Earlier than the Omicron surge triggered dozens of individuals to drop off the marriage visitor listing of Bryan Terrell Clark and Devario D. Simmons, it shut down “Ideas of A Coloured Man,” the Broadway present that counted Mr. Clark as a star and Mr. Simmons as costume designer. Mr. Clark hated not having the prospect to take a last bow together with his castmates. However he did have his last bow as a single man to look ahead to.
“From day one, there was by no means a query in my head that I used to be imagined to marry this man,” he mentioned.
Mr. Clark, 41, met Mr. Simmons, 31, on Dec. 10, 2019. Mr. Clark’s greatest good friend, Rodrick Covington, might have been accountable. Earlier that month, Mr. Covington had identified that Mr. Clark, who on the time was taking part in George Washington within the Broadway manufacturing of “Hamilton,” had turn into a ordinary Tinder-swiper.
“He was like, ‘What are you in search of?’” Mr. Clark mentioned. “He requested me to explain the person of my desires.” Then Mr. Covington requested if Mr. Clark had any buddies prepared to play matchmaker. When Mr. Clark mentioned he did, Mr. Covington suggested him to delete his Tinder app immediately.
“Rodrick is a robust manifester,” mentioned Mr. Clark. On Dec. 9, 2019, whereas Mr. Clark had dinner at Amy Ruth’s in Harlem with the actor Stephen Conrad Moore, Mr. Covington’s manifestation started to take form.
“Stephen mentioned he knew a fantastic costume designer,” mentioned Mr. Clark, who then requested to see an image and was proven one in all Mr. Simmons. He had the bodily qualities of Mr. Clark’s dream man: Mr. Simmons regarded match, “like somebody who takes care of his temple,” mentioned Mr. Clark, who recalled telling Mr. Moore that, when it comes to character, “I used to be in search of somebody who was religious and communicator.”
That evening, Mr. Moore launched the 2 males on Instagram, writing, as Mr. Simmons recalled, “‘Hey gents, I feel you’re each nice folks and also you two ought to join.’” In reply, Mr. Simmons mentioned, “Thanks. I’m certain we’ll kick you off quickly so we will join privately.”
The next evening, they met at Hell’s Kitchen, a restaurant in that neighborhood of Manhattan. Mr. Simmons, who on the time was engaged on costumes for the Off Broadway present “Tumacho,” lived close by. Mr. Clark, who lived in Los Angeles, was staying on the Higher West Aspect briefly for “Hamilton.” A way of connection rapidly came to visit them.
“It wasn’t essentially the form of factor the place, as quickly as you see the individual there’s fireworks,” Mr. Clark mentioned. “It was extra like I felt like I knew him already. It was really easy.”
Each males had skilled formative relationships that had been something however simple. Mr. Clark grew up in Baltimore with a youthful brother and sister. He was nearing adolescence when he began to grasp that his father, George Clark, a manufacturing facility employee, had a drug downside. “He was this tumultuous vitality out and in of our lives,” Mr. Clark mentioned.
His dad and mom divorced in 2002, the identical yr that George Clark, who nonetheless lives in Baltimore, acquired clear. Father and son reunited quickly after. Now, “my father is one in all my greatest buddies,” mentioned Mr. Clark, who additionally counts his mom, Tanya Younger, a retired elementary faculty principal and pastor who lives in Decatur, Sick., amongst his closest confidantes. However popping out to her in his early 20s was exhausting.
“My father advised me what each son needs to listen to, which is, ‘I really like you unconditionally,’” he mentioned. However when Mr. Clark first mentioned his sexuality together with his mom, a former Sunday faculty trainer at a nondenominational church, after he graduated from Temple College in 2003, “she mentioned, ‘I’m wrestling with my perception system,’” he recalled. She was nonetheless wrestling when he enrolled in Yale Faculty of Drama, the place he earned a grasp’s diploma in appearing in 2006, and continued to properly after Mr. Clark’s Broadway profession kicked off when he was forged as Marvin Gaye in “Motown the Musical” in 2013.
“My mother didn’t come round to full acceptance till we had been married,” he mentioned.
Mr. Simmons’s youth in Greenville, S.C., was marked by the demise of his father, Raymond Simmons, in a bike accident when he was 7. “It modified my life in methods I couldn’t think about,” he mentioned. “I needed to develop up immediately.”
He and his youthful sister and brother had been raised by his mom, Kimeco Williams, who owns an area hair salon, and grandmother, Helena C. Williams. Being the oldest left him able of authority he usually felt unready for. “I needed to make a number of decisions I wouldn’t have needed to make if my father had been there,” he mentioned.
