Tracie Bennett performing at the Tonys (Getty Images)

At a pre-Tony Awards party last week, Best Actress in a Play nominee Tracie Bennett was in high spirits. “I will never forget this,” she told The Observer. “It’s been a privilege, it’s been an honor. I am bowled over by the respect. And I’m not crawling up anyone’s ass at all! The way the press has welcomed me here.”
She had received positive notices for her performance as Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow but seemed to take the praise lightly. “We’re only here to connect and make people laugh or cry. That’s all we’re here to do. If anyone tells you we’re here to save the world, they’re lying. We’re entertainers.”

The party, at the home of Disney Theatrical president Thomas Schumacher, was in honor of the publication of the annotated script of Peter and the Starcatcher, a Best Play nominee that would ultimately lose the top prize to Clybourne Park but pick up five others. Julie Taymor, the director of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (before her firing), told The Observer that she wouldn’t make it to the ceremony. “I don’t think I’ll be watching, period. Maybe I will. Obviously Spider-Man’s not very much represented. And I would only root for Eiko.” (Eiko Ishioka, the late costume designer, was one of only two nominees from the mega-musical—both of which lost in the end.)

The relaxed, chatty vibe at Mr. Schumacher’s party carried through to Sunday night’s Tony presentation at the Beacon Theatre. Best Actress in a Play nominee Cynthia Nixon and her new wife, Christine Marinoni, stood at the center of the red carpet chatting with other guests for about 30 minutes, excitedly greeting Best Director of a Play winner Mike Nichols and wife Diane Sawyer. Actress-of-the-moment Jessica Chastain sprinted to the end of the carpet to greet friends, then returned to tell The Observer her dream musical role: Adelaide in Guys and Dolls.

“Right? Can’t you see a little of Celia Foote in that?” she asked us, referring to her feisty role in The Help. She then hummed a few bars from Carousel to remind herself of other favorite roles. (While Ms. Chastain is coming to Broadway in the fall, she won’t be doing much singing; she’s to play the Olivia de Havilland role in The Heiress.)

Stockard Channing, nominated for Best Actress in a Play, made light of a serious inquiry as to her favorite Tony memory: she recalled rocker Bret Michaels’s collision with a piece of scenery at the 2009 ceremony. “I was singing in front of him and the audience was like”—she mimed a horrified gasp. “I didn’t realize what had happened until I got offstage. My advice to him: Go to rehearsal!”

Contra Ms. Channing’s years of Tony experience, newcomer Cristin Milioti, the star of Best Musical winner Once, was giddily excited to meet James Earl Jones, a fellow nominee. “He’s Darth Vader! He’s Mufasa! He’s more Mufasa,” she said, betraying her youth.

Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks—who ended up picking up the Best Revival of a Musical Tony for updating Porgy and Bess—may have been the only Pulitzer winner wearing earrings given to her by Oprah Winfrey (unless we missed Clybourne Park writer Bruce Norris’s look). Was the talk-show host a pal? “She’s Oprah! She doesn’t have pals. Be sure to describe my dress!” Ms. Parks was in a back-baring black Gaultier gown.

After the ceremony, the Clybourne Park afterparty was in full swing at Whiskey Park. Asked what the Best Play trophy meant to him, Mr. Norris replied “I’ll be less depressed tomorrow.” The Tony win, he noted, had been far more stressful than the Pulitzer. “The Pulitzer was unexpected and out of the blue,” he said. “I was in Maine and my friend called me that day to tell me about it. This has been going on for weeks, and I’ve been sick to my stomach!”

We asked him to tell us some stories about the production process of Clybourne Park on Broadway—the lead producer, Scott Rudin, had dropped out at the 11th hour, and the show was saved by theater owner Jordan Roth stepping in.

“People tell me not to talk about this, because it’s like I have Tourette’s or something!” said Mr. Norris. A nearby guest came up and congratulated Mr. Norris, whisking him away. We were not to see him again, though Mr. Roth entered the party, clutching his Tony, as we left. Earlier, he’d told us of joining the production late: “There were unique challenges—there were also unique benefits! With not a lot of time, you can go with your gut. Everyone comes together and rallies.”

Mr. Roth did not rally, though, for the night’s final party, hosted by the PR firm O&M Co.; unlike actors, he had work Monday morning. At 1 a.m., we arrived at the Carlyle Hotel’s 28th floor. We entered the suite to find Mare Winningham wearing fluffy white hotel slippers; upstairs, Harvey Fierstein was lounging on a bed in a Hawaiian shirt. We asked him if he’d made the decision to go onstage in a rubber inner tube. “Of course! And I wrote Angela [Lansbury]’s material, too,” he told us. “I’m very funny.”

Sometime around 2:15 a.m., the hosts, including the head of O&M, Rick Miramontez, led the crowd in a toast to Variety, as guests were still streaming in. Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson was a late arrival and told us he was interested in returning to the New York stage: “Anything Shakespeare—especially The Comedy of Errors.”

