2011 Tony Awards Highlights: The Acceptance Speeches

Sutton Foster gave a heartfelt and sincere acceptance speech after winning the 2011 Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical, for her performance as Reno Sweeney in the revival of Anything Goes:

Mark Rylance won Best Lead Actor in a Play for Jerusalem. For his speech, the actor recited a poem by American poet Louis Jenkins (Rylance read a different poem by the same author when he won his 2008 Tony Award for his role in Boeing Boeing):

Frances McDormand loves her job, as she told the audience when she accepted her award for Best Lead Actress in a Play for her performance in David Lindsay Abaire's Good People:

Norbert Leo Butz won the Tony for Best Lead Actor in a Musical for Catch Me If You Can:

Nikki M. James was really excited to win a Tony Award, for Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical in Book of Mormon:

But John Larroquette was a little less excitable when he accepted the award for Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying:

Ellen Barkin and John Benjamin Hickey both took home awards for their featured roles in The Normal Heart:

War Horse was named Best Play:

And of course, Trey Parker and Matt Stone's The Book of Mormon won Best Musical. Giving credit where credit is due, Parker even thanked their co-author (no, not Robert Lopez -- Joseph Smith!):

For more Back Stage Tony Awards coverage, check out Blog Stage and BackStage.com.

-- Daniel Lehman