Pride And Prejudice actress Jennifer Ehle will take on Hollywood heavyweights Cate Blanchett and Sally Field at this year’s Tony Awards.
The nominations for the annual event, which celebrates the best shows on Broadway, were revealed by previous Tony Award winner Jane Krakowski and nominee Christopher Jackson on Tuesday morning.
Jennifer, who is best known for starring as Elizabeth Bennet in the BBC’s 1995 Jane Austen adaptation opposite Colin Firth as Mr Darcy, is nominated for best performance by an actress in a leading role in a play, for Oslo.
She will face off against Oscar winners Cate, for The Present, and Sally, for The Glass Menagerie, as well as Oscar-nominated star Laura Linney for Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes and TV and Broadway regular Laurie Metcalf for A Doll’s House, Part 2.
US actress Jennifer has previously won two Tonys, and in 1996 she claimed a TV Bafta for her role as Austen’s most beloved heroine.
Bette Midler has received a leading actress nod for her role in revived musical Hello, Dolly!
The production itself scored 10 nominations in total, coming in second place behind frontrunner Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet Of 1812 – a musical adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s War And Peace – with 12.
Other stage and screen stars to have received nominations for this year’s event include film favourites Danny DeVito for Arthur Miller’s The Price and Kevin Kline for Present Laughter.
Meanwhile, Frasier star David Hyde Pierce is nominated for Hello, Dolly! and Sex And The City’s Cynthia Nixon for The Little Foxes.
This year’s best play award will be a battle between A Doll’s House, Part 2, Indecent, Oslo and Sweat, while the musicals vying for the top gong are Come From Away, Dear Evan Hansen, Groundhog Day The Musical and Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet Of 1812.
James Earl Jones, who voiced Darth Vader in the Star Wars films, is to receive a special Tony Award for lifetime achievement in the theatre.
Over the years he has starred in many productions both in New York and in London’s West End, including Shakespeare’s Othello and King Lear, as well as Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and Of Mice And Men.
The Tony Awards will be hosted by Kevin Spacey in New York on June 11.
