in his early Broadway show, “Spring Awakening,” for helping his Broadway dream come true, “but also inspired me to come out of the closet when I was 23. I’m now 39, and musical theater is still saving my soul,” he added.

“When I was a kid in Pennsylvania I used to record the Tony Awards on a VHS tape and watch the performances over and over again,” Groff said at the end of his speech. “And to actually be a part of making theater in this city and just as much to be able to watch the work of this incredible, incredible community has been the greatest gift and pleasure of my life. And I thank you.”

When his name was announced as Tony winner Sunday night, Groff first hugged his parents, then found Friedman in the aisle and lifted her off the floor in a bear hug. The final hug went to Daniel Radcliffe before Groff stepped onto the stage.

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 “Knock 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 ticket of this past year, which many theater writers and critics have attributed to the performances of Groff, Radcliffe and Mendez.