After an extended joke involving a Tibetan cake, Paul Rudd pronounced Judith Light the winner of Best Featured Actress in a Play, at Sunday night's Tony Awards. Light, the "Who's The Boss" alum whose role as an alcoholic aunt in the family drama "Other Desert Cities" earned wide praise, got the most applause of all the nominees, among them Linda Emond for "Death of a Salesman," Spencer Kayden for "Don't Dress for Dinner," Celia Keenan-Bolger for "Peter and the Starcatcher," and Condola Rashad (daughter of "Cosby Show" star Phylicia Rashad) for "Stick Fly," her Broadway debut. In her acceptance speech, Light called herself "the luckiest girl in New York."
Light talked about the forces that led to her landing her winning role in an interview with the Huffington Post last December:
I was at an event with Stacy Keach, and I was in the middle of doing "Lombardi." I said, "Oh my goodness, I really want to see your play, but I'm actually not going to be able to see it because you're on the same schedule as I am." So I said to my husband and my managers, "Look, there's this play that the word of mouth on it is just incredible." I sent them to see it, and they came back and said, "This is the best new play we have seen in we don't know how many years." And I never got to see it. But that turned out to be a really good thing. It was what I call divine choreography. The universe was kind of watching out for me, because I have a lot of respect for Linda Lavin, and stepping into that part, seeing what she would do with it, and given how much I respect her.
WATCH Light's Tony speech: