Mark Ruffalo found out about his Tony nomination for best actor in the Clifford Odets revival “Awake and Sing!” from his doorman on 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, even though the nominations were announced that morning. “I was driving from upstate, the phone lines were down. When I arrived home, my doorman greeted me saying ‘That Broadway thing, that Broadway thing.'”

His reaction? “It’s more than I ever dreamed,” he said. “I studied with Stella Adler and so this actually feels like coming home for me.”

He has returned to Broadway after “really burning out on the film stuff,” to play Moe Alexrod, a Jewish man in the Bronx struggling through the Depression. He is “an incredibly complex character” that “really struck a nerve.”

He credited the director, Bartlett Sher, for giving the production “the edgier experience of Off Broadway mixed together with more polished Broadway.” And he had kudos for Lincoln Center Theater. “If we didn’t have Lincoln Center behind us, the production probably would have been subject to a lot of outside influences that would have crouched on the play.”

With those words, he was off to the next table of reporters at the Meet the Nominees press reception and junket yesterday at the View, the restaurant atop the Marriot Marquis.

With time tight, the nominee for lead actress in the musical “The Color Purple,” LaChanze, sat down beside a multiple Tony winner, Judy Kaye, and learned of Ms. Kaye’s love of golf and of the incredible margarita she had on the night she won the Tony for featured actress in the musical “Phantom of the Opera” in 1988.

As for LaChanze’s attire on the night of this year’s ceremony on June 11: “It’s a running joke with my agent. For the past month, she’s been saying ‘You have to pick out a Tony dress.’ I said, ‘Not ’til I am nominated.’ So today I’ll start looking.”

For the record, Cynthia Nixon, nominated for lead actress in the play “Rabbit Hole,” has already decided on a “beautiful dress by J. Mendel” and will be attending with her girlfriend. The nominee for best actor in the musical “Sweeney Todd,” Michael Cerveris, will be wearing a borrowed Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo, and said he wishes he could keep the leather jacket he wears when performing the role.

The nominee for featured actress in the play “The Lieutenant of Inishmore,” Alison Pill, hasn’t decided what to wear, but her publicist urged her to name some designers she likes (“This is your shot!”). And so, Zac Posen and Calvin Klein, please note, Ms. Pill would be very excited to have you dress her. An indication of her personal style may be in the music she listens to: Lately it’s been Mates of State and Tortoise and Bonnie Prince Billy, and, given the Irish theme of the show, the Pogues. “The whole cast listens. Domhnall [Gleeson, also nominated for featured actor in a play] sings along really loudly. It’s like the Pogues are there.”

The nominees discussed everything from theater to the books on their nightstands. The playwright Marsha Norman, nominated for best book for the musical “The Color Purple,” said she is reading “Absurdistan,” “The World is Flat,” and “Amalgamation Polka,” and that she’ll be bringing her 18-year son Angus, who attends Wesleyan College, as her date to the ceremony. The director of “Sweeney Todd,” John Doyle, talked about the difference between the Sondheim musical that’s up for a Tony, “Sweeney Todd,” and the one he’s working on now, “Company”: “‘Sweeney’ is like a moving jigsaw puzzle. ‘Company’ is still and simple. It’s a lovely contrast.”

Harry Connick Jr., who is starring in “The Pajama Game,” said he doesn’t have time to read, nor does he have a a favorite scene. “I love the feeling when the curtain goes up, and you know we’re going on a journey. I find great pleasure even in the mundane things. There’s a scene where I’m fixing a machine, for example. And I’d do anything to fix that machine.” His co-star (and co-nominee for best actor in a musical), Kelli O’Hara, said she’d love to take home all of her costumes for the show – as well as the little refrigerator that is part of the set. “Opening it up is such a pain in my rump. It’s from the 1940s, but I’d love it.”

agordon@nysun.com