So, you wanna be a producer? ''Millie'' backer Whoopi Goldberg makes it sound easy: ''I had an idea, someone else had an idea, we met at the Mark Hotel, and then we all got Tonys.''
Special Theatrical Event winner Elaine Stritch got cut off on camera but continued backstage. ''I know CBS can't let people do the Gettysburg Address,'' said Stritch, who'd won on her fifth try (the first was in 1956 for ''Bus Stop''). ''I timed myself. I only had a little over two minutes. To get cut off like that has spoiled it for me,'' she said, wiping away tears and wisecracking about waterproof mascara. ''They rang the curtain down before the play was over...I was too busy trying to remember the names of the backers, but then I forgot the names 'cause I heard that f---ing music. The only name I could remember was CBS. I wish they'd call.''
And other miscellany The artful Dodgers -- the producers behind ''Urinetown'' and ''Woods'' -- threw their annual dance-till-you-drop bash at Laurabelle....
Inspired by the show's Greek setting, ''Mamma Mia!'' -- a Tony loser but still a box office winner -- partied at Milos....
Play nominee ''Metamorphoses'' toasted director Mary Zimmerman at Heartland Brewery....
''Thoroughly Modern Millie'''s cast kicked up its heels at the Helmsley on Central Park South. At the center of the lavish buffet? An amazingly realistic Tony fashioned out of cheese and cantaloupe. The two centers of attention? Breakout star/best actress Sutton Foster (a.k.a. Millie) working the room in Badgley Mischka. And hotel magnate Leona Helmsley, cradling her Maltese, Trouble, and plugging the Park Lane. ''Tell all your friends,'' she instructed. ''I need the money.''
