Playwright Sanaz Toossi on the Scene From English She Had to Rewrite for Broadway (With the Help of Ricky Martin)

On the morning that Tony Awards nominations were announced, even though playwright Sanaz Toossi received a nomination for Best Play for English, she actually screamed loudest for cast members Tala Ashe and Marjan Neshat, who were also nominated. "I screamed my head off," she told �뵺�� May 8, at the annual Meet the Nominees event. "The next day, my voice was shot...This play came into the world because of them. This play is about them. They made this play beautiful and funny and romantic. To see them celebrated, and to see all their artistry acknowledged, I couldn't have asked for more. I'm so happy, so happy."

English had a limited run earlier this year at Roundabout Theatre Company's Todd Haimes Theater. Going into the Tony nominations, the play seemed like a dark horse—works that are closed tend to not be as top of mind as shows that are currently running. But the recognition speaks to English's special power. The play is set in a classroom in Iran, where a group of Iranian adults are trying to learn English so they can work, study, and live abroad. It begins as a language lesson, but it is also a poignant exploration of what it means to have to leave your home, and what you lose in the process.

English previously won the Pulitzer Prize and is currently up for five Tonys. And for the cast members who starred in it, they made their Broadway debuts in the play—which makes being recognized as Tony nominees even more special. "As an Iranian American girl who grew up in Ohio, to be here at the largest stage in the community that I have such admiration and respect for, to be literally given entrée into it... it's really surreal, and I couldn't be more honored," says Ashe. Ashe and Neshat are also the first Middle Eastern actors to be nominated for Featured Actress in a Play. And Toossi is the first Iranian-American writer to be nominated for Best Play.

READ: Sanaz Toossi on Bringing English, With Its Middle Eastern Cast, to Broadway

English is also notable for being the rare play this season with no celebrities in its cast—in fact, all of the actors in the show, who had been with English since its Off-Broadway premiere in 2022, made their Broadway debuts.

When she signed up to do English in 2022 Off-Broadway, Neshat never imagined that it would eventually lead to Broadway and a Tony nomination—in fact, the talks of a Broadway transfer didn't happen until after English had closed Off-Broadway, and even then it felt unlikely. "I can't believe it," she exclaims. To Neshat, it also feels "momentous" to be nominated for a play featuring an all-Middle-Eastern cast, that's set in Iran, and filled with so much joy. But she also added that what's been most touching is seeing English resonate with all kinds of people, to know that audiences can see themselves in Middle Eastern characters, a demographic that has routinely been demonized in American media.

Says Neshat: "Part of the reason I think all of us love it so much is that, yes, it represents our community, but it represents many communities. The way that people have attached to it and been moved by it. The large swaths of people who have come up to me and said, 'That was one of my favorite plays,' who are from every walk of life...that feels like a real win because it feels like really good art can get through. It can get through the fears. And that means a lot."

READ: Actor Marjan Neshat Was Born in Iran. English on Broadway Is Bringing Her Back to Her Roots

Though English had a Pulitzer Prize and several well-received productions before it went to Broadway (including one in London), Toossi still made adjustments for its New York return. She had to. When asked what was the most challenging part of English to figure out, Toossi answered that there was one part in the show that required a character named Goli to explain why she loved a particular English-language song. Previously, Goli chose a Shakira song.

"Miss Shakira did not give us the rights for Broadway," explains Toossi. "Shout out to Ricky Martin. Ricky Martin gave us the rights to a song." That song was "She Bangs," which garnered a whole new profound meaning in English. "We wrote it every day in rehearsal, we fought and we fought and we fought. And the first day Ava [Lalezarzadeh] did that scene. Ava, who plays Goli, she got applause, and I, like, fell out of my chair. I was so happy."

Moments like that, where audiences were listening so raptly to characters who were having a slice-of-life experience in a classroom, were magic for the English team.

"It felt like we were the little play that could," says Neshat, who thinks that English's Tony nominations are a sign that "there is room for things like this. Maybe it's hopeful that more and more unique theatre experiences will come to Broadway."