Night Out: Behind the Scenes With Lin-Manuel Miranda and Family on Tonys Night

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Night Out: Behind the Scenes With Lin-Manuel Miranda and Family on Tonys Night

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Night Out

By KATHERINE ROSMAN

Over the weekend that ended with “Hamilton” winning 11 Tony Awards, Lin-Manuel Miranda and his family stayed at the Mandarin Oriental, a luxury hotel near Columbus Circle.

Mr. Miranda and his wife, Vanessa Nadal-Miranda, were staying on the 46th floor, while his mother and father were on the 47th. The day of the awards ceremony, a Sunday, began with the playwright and his father, Luis A. Miranda Jr., having a room-service breakfast at 6:15.

Later that morning, the creator and star of “Hamilton,” along with fellow cast members, rehearsed for the awards ceremony at the Beacon Theater, about 15 blocks north of the hotel. During downtime, as the first grim reports out of Orlando, Fla., were circulating, Mr. Miranda took out his phone and began to tap out the sonnet he would read aloud that night while accepting the Tony for best score. In 14 lines he paid tribute to his wife, his son and the victims of the massacre.

Back at the Mandarin Oriental before curtain time, he realized he would need a printout of the verse he had written. He called the suite where his father was staying and asked him if he wouldn’t mind taking care of it. Luis, 61, said yes, and traveled down a flight, where his son handed him a thumb drive. Lin-Manuel had one stipulation: “He said, ‘Can you please not read it?’” Luis said, recounting the night by phone from the office where he works as a political consultant.

The playwright’s father, along with his mother, Luz Towns-Miranda, 65, a clinical psychologist, had exposed the Miranda children early on to Broadway musicals and their soundtracks, and he was happy to help with such an errand.

He went down the elevator, thumb drive in hand, toward the concierge desk. There, employees of the Mandarin Oriental sprang into action.

Back in the elevator, with the printout, the father did the very thing his son had asked him not to do: He read the sonnet.

“That’s like asking me not to drink water when it’s 90 degrees out,” Luis said. “I thought it was very moving and pretty and important for the moment.”

Back in the suite, Luis listened as Lin-Manuel read it aloud, practicing for the big moment.

It had already been a busy weekend for the Miranda family. Twenty-five relatives, nearly a dozen of whom had flown in from Puerto Rico, had come together for the Tony festivities. The day before the awards, on Saturday at matinee time, a group of 13 went to the Richard Rodgers Theater to be in the room where “Hamilton” happens; then a group of 12 attended the 8 p.m. performance.

Between shows, the clan gathered for dinner at the Glass House Tavern, near the theater. Lin-Manuel joined the group.

“We now go there all the time,” Luis said. “The food is great, the service is great, they know we need to get to the theater.”

A family feel permeated the two suites at the Mandarin Oriental, said Benjamin Macklowe, the owner of Macklowe Gallery on Madison Avenue. He arrived at the hotel on Sunday at about 4 p.m., accompanied by a 6-foot-5 bodyguard and a bag of vintage jewelry worth several million dollars.

In the parents’ suite, a TV set was tuned to reporters and pundits giving the latest from Orlando. When Lin-Manuel’s father bemoaned the news that had been streaming from the television over the last six hours, Mr. Macklowe — like Lin-Manuel an alumnus of Hunter College High School — asked if he would like him to play from his iPhone a Juan Luis Guerra album. It turned out that Mr. Guerra is a favorite artist of Luis’s. The TV was shut off, the music was turned on and the mood lifted.

Mr. Macklowe presented Dr. Towns-Miranda with a number of diamond-and-rubies-in-gold pieces “on a beautiful pillow, like she was a queen,” he said. “She put on everything and then took off half of it, which is exactly what she should have done.”

Her gown was by Cenia Paredes, a New York designer whose line will be available on the Home Shopping Network June 24. Ms. Nadal-Miranda, a lawyer and scientist, also wore Cenia that evening.

The Miranda men outfitted themselves in tuxedos they had had made especially for the Tonys. “We went to a place in Yonkers called San Marko,” Luis said. “We have been going there for a very, very long time.”

Lin-Manuel, who won a 2016 Pulitzer Prize for “Hamilton,” went for an understated look. He worked with Robert Forchetti, an owner of San Marko, on a simple black tuxedo, opting for a treble-and-clef music symbol stud set and Puerto Rican flag cuff links.

“My son is very square,” Luis said.

The elder Mr. Miranda’s tuxedo was dark burgundy, with a bright burgundy lining. “I also wore a very loud burgundy tie, with rhinestones,” he said.

Mr. Macklowe offered both men a choice of lapel pins. “Lin-Manuel said, ‘No, no, no, it’s too much for me,’ but I, of course, wore mine,” Luis said. “Nothing is too much for me.”

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Ms. Nadal-Miranda wore jewelry selected for her by the stylist Stacy London: an emerald ring, diamond and sapphire chandelier earrings from Cartier and diamond and sapphire bracelets to match.

Close to 5 p.m., while helping Lin-Manuel tie his bow tie, Mr. Macklowe asked him if he intended to chop off his founding-father ponytail, once he leaves the “Hamilton” cast this summer.

“He said to me, ‘I have been having dreams of going to the barbershop,’” Mr. Macklowe said.

Then Mr. Macklowe took note of large trays of sushi and fruit that were untouched. “The Jewish bubbe in me came out, and I said: ‘Have you eaten enough? You’re going to be at the Tonys during dinner!’” Lin-Manuel and his wife ate a few pieces of sushi and headed to the Beacon Theater for the coronation of “Hamilton.”

After the show, Lin-Manuel, Luis and their wives took a limousine to the Plaza hotel for the official post-awards party. But the main event was the “Hamilton” party, at Tavern on the Green in Central Park. The Mirandas arrived about 45 minutes after the Tonys had ended. “People were telling me, ‘This is your son’s bar mitzvah,” Luis said. (The Miranda family is Catholic.)

The highlight of the party for Luis was meeting Barbra Streisand. “She waited for us, which was incredibly humble,” he said. “I don’t think Barbra Streisand needs to wait for anyone.” She posed for photos with the family. “That was up there with meeting Julie Andrews and Debbie Reynolds,” Luis said.

Back at his Upper West Side apartment at 1:30 in the morning, Mr. Macklowe received a call from Ms. London, the stylist, to come fetch the borrowed jewels. He summoned the 6-foot-5 bodyguard, and the three of them crouched in a corner of the packed Tavern until about 3 a.m., taking inventory of the returned gems.

Outside, with no taxis in sight, Mr. Macklowe and the bodyguard walked back to Mr. Macklowe’s apartment with the booty.

As for Luis, he and his wife returned to the Mandarin Oriental at about 3 a.m. Real life resumed. He went to work later in the morning.

The proud father said he hopes to see “Hamilton” a few more times before his son exits the stage.

“I have only seen it 18 times,” he said. “It’s very difficult to get tickets.”

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