Meanwhile, in a small anteroom with its own bar, Ms. Bennett was standing, contemplating the window. She had lost the Best Actress in a Play prize to the young Nina Arianda. We asked, perhaps ungraciously, if that took some of the bloom off the season she’d just been through.

“Not at all! It’s an interesting question, but not at all! Look at where we are!” She swept her arm around the room. “And I got to perform on stage tonight! I’m a chorus girl—I never expected any of this.” She gestured out the window, south towards Times Square. “And look at this view! I’m very happy tonight.” It was, indeed, quite a view.

"I was really upset when I saw it," Ms. Streep said of Bully. "When I watched it, it brought me back to New Jersey in ninteen fifty. . .—a long time ago. I was eight years old and up a tree and a group of kids was below me and my nemisis, this one bully, was hitting my legs with a stick until they bled," she said. "It was very lord of the flies—a very nice Republican community."

We're not touching that last one.

Although Martha Stewart can't recall being bullied—she was "pretty big and strong and certainly didn't bully anybody—" she attended the screening because bullying is a phenomena that needs to be publicized and addressed.

Billie Jean King, like Meryl—but unlike Martha—also remembers being bullied.

"I'd be going home and he'd stop me and start just making me feel really scared, and obviously, being gay was really difficult."

Ms. King told Velvet Roper that she'd hid her sexuality for a long time until finally being outed in her thirties—the decision to publicly identify as a lesbian—or not—had been taken away from her.

"People called me a slut and called me a horrible person and then I could tell who my real friends were though," Ms. King said. "You start to learn about yourself and about the world, the way it really works."

"I think it's ridiculous," Julie Taymor said, when asked what she thought about Bully''s R rating. But this isn't the first time the MPAA has caught Ms. Taymor's ire. "On Across the Universe we had to fuzz out one nipple of the character Lucy, how is that going to endanger anybody?" she mused. "And also in Titus, I had to fight for an R rating because there was a little bit of nudity. I think that the MPAA is completely on the wrong end of things. It's okay to have violence but you can't have love . . ? I find it appalling what is allowed and what isn't allowed."

As far as Mr. Ravi is concerned, Ms. Taymor, is uncertain how he should be treated.

"I don't know about the sentence for him," she said. "I don't know whether it was a hate crime or whether it was really just being mean and nasty . . . It is terrible, but is he a murderer? I don't think that was his intention and there's plenty of hate crimes where that is the intention. Bullying yes, it probably was bullying."

Ms. King agrees. without a precedent, it's unclear how this case should be treated.

"I think it's probably a little bit of an overreaction but I think it brought the subject matter to the forefront, which is good," she said. "He didn't kill him. I'm not sure what the sentence should be exactly . . . He's young too and you hope he can change. I hate it when I see a young child make a huge mistake and not have a chance to change."

Mr. Hirsch, described Mr. Clementi's death as "a total tragedy," adding that he's spent the last three years reading about suicides all over this country that don't make national headlines.

"Each one is so upsetting and many of them don't receive [that] kind of attention, but for me, because it's the work that I do, I'm engaged with so many of these families and it just always breaks my heart." Mr. Hirsch said. "His death, of course was a heartbreak. Any death like that is so sad."

Mr. Hirsch said that despite the tough topics he tackles in his work, the reward outweighs the hardship.

"I get a lot of energy from the people that write us and tell us that we're making a difference for them," he said. "I'm probably on a huge deep well of adrenaline and just feeling like this is the moment and I've just got to push as hard as I can and keep trying to make that difference. I'm tired but I'm also energized all the time."

Ms. Taymor said she believes strongly in hate crime legislation and believes it should be extended to cover transgendered and gay persons as well as women.

"I think what goes on everywhere all over the world with the bullying that women go through with honor killings and rape," she said. ". . . With what's gone on in the Middle East and Africa, as well as the United States with how women are constantly bullied. But I think we take it for granted. We just say, 'Oh, that's private, it's in the home,' but I don't think that, so I hope it just explodes into talking about women. They're bullied and they're abused and they're frightened and that's a hate crime because men do it because they can and because women are considered less, less than human."

Before the film began, Regency Boies told a story about her time in high school with Ms. Streep's duaghter, Mamie.

"I saw her, on more than a few occasions, come to the rescue of some of our classmates that were being ridiculed, when none of the rest of us were brave enough to defend them," Ms. Boies said. "I know that it is the integrity and the kindness that you instilled in Mamie that is bringing you here today and thank God we have your voice."

When Ms. Streep heard this she was almost moved to tears, covering her mouth with her hands.

"I didn't know that story about Mamie, she said as she introduced the film. "Now I have to recover because that's just so great to hear. You never know what they're doing at school."

The crowd laughed and Ms. Streep added one more sentiment.

"A team is stronger than a bully . . . Tell absolutely everyone that it (Bully) should have the MPAA rating of PG-13 . . . or PG."