Patrick Stewart is one of five actors nominated for the "Leading Actor in a Play" Tony award for 2008.

As reported by USA Today, Stewart and his co-star Kate Fleetwood (Lady MacBeth) were both nominated for a Tony award; he for "Leading Actor in a Play", she for "Leading Actress in a Play". In addition, MacBeth was nominated for "Revival of a Play".

The Tony Awards ceremony will be held at New York's Radio City Music Hall on June 15th and it will be aired live.

"It feels so good!" said Stewart in an interview with Playbill. "This is a primo nomination for a stage actor, and for a British stage actor to be nominated on Broadway is about as good as it can get. So it's a wonderful morning. This is quite something for a show that started out in a 200-seat studio theatre on the South Coast of England. I was told that, if I were nominated, I would be the first actor in the history of the Tony Awards to be nominated for this role. That's amazing. I don't think any production of Macbeth has been nominated before."

The Tony nomination is Stewart's first, as reported at Entertainment Weekly and makes up for being overlooked in the past. "There have been a couple of disappointments in the past," said Stewart. "But I'm not surprised. At awards time, you just have got to be as philosophical as possible. I've won, I've lost, I've been ignored, you know, I've run the whole gamut of experiences of awards! But this morning is a very, very special morning. It's always been a dream of mine to have a Tony nomination. It is the premier theater award, and for English actors, of course, it has a very special meaning."

To read more, head to the articles located here, here and here.

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