Actress Cicely Tyson accepts the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for "The Trip to Bountiful" during the American Theatre Wing's annual Tony Awards in New York June 9, 2013.
Cicely Tyson, who won an expected Best Actress Tony for The Trip to Bountiful, tempted the guardians of the stopwatch with her agonizingly slow walk to the podium and leisurely but deeply felt acceptance speech (“I’m the sole surviving member of my immediate family, and I’ve asked over and over again why”), which looked ready to last for the rest of the evening. But when the play-off music began to swell (even for Cicely Tyson!), she actually took the cue, quickly wrapped up and hustled herself offstage — without even mentioning her agent. Once a pro, always a pro.