Why the biggest acclaim at a Tonys luncheon goes to a waiter

Klay Young, a 63-year-old Harlem resident who immigrated to New York as a teenager from Belize as a teenager, has worked as a waiter at the famed Rainbow Room for 30 years, taking orders, delivering food, cleaning up dish for any rich and famous people. He has pictures taken with Mikhail Gorbachev, Liza Minnelli, John Travolta, and Presidents Carter and Clinton.

This week, he serves a newly minted dignitaries: his daughter, a stage actress, who this season made her Broadway debut in a new Lynn Nottage play called “”Clyde’s“And to score a Tony nomination for her quick performance as a formerly incarcerated sandwich maker.

Something about that confluence – a ground breaking performer literally peaks ( Rainbow room located on the 65th floor of Rockefeller Center), where her immigrant father had long worked as a waiter – provided a much-needed moment to inspire an industry still struggling to recover. After a few difficult years.

Here’s what happened: The Rainbow Room, once a restaurant and now an event space, has for years hosted the precious Tony Awards ceremony: a luncheon-only party for the nominees, where actors, writers, directors, designers, and others who received the award share a meal, receive a placard, and bask in a shared moment of glory .

This year, sitting among the honorees is Kara Young in a black and white Maje dress with a gold necklace she had borrowed from her mother. Klay Young is working in his room in his lunchtime uniform of dark blue pants, a white shirt, and a dark blue vest, making sure everyone has what they need.

When Emilio Sosa, who was helping to preside over the ceremony as president of the American Theater Wing, got up to repeat the names of the honorees frequently, stopping at Kara Young. He noted that her father was present – as it happened, he was getting a Diet Coke for a celebrity – and had worked there for many years. The celebrants stood up.

“The whole room just lost it,” Sosa said. “To see her come in full circle, from a little girl watching him serve, and he has worked on this luncheon for years, to his daughter being nominated as just one of once in a lifetime moments. No one with dry eyes in the room. “

Among those moved to tears: Kara Young, as a little girl on special occasions went to the Rainbow Room with her father, gazed out and danced with him on the revolving floor.

Later, Kara Young said, “I know that job put food on our tables and gave us a really beautiful life. “He’s a respectable man, and for him to get a standing ovation was the most unexpected moment ever.”

Klay Young, who was serving chicken and arranging coffee cups for lunch, was stunned. “Oh my gosh,” he said later. “I had to stop for a second. I looked at her. She looked at me. It was approved. I can’t say anything but ‘thank you.’ And there were tears of happiness silently streaming down my face. ”

Sosa, a costume designer who immigrated to New York from the Dominican Republic and whose parents were cleaners and factory workers, said he realized the emotional power of this moment as soon as he realized the difference. coincident.

“A lot of times, when young people say they want to be artists, the first thing they get is feedback on how they make a living,” says Sosa. “So the pride in this man’s eyes really touched me. And I can’t let that moment pass.”

Among those also affected by the event was Nottage, who captured a photo of the father and son pair.

“All I can say is it was an incredible, beautiful, magical moment,” Nottage said. “It feels so meaningful that his hard work has made her honored in that very room.”

Nominees are not allowed to bring guests to the luncheon, so Kara Young is especially delighted when her dad is there, even serving the table where she sits. “As soon as I got there, I started introducing him to people – it was like, ‘That’s my dad! My father works here! ”, she said. “I feel like my father’s daughter in the room.”

And she decided that her father would be her partner at Tony Awardwill be featured by the American Theater Wing and the Broadway League on June 12. “My father has looked after celebrities at the Rainbow Room for so many years – of course he deserves his moment where he is. at Tonys and was taken care of.”

Klay Young has been in the hospitality industry since 1975 and loves the business. He started working at the Rainbow Room in 1992 and has been there ever since but for a time it was closed; He’s currently one of the department’s longest-serving employees and holds the title of captain. “He is a true act of class and a beloved member of our team,” said Randall Richardson, general manager.

Young’s initials are KEY, and he gave both of his children the same initials, saying, “You open the door with your key – you control your destiny and no one can. take that away from you.”

Kara Young (her middle name is Erin) said that, like many other parents, she was nervous at first when she said she wanted to be an actress; at one point they suggested she look at radiographs. (Her mother, also an immigrant from Belize, works as a manager at Bellevue Hospital.) “They had very different dreams for me,” she says.

But now they are ardent supporters, watching all of her shows. “My wife and I make sure we reach every single one of them,” says Klay Young. “With any show she’s on, her heart fills and her eyes fill with tears.”