Actor Beth Behrs, from CBS‘s The Neighborhood and Two Broke Girls, watched close friend Matt Doyle accept the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical playing Jaime in Company.
Behrs watched the awards show from home and shared a video on Instagram of her tearful reaction as Doyle, who was her high school prom date, accepted the award on stage. Behrs was seen crying happy tears from her home as Doyle accepted the award – and she even got a shout-out.
Matt Doyle wins his first Tony Award for his performance in ‘Company’
The Tony was a first for Doyle and Behrs was overjoyed when she witnessed the moment. “He did it!!!” Behrs captioned her Instagram video of her crying in front of her TV. “He really did it! I even got a shout out!!! I love you so much @thetonyawards WINNER @mattfdoyle [crying emojis] wow. Just wow!”
In his Tony acceptance speech, Doyle credited Behrs with being one of his earliest teachers. “Thank you to my earliest teachers, Meryl, and Judy, Brit, Eric, Richard, Beth,” he said (via Broadway World).
He added, “Thank you to my family, my sisters Leah and Colleen. And my parents who believed in me pursuing my passion and believed in the arts. And believed that the only way I would be happy was to live my life authentically. Thank you so much to George Furth and to Stephen Sondheim. Stephen, thank you for allowing your work to evolve and for more people to be seen in your genius. I’m the next bride!”
Beth Behrs and Matt Doyle were high school pals
Doyle and Behrs formed a tight friendship long before he became a Tony Award-winning actor. She shared on Instagram that they hit all the milestones in high school and he was even in her wedding.
“This is a pic of first meeting @mattfdoyle at auditions for ‘The Sound of Music’ at 14 years old,” she shared on Instagram along with a throwback photo. “He was my prom date, my man of honor at my wedding, and the best @thetonyawards date of all time…. now he’s a @thetonyawards nominee. Matty to say I’m proud of you, is an understatement. I can’t wait to watch you shine tonight on my home away from home haha @cbstv! Everyone watch tonight 8pm EST!”
Doyle, who is gay, talked about the struggles he faced as a teen and how his family was extremely supportive. “I was a very troubled kid and dealt with a lot of really dark thoughts and contemplated suicide when I was 13,” he told Queerty. “To make sure that I was healthy throughout high school, my parents were very encouraging of my individuality and making sure that I did what I wanted.”
He still had a tough relationship with his father
Even though he had supportive parents, Doyle admitted he had a strained relationship with his father. “Now, all that being said, I had a really tough relationship with my dad,” he said. “And when I came to New York, one of the reasons I wasn’t just immediately talking about it was my bigger fear of somehow upsetting my father and making him uncomfortable.”
“And that was the real hang-up for a long time — making sure that I didn’t disappoint him because I was so afraid of letting him down,” he added. “It wasn’t until I sat down and kind of had a reckoning with my dad that I was much more comfortable publicly, and able to own it and make sure that he understood that this was who I was going to be in life.”
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