Audra McDonald, a six-time Tony winner, walked into the cocktail reception in a chic white floral eyelet gown. As she made the rounds, she met up with LaTanya Richardson Jackson, nominated for Objective, and Jak Malone, nominated for the musical Operation Mincemeat, earlier than making a beeline for Jonathan Groff. This 12 months’s Tony Awards mark a milestone for McDonald, who earned her eleventh performing nomination for her lead efficiency within the newest revival of Gypsy—changing into essentially the most Tony-nominated performer in Broadway historical past. The key to her astonishing success? “You’ll be able to’t do something to make it occur,” McDonald mentioned. “All you are able to do is do your work—and that’s what I really like greater than something.”
As a veteran now vying for her seventh trophy, McDonald had some ideas for the first-time nominees this season: “Bear in mind, it’s only a evening. Keep current and, it doesn’t matter what occurs, you might be sufficient. As a result of as soon as that day is over, you continue to have to return to being you. So just remember to’re settled and proud of who you might be. And convey a fan—it will get scorching—and a few snacks. Some folks carry flasks… however you didn’t hear that from me!”
Socializing collectively close to the bar have been Andrew Durand, nominated for Useless Outlaw, and Cole Escola, a double nominee for finest play and main actor for Oh, Mary!. Quite a few nominees approached Escola to congratulate them for his or her ridiculous reimagining of First Girl Mary Todd Lincoln, who, in Escola’s madcap present, is desperately craving to develop into a cabaret star. For the writer-performer, nevertheless, Oh, Mary! is deeply private. “The play is about having a dream that nobody else round you understands, or wanting belongings you’re not speculated to need. That is one thing that I’ve felt in my life and I nonetheless really feel,” they mentioned, sporting a classic thrifted swimsuit (with two Tony nominee buttons on their lapel). “There’s coronary heart within the play for those who need to see it—and in the event that they aren’t within the temper for that, I hope they will snicker.”
A veteran of New York’s alt-comedy scene, Escola continues to be processing being a Tony nominee. “I can’t consider that my massive break got here from doing this,” they mentioned. “We have been a little bit afraid the present would fail, however we solely wished to run it for eight weeks off-Broadway. If we have been aiming for Broadway, we’d have been much more afraid—however as a result of the bar felt a little bit decrease for us, we have been much less scared. We simply wished to make a terrific play.”
