"I can't believe I'm here," Ashford told Playbill.com on the Tony Awards red carpet. "I'm totally overwhelmed. I can't believe that Tommy Tune keeps answering questions right next to me, and then Joel Grey waved and said hello to me, and then Ben Vereen walked by with a pan flute — playing it, and all I wanted to do was a number from Sweet Charity."

Ashford has been on a roll since earning her first Tony nomination for her performance as Lauren in the Tony-winning musical Kinky Boots. "Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!" she sang when asked what she would tell her teenage self. "I would sing a 'Praise the Lord' song because this is just crazy; it's so wild."

On her next project, the Broadway bow ("wow") of A. R. Gurney's Sylvia (in which she will play the title character, a dog), she said, "Any time that you have the chance to play anything but a human, I think you should pounce on it — pardon my pun. I can't wait. A. R. Gurney is such a magnificent playwright; he's an American treasure, so I am so excited to be doing this play and also such a beloved, special play. I just hope that I do honor to this great role."

Before she gets back to Broadway, however, Ashford is hard at work on her cabaret show, Lost in the Stars (in which she collaborates with Kinky Boots associate conductor Will Van Dyke) — which will hit Las Vegas next. "We're doing Vegas on June 27, so come see us at the Smith Center," she said. "We're also mixing an album right now of all the live shows. I wanted like a real, old-school, live recording — old-school cabaret live recording — so we're doing it!"

After winning the Tony June 7, she said — once again — in her acceptance speech, "Thank you, Lord!"