Jessica Chastain, Jodie Comer and J. Harrison Ghee partied for the Tonys

It wasn’t hard to spot J. Harrison Ghee Sunday night at the official after-party of the Tony Awards outside the United Palace Theater in Washington Heights — she towered over much of the crowd in a vibrant blue dress, holding a statuette in the hand and a trail of benefactors at his heels. After their groundbreaking win for Best Leading Actor in a Musical – becoming the first non-binary artist to win in the category – the color of the dress seemed accidental.

“I felt like this is such a Cinderella moment,” they said.

Hundreds of ceremony attendees poured almost directly into the party shortly after 11 p.m.: a tent extension of the fuchsia carpet and lavish floral backdrop, with catering that reflected both the culinary traditions of the neighborhood’s surrounding communities (paella, ceviche, mango on chopsticks) and also the immediate hunger of nominees who had been snackless for hours. (About 800 Shake Shack burgers were finished in 90 minutes.)

Celebrating Broadway’s best plays and musicals, the Tonys were held uptown for the first time this year at the United Palace – an ornate movie theater on 176th Street in Washington Heights, eight miles north of Times Square. The theater is tucked away in the largely Dominican neighborhood where Lin-Manuel Miranda shot the 2021 film adaptation of his musical “In the Heights.”

“To show off one of the city’s cultural gems to a national audience is super exciting,” said Heather Hitchens, the president and chief executive of the American Theater Wing, which stages the Tonys with the Broadway League, in an interview on Saturday.

“The after party is always important, but to celebrate that we made it through a season and handed out some awards and actually had a broadcast?” she said and continued, “We haven’t been able to do that for so long.”

Sunday’s ceremony was certainly unusual. While the Writers Guild of America is still on strike, the show featured unscripted commentary from hosts, lavish musical performances from the year’s productions — plus Lea Michele’s rendition of “Don’t Rain on My Parade” from last season’s “Funny Girl.” — and a wordless opening dance number by Ariana DeBose, the show’s host.

“It went so smoothly,” said Bonnie Milligan, a Tony Award winner for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance as a scheming aunt in the offbeat musical “Kimberly Akimbo,” which was the best winner of the night with five trophies. in total . “So many people have been able to express their solidarity with the strike.”

With a long list of parties ahead, many of the evening’s winners and nominees only stayed briefly at the official after-party before moving on to smaller soirees hosted by individual productions around the city.

Julia Lester, a nominee for her turn as Little Red Riding Hood in the “Into the Woods” revival, left with her father as many attendees continued to arrive. Ms. Lester said she was “just seeing where the night takes me.” She wore a voluminous green ballgown, sheer elbow-length gloves, a black choker and a bow in her curly red hair. “I’m wearing a crinoline, so I can’t do much. Sitting was a nightmare.”

Jordan Roth, the president of Jujamcyn Theaters, donned a sparkly scarlet outfit that was meant to provoke, he said, “Big Red Riding Hood.” His afterparty plans, he added, would extend “until the hood falls off, which is literally impossible. It’s pinned, glued, sewn — I probably won’t be able to take it off to go to sleep.

By 12:30 p.m., many had left the official afterparty, and most of the nominees headed for the Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side, where theater publicist Rick Miramontez — dressed in a white blazer with red-and-white striped shorts — was with producer John Gore hosted his famous late-night shindig for hundreds of guests.

“This is the party,” Mr. Brady announced from a bench next to an open bar at the hotel entrance.

Kolton Krouse, who starred in a recent revival of “Bob Fosse’s Dancin'” and uses the pronouns she and she, also opted for business-on-top-party-on-the-bottom, wearing a black blazer that barely touched their torso. covered. on top of gold heels.

“Congratulations!” they said, holding back Jessica Chastain, who was wearing a sunshine yellow Gucci hooded dress, her long red hair in a high ponytail, as she came in around 12:30 a.m. — accompanied by her grandmother, Marilyn Herst.

“I take her to all the parties,” said Ms. Chastain, who was nominated for Best Leading Actress in a Play for her role as housewife Nora Helmer in Jamie Lloyd’s bare-bones revival of “A Doll’s House.”

English actress Jodie Comer had won the category for her performance as a lawyer defending men accused of sexual assault in the one-woman show ‘Prima Facie’, but you wouldn’t know it by the cadre of Ms Chastain’s photographers, who temporarily clogged the passage between the upper lounge and a bar, and a receiving queue of those who congratulated the actress after the play’s final performance last weekend.

“I hope it’s not over forever,” Mrs. Chastain said as the shutters clicked away.

Buckets of Moet & Chandon champagne were placed around the room, while waiters in white blazers carried silver slider trays and boxes of French fries around four rooms. Slender bowls of nuts and chips stood on side tables, which the nominees chewed gratefully.

In a back room next to a bar, a comedian sang Frank Sinatra’s “Nice ‘n’ Easy,” accompanied by a pianist and a cellist. (Tony-winning soprano Kelli O’Hara, in a breezy white dress, skipped to the music.)

The party started to get going around 1am. Ben Platt, accompanied by his fiancé, Noah Galvin, in a matching black suit, got a hug from Micaela Diamond, his co-star in “Parade,” which won Best Revival of a Musical. Mrs. Lester – whose night had apparently brought her to the Carlyle – was deep in conversation in a corner with Julie Benko, the “funny girl” substitute for Michele’s Fanny Brice.

The attendees discussed the beauty of the United Palace, a dazzling relic of the golden age of cinema, which many had entered for the first time that night.

“I’m so in love with that house,” said Mr. Brady.

Shortly before 3 a.m., many of the performers began to head out, although the party was to last well past 4 a.m.

“I’m excited to have a shot at the Tonys next year,” said Mr. Brady, future star of “The Wiz,” at about 2:30 a.m., before heading for the door.

“More broadly, I’m excited about making history with such a mixed cast, a predominantly black creative team.”