On June 12, Island Breeze restaurant held an enjoyable first annual Tony Party, which found attendees watching the televised 65th annual Tony Awards ceremony together, and enjoying live performances by Broadway guests, drinks and complimentary hors d’oeuvres, and Broadway trivia by Sal Piro and Brian Roland, and winning prizes of theater tickets for having the greatest number of correct educated guesses about who the Tony winners would be in each category. Brian hosted the event and Next magazine sponsored it.

With Daniel Lincoln at the keyboard, Brandi Massey (“Wicked,” “Jekyll and Hyde,” “Caroline or Change,” “The Color Purple”) poured heart and voice into singing “If someone like me found someone like you,” “The Wizard and I,” and a song from “Smokey Joe’s Café” (“Fools fall in love in a hurry”). Ben Cameron (“Wicked,” “Footloose”) favored us with songs riotous (“I’m a stalker”) and poignant (“Maybe I could trick that fool to fall in love with me”). Brian opened the proceedings by singing “Everything That I Am,” from “Tarzan; Daniel gave us his own take on “I Feel Pretty;” and Jody Cole Wood sang from “Into the Woods” (“There are giants in the sky”).

Beside the live entertainment, we reveled in Tony host Neil Patrick Harris’ opening number about Broadway—“It’s Not Just for Gays Anymore”—near the end of which he exchanged his tuxedo for a lavender jumpsuit; his duet with Hugh Jackman; and his performance of “Side By Side” with the New York Philharmonic cast of “Company.” We cheered the awards for featured actress Ellen Barkin and featured actor John Benjamin Hickey of the cast of “The Normal Heart;” its recognition as best revival of a play; and playwright Larry Kramer’s speech, beginning, “To gay people everywhere, whom I love so, ‘The Normal Heart’ is our history,” and ending, “We are an exceptional people and our day will come.”

Another very gay moment during the Tony Awards came with the performance of “It’s Raining Men” by disco diva Martha Wash and the cast of “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.”