NEW YORK — Amy Bohaker is on standby in the penthouse of what TripAdvisor has dubbed one of America's top 10 sexy hotels, and she's dressed for the part in a red cocktail dress and matching pumps.

"I don't usually dress this way," she says with a sheepish grin, reminding us she's a woman in red for a reason tonight.

While thousands of theatre-goers mill around Times Square far below, the fresh-faced Victoria native is on a nocturnal mission at the Night Hotel, the ultra-chic Manhattan oasis known for its dark "gothic Gotham" design and erotic allure.

It's the perfect setting for Hotel New York, Shome Banerjee's dramatic fantasy about a handsome philanderer who learns a lesson in morality when he checks into the seductive hotel of the title — a metaphor for the afterlife.

Bohaker, 28, stars opposite Samrat Chakrabarti (She Hate Me), the New York actor who plays adulterous Ricky. She portrays Lucy, a "dream woman with an edge" who playfully seduces the married man on a circular bed in the black-and-white penthouse.

"This is his psychological descent into his own personal hell," Bohaker explains. "It's about a man committing a sin and asking for forgiveness."

Imbuing the film with magic realism to dramatize Ricky's realization that he has died, the playwright and filmmaker (An American in Mumbai, Amma Maa) hired professional clowns to evoke a surreal, circus-like atmosphere.

A real-life circus ensues when filming at the boutique hotel wraps and the late-night action moves to Times Square.

"We were not left alone," the Brooklyn-based actress later recalls, laughing. "Tourists kept getting into our shots and taking pictures of me. You'd be in the middle of preparing for a scene and people would just barge right in."

One South Asian family of fans was particularly animated while mobbing Chakrabarti.

"It was a funny experience."

Banerjee had Bohaker in mind for another immigrant story until he ran into Chakrabarti at an after-party for the première of Anurag Kashyup's The Girl in Yellow Boots. Switching gears, he wrote a script in three hours and got both stars on board.

Although Bohaker admits she initially had reservations about her role, she said Banerjee's integrity and vision sold her.

"You have to have trust in your director," she says. "I turned down one good role because of content. You get to a point where you have to be comfortable with what you're doing, and confident. It's always best to go with your instinct."

The actress says she has found herself wanting to focus more on films and TV since moving to New York five years ago.

Before that, the Claremont Secondary School grad studied dance in Victoria for 15 years, was featured as Clara in Sacramento Ballet Company's 1996 production of The Nutcracker and was mentored by Leslie Bland while with Kaleidoscope Theatre. After completing an English degree at the University of Victoria, she successfully auditioned for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Since graduating from the prestigious acting school, whose alumni include Lauren Bacall, Spencer Tracy and Kim Cattrall, Bohaker has done theatre — notably playing Mary Warren in Manhattan Theatre Source's The Crucible — and short films.

She also worked with The Instant Shakespeare Company, which stages free dramatic readings of the Bard's works in their original form in venues from Washington Square to Central Park and the New York Public Library.

"It's language at its most raw," says Bohaker. "I've really enjoyed hearing responses of people who maybe wouldn't see theatre if not for that."

Another highlight was appearing in Xoregos Performing Company's production of Sophocles' Antigone, staged in Central Park's Delacorte Theatre, with dance and sung music complementing the classical text.

She has worked on scene study with John Gould Rubin, a co-founder of LAByrinth Theatre, whose members include Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Eric Bogosian; and Andrew Polk, founder of the Cape Cod Theatre Project.

As much as she loves theatre, Bohaker says fulfilling opportunities are limited. "It's often stuff that will sell well for an audience but says things that are less vital," she laments.

Not that she has anything against musicals.

She confesses she gets a kick out of encountering A-listers in the orbit of her boyfriend John Brant, a London-based producer recently involved in Lysistrata Jones and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.

At a gala dinner at the Plaza Hotel for On a Clear Day, she rubbed shoulders with Harry Connick, Jr., Bebe Neuwirth, Cynthia Nixon, Mariska Hargitay and Hilary Swank.

While star sightings aren't uncommon — John Lithgow was a seatmate at Follies and she spotted Glenn Close sitting quietly in a showbiz bar — it's "the work" that keeps Bohaker going.

"People I've encountered here have been very giving and open-minded," she says.

"It's never dull. You see a lot of the same people at auditions, but just as there's competition, there's camaraderie."

mreid@timescolonist.com