Catching Up With Hillary Clinton at “Bob Fosse’s Dancin’”

On Sunday night time, Hillary Clinton, recent from attending the opening night time of “Bob Fosse’s Dancin’” on Broadway on the Music Field Theater, swept into the Rosevale Cocktail Room on the Civilian Lodge on West forty eighth Road.

As candles flickered on tables, with miniature fashions from productions like “Hadestown” and “Pricey Evan Hansen” displayed on a again wall, a number of dozen visitors on the non-public after-party sipped glasses of white wine from the bar. Mrs. Clinton mingled amongst visitors together with David Rockwell, the architect and Tony Award-winning present designer who designed the lodge; the actress Jane Krakowski; Huma Abedin, Mrs. Clinton’s longtime aide; and the “Dancin’” director, Wayne Cilento.

“I liked it,” she advised Mr. Cilento, who additionally danced within the unique 1978 manufacturing of the present. “The dancers had been so charismatic and magnetic. That vitality was so wanted.”

So when requested to think about the concept that a touring manufacturing of the latter present, through which two males gown as ladies to flee the mob, could possibly be banned from taking part in in a state like Tennessee, which recently passed a law limiting “cabaret” shows, a part of a wave of laws throughout the nation by conservative lawmakers in opposition to drag performances, Mrs. Clinton’s response was clear.

“It’s a really unhappy commentary on what folks suppose is necessary in our nation,” Mrs. Clinton mentioned. “I hope that it goes the way in which of the dinosaur as a result of folks will acknowledge that it’s only a political stunt.”

The vary of exhibits that would doubtlessly be banned beneath such laws — corresponding to Shakespeare performs, through which quite a lot of characters cross-dress; “Hairspray,” the favored musical through which the protagonist’s mom is normally performed by a person in a gown; and “1776,” whose present touring firm options an all-female, trans and nonbinary solid, was, she mentioned, “absurd.”

“I suppose they’re going to close the state borders to something that’s Shakespearean?” she mentioned. “Are we going to cease exporting any sort of leisure?”

At round 9:10 p.m., Mrs. Clinton departed the get together. Some visitors adopted her lead, whereas others moved upstairs to the Starchild Rooftop Bar & Lounge on the twenty seventh ground, the place Nicole Fosse — the daughter of the director-choreographer Bob Fosse and the actress Gwen Verndon — and Mr. Cilento, the director, had been internet hosting a second get together for the present’s artistic crew and solid of twenty-two dancers.

The dancer Karli Dinardo wore a sleeveless silver robe with cutouts by the Australian designer Portia and Scarlett, whereas Yeman Brown donned a inexperienced Who Decides Warfare cathedral sweatshirt with cutouts throughout the entrance. They sipped “Dancin’ Man” mocktails — roots divino bianco, cucumber, pink peppercorn and lemon-lime soda — and munched on “Fosse’s Breakfast” (granola) and shrimp cocktails furnished by waiters on silver platters. (For these with much less intellectual tastes, there have been additionally luggage of M&M’s by the bar with the dancers’ names printed on them.)

Kolton Krouse, a nonbinary dancer within the manufacturing whose face-slapping kicks earned a shout-out from the New York Instances critic Jesse Inexperienced in his overview, wore an asymmetrical black gown, gold heels, glittering gold eye shadow and brilliant purple lipstick.

“I needed to do a contemporary tackle Ann Reinking’s unique trumpet solo gown,” they mentioned of their glowing one-shoulder robe.

Mx. Krouse, who’s amongst a solid of dancers that’s noticeably extra numerous in age, ethnicity, physique sort and gender presentation than a typical Fosse solid, mentioned the very best a part of the brand new manufacturing was that “we are able to all be ourselves whereas we’re doing it.”

Mr. Cilento mentioned he purposefully sought a extra numerous solid for the revival.

“I did a really eclectic, actually thrilling group of dancers as a result of I felt such as you needed to embrace the entire tradition and never simply make it, you already know, white bread,” he mentioned.

Mx. Krouse, who leads the quantity “Spring Hen” within the present, mentioned: “It’s bizarre doing a present the place I will be me, and it’s OK.”

Fast Query is a set of dispatches from purple carpets, gala dinners and different occasions that coax celebrities out of hiding.