The selection to come back out at 21 — simply earlier than he graduated from Clemson College in 2013 — was as fraught for Mr. Simmons because it was for Mr. Clark. “Being from that area of the nation, I used to be all the time taught that being homosexual was mistaken and unhealthy,” mentioned Mr. Simmons, who earned a grasp’s diploma in costume design from Virginia Commonwealth College in 2016. However Helena Williams, who nonetheless speaks to her grandson 3 times a day from her residence in Greenville, “was instrumental in me saying my piece,” he mentioned.
Mr. Simmons and Mr. Clark each understood the worth of trustworthy dialog properly earlier than they met. However every had skilled bother getting there, not simply with their dad and mom, but in addition with earlier companions. So once they arrived on the restaurant for his or her first date, their intentions, individually set, had been in alignment.
“Lots of people attempt to conceal issues on first dates,” Mr. Simmons mentioned. “I confirmed up with the angle of, nothing is taboo.” For instance, “I used to be fantastic speaking about how I wish to have children sooner or later.” Mr. Clark was fantastic with that, too.
He was much less fantastic with the thought of claiming goodbye to Mr. Simmons when his six-week run in “Hamilton” completed in February 2020, and he was due in Vancouver to shoot a job within the tv present “Snowpiercer.” The couple had turn into as inseparable as Mr. Clark’s appearing schedule allowed, and “Snowpiercer,” together with a subsequent talking tour Mr. Clark had already booked, meant spending weeks aside.
Earlier than lengthy, although, they had been again collectively. In March 2020, because the pandemic gripped the nation, Mr. Clark, who by then had returned to his residence in Los Angeles, invited Mr. Simmons to quarantine with him. “It might have been a nightmare,” Mr. Clark mentioned. “I used to be inviting somebody I had solely been courting just a few months to come back stick with me for what we thought can be weeks.” As an alternative, they had been holed up collectively at Mr. Clark’s home for 5 months.
One morning in the summertime of 2020, Mr. Clark wakened with out Mr. Simmons by his facet. He discovered him within the kitchen. “Devario had by no means actually cooked in New York, however there he was, making breakfast,” he mentioned. “He’s from South Carolina — he was making crab truffles and grits. That’s the day I began in search of rings.”
By Dec. 31, 2020, Mr. Clark and Mr. Simmons had each gone again to work. Mr. Clark was in Canada, this time to movie a job within the Disney+ film “Sneakerella.” Mr. Simmons was in Greenville, instructing remotely at Ithaca School, the place he was an assistant professor within the theater division. To have a good time New 12 months’s Eve, Mr. Clark had organized social gathering on a ship for a dozen buddies in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, the place he and Mr. Simmons would reunite.
On the stroke of midnight, each had their sea legs and glasses of Champagne. Earlier than Mr. Simmons had an opportunity to sip from his, Mr. Clark dropped to at least one knee and proposed. Mr. Simmons gasped, and gave a surprised, ecstatic “sure.”
Their Jan. 1 wedding ceremony was held on the Chandelier Room at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. The celebration truly began on Dec. 31, 2021, to reflect their engagement. At 10:30 p.m., their 148 vaccinated friends (down from 175 due to the Omicron surge) started mingling over cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. When it was time to begin the countdown to the New 12 months, they paused as two officiants, the married Broadway actors John Eric Parker and Charles West, each ordained by the Common Life Church for the event, requested friends to increase their arms and say a prayer for the husbands-to-be.
Mr. Simmons and Mr. Clark, in matching tuxedos that Mr. Simmons helped design, stood on a touchdown holding arms to obtain that prayer, earlier than Mr. Parker, as lead officiant, delivered them to the evening’s denouement. The New 12 months started as a choir filed in, singing Kirk Franklin’s “Wanna Be Pleased?” The grooms exchanged rings and had been pronounced married, the group whooping in appreciation as they embraced and kissed.
On This Day
When Jan. 1, 2022
The place The Chandelier Room at Santa Anita Park, Arcadia, Calif.
VIPs Mr. Clark and Mr. Simmons had been the celebs of the evening, however not the one ones within the room. In attendance had been a number of actors, together with Angela Bassett, Aisha Hinds, Courtney Vance, John Clarence Stewart and Yvonne Orji (“My bestie,” Mr. Clark mentioned).
Crabs Instances Two As an alternative of a sit-down dinner, friends nibbled all through the night. Every groom selected a menu handed from two separate serving stations. Mr. Clark’s included Maryland crab truffles and Parmesan grits. Mr. Simmons’s had lobster mac-and-cheese and hen and waffles.
Homeward Sure Mr. Clark and Mr. Simmons didn’t return to Los Angeles after their honeymoon in Colombia, however to Manhattan, the place they began renting an condo in Hell’s Kitchen in 2021. Each are hoping for a return to normalcy on Broadway, although they’ll all the time lament the untimely closing of “Ideas of a Coloured Man,” the primary present written and directed by Black males with Black males within the lead roles. “Saying goodbye to one thing so groundbreaking was heartbreaking,” Mr. Clark mentioned.
