After weeks of luncheons, galas, and press events, the final countdown to the 79th annual Tony Awards is officially underway. And as is tradition, weekend festivities kicked off on Friday evening with the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) New York Party.
While the night’s spotlight was undoubtedly on the theatre team—who received more than 40 Tony nominations across the board—it was also a moment to celebrate the entire New York office and client roster. Guests including Lorne Michaels, Anderson Cooper, Luke Evans, Jon Hamm, Mark Consuelos, Leslie Odom Jr., Adam Lambert, Chloë Grace Moretz, Penn Badgley, Neil Patrick Harris, Ariana DeBose, Whitney White, Aaron Tveit, Kelli O’Hara, and Madeline Brewer gathered in West Chelsea’s Crane Club for drinks, dancing, and reflection on another epic season. (And yes, in true Troy Bolton fashion, there was sufficient time dedicated to cheering on the Knicks too.)
Ragtime, directed by Lear DeBessonet, is a standout of the season and a top contender across 11 award categories. “At first, we were going to run this show for two weeks, and then we thought we’d get to do a limited run, and then we kept extending and extending,” DeBessonet said, reflecting on the unanticipated reception the production has received. “For all of us, the connection we feel with the audience every single night is the reason we went into the theatre in the first place.”
Dylan Mulvaney was celebrating her own feat as she wrapped up a three month run in SIX: The Musical, in which she plays Anne Boleyn. Mulvaney recalled how one of her favorite parts of the experience had been meeting young trans people at the stage door. “It was really cool to see families come to SIX and feel that they could see themselves on stage,” she told Vogue.
As the night got underway, the room grew crowded with reunions between colleagues and costars. Lorne Michaels, Bryan Lourd, and Neil Patrick Harris cozied up on a red velvet couch in the back of the venue, as guests hovered nearby waiting for the perfect window to drop in for a quick hello to the trio. Plates of mini sliders, French fries, crudo bites, and white truffle arancini were passed around, as decorative martini towers lined the bars and fueled the movement to the dance floor.
There was a feeling of anticipation throughout the room ahead of Sunday’s ceremony, but also a deep sense of gratitude and community. “It’s an honor to stand beside the artists driving this art form forward,” said Ally Shuster, a CAA Agent. “And what a gift to get to celebrate their work on a night like tonight, in a room filled with the people who help make it happen.”
It will be a major weekend for Zhailon Levingston—whose production of Cats: The Jellicle Ball is up for nine Tony nominations, including best direction of a musical. The revival has received electrifying praise thanks to the work of Levingston and his collaborators, such as costume designer Qween Jean (who is also nominated for her work on Liberation). “I’ve never worked this closely with a costume designer on a show. Qween Jean is literally my right arm,” Levingston said. “The costumes and the fashion is as important as the plot itself. And I just think, if you didn’t speak English, if you didn’t understand the music, if you knew nothing about ballroom culture, you could come to our show and have a cathartic experience just by watching the costumes.”
Adam Lambert was celebrating his new single and music video, Under the Rhythm, which was released just a few hours earlier. When asked about any near future plans of returning to the theatre, he said that if the right project came along, he could be interested: “For me, it’s finding a balance of doing my own thing too. Doing the pop thing is what I’ve always loved. It’s sort of why I left theatre in the first place. But when I did Cabaret, getting to play someone else again felt really good. There was freedom in it.”
A crowd closed in on the television in the back of the room as the Knick clock counted down. Soon, cheers erupted to the sounds of Robyn’s Dancing On My Own. It was a moment of celebration for Knicks fans and Broadway alike—a true New York City night.
