2023 Tony Awards bring festival atmosphere to Washington Heights
The Tony Awards, which bounced around Midtown in recent years, have shifted to an entirely new scene: the United Palace in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood.
The switch to the ornate theater, which opened in 1930 and seats some 3,400 people, brought out neighbors on Sunday.
The Police Department closed down Broadway and Wadsworth Ave. to traffic from 172nd St. to 178th St., creating a festival-like atmosphere.
Outside the United Palace, neighbors dressed in casual summer clothes plopped down in lawn chairs and soaked in the scene as uniformed police officers and tuxedo-clad Tony attendees passed by.
The sound of drums echoed down Broadway.
“I’m surprised to see everyone out,” Rob Miketa, a local, said as he walked his goldendoodle dog Ruby across the street from the United Palace.
“It’s pretty cool,” added Miketa, 53, whose husband works as a stage manager on “Camelot.”
As Juan Miguel Jiminez walked his dog around the corner, on 174th St., he said he believed the Tonys coming uptown was a mixed bag for the neighborhood.
Jiminez, 33, said he was pleased the United Palace was “finally” being used for a major event. Still, he said he wished the arrival of the ceremony had been better advertised to prepare the locals.
“It’s good because it promotes the area,” he said, adding that the event made parking “really frustrating.”
But Ashley Vargas Ball dismissed such concerns, saying she thought having the Tonys in the neighborhood was “crazy” and “pretty dope.”
Ball, 25, who lives two blocks from the United Palace, expressed hope that the show would bring money into local businesses.
“I’m very happy and glad that there is such a prestigious award ceremony happening in our neighborhood,” she said.
The Tonys have often been held at Radio City Music Hall, and have also taken place at Broadway houses — the 2021 Tonys were held at the Winter Garden Theatre — and at the Beacon Theatre on the Upper West Side.
