Wheat Ridge native Annaleigh Ashford entered some rarefied terrain on Tuesday when she received her third Tony Award nomination in her third different acting category.

It’s quite possible she’s the first actress ever to have pulled that off in her first three nominations for Broadway’s highest honors.

“I’m so grateful I have gotten the opportunity to act in both plays and musicals throughout my career,” Ashford told the Denver Gazette. “They require different skills and storytelling, but the craft comes from the same core. All I can think of is the word gratitude.”

Ashford is newly nominated as best leading actress in a musical for playing the human piemaker Mrs. Lovett in the smash Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” She was previously nominated for her supporting role in the 2014 musical “Kinky Boots,” and won for her featured role in the 2015 play “You Can’t Take it With You” opposite James Earl Jones.

Audra McDonald, Angela Lansbury and Jan Maxwell are the only women ever to be nominated in all four acting categories: Leading and featured actress in a play and musical. McDonald is the only actor (of any gender) to win all four.

In a cursory check of the archives, I could only find one other actress who has received Tony Award nominations in at least three of those four acting categories: Stockard Channing. Some of the greatest crossover actresses in Broadway history have received nominations in only two categories, including Linda Lavin, Patti LuPone, Carol Burnett and Jayne Houdyshell – all personal heroes of Ashford’s.

Raul Esparza and Boyd Gaines are the only male actors ever to be nominated in all four categories.

For Ashford, Tuesday’s nomination – her first in a leading role – means more coming in “Sweeney Todd,” opposite the also-nominated Josh Groban.

“So many artists have such a personal connection to this show in particular, and it has been such a joy experiencing it with enthusiastic audiences every night. I think Sondheim would have delighted in the response,” said Ashford, who received congratulations Tuesday from, among others, Broadway legend Bernadette Peters. 

Now, the question all musical-theater fans are dying to ask Ashford: Have you been watching Season 2 of Apple TV’s “Schmigadoon,” which includes a delicious ”Sweeney Todd” parody/homage with Alan Cumming and Kristin Chenoweth playing the demon barber and Mrs. Lovett? Sadly, not yet – ”But I can’t wait,” she said. “I have so many friends on the show, and I hear this season is pure magic. I can’t wait to catch up.”

But here’s a bit of trivia I’m not sure many people have picked up on yet: When Ashford won her 2015 Tony Award for “You Can’t Take it With You,” the category presenters that night were, yes, Cumming and Chenoweth.

Ashford’s primary off-stage focus at the moment is her husband, Joe Tapper, and young son, Jack. I asked whether Jack knew (or cared) that Tuesday was Tony Award nominations day.

“Joe told him to tell me, ‘Congratulations,’” she said. “But he did what kids do best: He grounded me and reminded me what’s most important. One of my favorite quotes is from ‘Sunday in the Park with George’: ‘There are only two worthwhile things to leave behind when you depart this world of ours — children and art.’ Amen.”

The Tony Awards will be presented June 11 on CBS.

Ashford’s proud mother

Ashford put her mother, Holli Swanson, in the national TV spotlight last August when she gifted her a renovation of her Applewood home as part of the CBS reality series “Secret Celebrity Renovation.” So I thought I would check in with her, too.

“We are just super proud over here,” Swanson said. “We always hoped she would get to perform on Broadway. Getting nominated for a Tony three times is amazing. It’s just mind-blowing where her career has taken her. As her family we have been thankful to have been able to be along for the ride.”

Colorado connection: Jesse Aaronson

Jesse Aaronson, who was nominated for a 2014 Bobby G Award for his performance as the Pharaoh in Cherry Creek High School’s “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” is a cast member in Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt,” which is nominated for six Tony Awards, including best play.

Also: Martyna Majok’s “Cost of Living,” which made history as the first Broadway play featuring two characters with disabilities, is nominated for Best Play. (Denver’s Regan Linton was an understudy). It’s already scheduled to be staged by Denver’s Curious Theatre Company next March in collaboration with the disability-affirmative Phamaly Theatre Company.