The 78th Tony Awards Didn’t End at Curtain Call—Inside the Best After-Parties
As the final award of the 78th Annual Tony Awards was handed to Maybe Happy Ending—this year’s surprise triumph for Best Musical—Cynthia Erivo took the stage to close the show with a cheeky send-up of Dreamgirls’ “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.” Draped in a glamorous purple feathered gown, Erivo (who was hands-down one of the night’s best dressed) belted her final note to a standing ovation, signaling that the curtain may have fallen at Radio City Music Hall, but Broadway’s biggest night was far from over. From Midtown to the Upper East Side, the real show was just beginning—with more than a dozen after-parties lighting up the city well into the morning hours.
Attending all 17 is, regrettably, impossible (despite what my colleagues attempt come Met Gala night), so the evening becomes a choose-your-own-adventure. I began, like many others, at the official Post-Tonys Gala at MoMA.
I wasn’t alone in exiting Radio City Music Hall feeling ravenous, so walking into MoMA and being greeted by passed hors d’oeuvres and global food stations—Mexican, Italian, Asian—felt like divine intervention. Just a quick stroll from the awards, the museum quickly filled with guests balancing Tonys playbills in one hand and lo mein or wine in the other. Grammy Award–winning composer Emily Bear took to the piano for a Marie’s Crisis–style sing-along, with Broadway favorites Jessica Vosk and Betsy Wolfe delivering impromptu solos.
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