Ahead of The Tony Awards, Lamar Richardson Hosted the Inaugural Black Broadway Nominee Soirée

Reported by Vogue.

Thirty stories above Times Square, with Tony Awards weekend officially underway, history was made before a single award was handed out. Tony-winning producer Lamar Richardson hosted the inaugural Black Broadway Nominee Soirée at the Skylark lounge — a cocktail-and-supper gathering he conceived specifically because, as he put it, there has never been a lasting, dedicated space for Black artists to collectively celebrate across productions each season. "Diversity is under attack, inclusion is under attack," Richardson said, according to Vogue. "So it's important to hold these kinds of spaces to be disruptive to that." The idea came from his wife, Zaire, and the execution was exactly what the moment demanded: roses and daisies down long communal tables, an Ovation Royale cocktail on arrival, braised short ribs, and a room full of people who actually wanted to be in the same room together.

The guest list read like a masterclass in Black Broadway excellence — past winners LaChanze, Anika Noni Rose, and Ruben Santiago-Hudson alongside first-timers navigating their inaugural Tony weekend. Deborah Cox, nominated for Titanique where she performs Celine Dion's catalog, squeezed in the soirée between a reshuffled show schedule. The role is a full-circle moment: Cox launched her career as Dion's backup singer at 19, took a bus to Montreal to audition, got the gig, then left the tour to bet on herself as a solo artist. Broadway, it turns out, was always part of the trajectory.

Community Over Competition

Christiani Pitts of Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York arrived in a yellow frock by Nigerian label Kilèntàr, equal parts overwhelmed and grounded — her mom was set to be her Tonys date. Brandon J. Dirden, a first-time nominee for his role opposite Keanu Reeves in Waiting for Godot, said his main Tonys priority was breaking his 10 p.m. curfew. Kara Young, who made Broadway history with back-to-back featured actress wins in 2024 and 2025, skipped the cocktails entirely — she had a curtain to make — but stayed long enough to dispense practical wisdom: eat before the ceremony, pack snacks, and remember the nomination itself is the trophy.

Richardson, who made history in 2024 as the youngest Black producer to win two Tonys in a single season (Appropriate and Merrily We Roll Along), arrives at this year's ceremony as a lead producer on Ragtime, the evening's frontrunner with 11 nominations. Angela Bassett — herself a 2012 Tony nominee and openly dreaming of a Broadway return — greeted director Kenny Leon, connected with Cats: The Jellicle Ball co-producer Lena Waithe, and eventually commandeered the dance floor when DJ Kiss dropped Proud Mary. Bassett grabbed the mic, tossed her hair, and did the full Tina Turner routine while the room lost its mind.

What Richardson built in a single afternoon — nominees swapping numbers, veterans and first-timers sharing a table, Nicholas Christopher processing the fact that LaChanze knows his name — is the kind of infrastructure that changes an industry: not just a party, but proof that belonging is something you can architect on purpose.

Read the original at Vogue.