The Tony Awards are about to broadcast the last award of the night (Best Musical, given to The Outsiders ), but champagne is already flowing at the P.J. Clarke’s across from the Lincoln Center, where the ceremony is being held.
The restaurant is hosting a party for Stereophonic , this season’s buzzy new play that follows a Seventies band (that is definitely not Fleetwood Mac) as they work on a new album while on the cusp of great fame as break-ups, hard partying, and power struggles threaten to end it all. The show racked up 13 nominations this year, breaking Slave Play ’s record for most-nominated play in Tony Awards history. But unlike Slave Play , which didn’t win a single statue, they ended up taking home five trophies, including one for Best Play.
Will Butler, the former member of Arcade Fire who wrote the original songs for the play, is already settled in at Clarke’s, raising a martini glass as the cast and team behind The Outsiders takes the stage to accept their award. Butler lost in his categories (Best Score and Best Orchestrations with music director Justin Craig, respectively) but is riding the high of the show’s last few, whirlwind months. “It felt great, then I was tired, then it felt weird, then it felt great,” he says later in the night.
“Then I ate a little, and now I feel really good.” The show is a culmination of 11 years’ worth of work by him, director Daniel Aukin (who won for Best Director), and playwright David Adjmi (the recipient.
