The Tonys Would Like a Word
Today’s is a special edition of the Status Kuo. I don’t write about it much here, but one of my other roles is as an artist and impresario in the theatre. In 2005, I quit working full time in the law and decided to pursue another passion of mine for the next 15 years—the stage.
For as long as I can remember, I have loved musical theatre. Some of my earliest memories are watching The Sound of Music with my family and memorizing all the melodies, harmonies and lyrics. When I was in high school, I played Bernardo in West Side Story (with Ma perming my hair to make me look more Puerto Rican!) and I was hooked. I remember visiting New York and buying the cheapest single seat available to watch Les Misèrables from the very front row on the side, marveling at the vocal prowess of the actors. I was so close I could see them sweat and spit as they sang to the rafters.
And I knew one day I had to be a part of that magical world. I just didn’t know how to make it happen. So I did what many would-be artists do: I went to law school.
A kick in the pants, just what I needed
I might have stayed a lawyer and never moved to New York had then-District Attorney Kamala Harris not fired me from her office for being too open on social media about what I was seeing around me. (She was absolutely right to fire me, and I realized I was too outspoken to do my job as lawyer and not get into trouble.) So I decided to take a chance and follow my passion.
I moved to New York in 2009, along with one of my besties and now lifelong theatre partner Lorenzo Thione. We knew almost no one and nothing about what we were in for. People called us “JayLor” for short, so busy were we schmoozing, pitching and “working it” together. Those were amazing, hungry, wild days, in the innocent years of Obama before the country went insane. We were tested by the theatre gods, and we managed to survive and thrive.
If you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere
Looking back over the 18 years since I made my decision to switch careers, it’s somewhat surreal that I actually have a Broadway credit as a composer, lyricist and bookwriter for Allegiance. It was a show set during the Japanese American internment and starring the great George Takei, whom we met by chance two nights in a row while watching theatre. It also starred the incomparable Lea Salonga, whose voice in Miss Saigon was my go-to standard for vocal perfection. Allegiance combined my love of history, politics and musical theatre. And it was, as they say, a dream come true to see my name on a Broadway theatre house and our show on a billboard in Times Square.
Shows take millions of dollars to mount on Broadway, so along our seven year journey as new producers and creators, we had to hustle and raise funds for our project. We did it one small investor at a time, building an extended, worldwide family of supporters and fans of the show. Through that process we also became “co-producers”—folks who commit to bringing in capital for productions. While we didn’t win any Tonys for Allegiance (which had the misfortune of opening opposite Hamilton—oof, that’s show biz!), the show has had an incredible post-Broadway life, with the digital capture of the live performance selling out in movie theatres across the country, and productions of the show in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston and most recently London, where we opened to great four and five star reviews. (Indulge this graphic our marketing team put together, I really love it.)
As co-producers who were now more than a decade into our profession, we went on to win Tonys for the musical Hadestown and the play The Inheritance. Today we’re still co-producing while developing new shows, including the musical Indigo centered around a teenage, non-speaking (but singing!) girl with autism and a new play Relentless set in a storied boxing club in Brooklyn. More on those to come in the months ahead.
The role of theatre today
The pandemic forced us to hit pause on theatre for almost two years. It was admittedly a very tough time, both spiritually and financially, but I used the shutdowns to return to writing, including launching the Status Kuo and writing a book about my late mother called MA IN ALL CAPS, which I will self-publish this summer. But after fits and starts of reopening to live audiences, being back in the theatre, at least with one foot in it these days, is proving soul-cleansing.
Theatre has a way of speaking great truths while reaching the hearts of audiences through storytelling. Artists, and our work writ large, have always asked the hard social questions, pushing and demanding that we examine the human condition, holding a mirror up to ourselves and society.
Last night, I attended the Tony Awards, which is like Christmas for our community. We were nominated for Best Musical as co-producers of the new musical & Juliet. And while we knew we were not favored to win, it was a honor to be there to support all the nominees and last night’s amazing performers.
I was particularly proud to see history made with two non-binary actors, J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell, recognized with best actor and featured actor awards in the musical category. It was a big middle finger to the hate we are seeing around the country in the form of over 500 proposed or enacted laws targeting the trans and non-binary community.
“My mother raised me to understand that the gifts God gave me were not about me,” Ghee said in an acceptance speech. “To use them to be effective in the world. For every trans, nonbinary, gender non-conforming human — whoever was told they couldn’t be, couldn’t be seen, this is for you. ‘Some Like It Hot’ and that ain’t bad.”
“Thank you for seeing me Broadway,” Newell said. “I should not be up here as a queer, non-binary, fat, Black, little baby from Massachusetts. And to anyone that thinks that they can’t do it, I’m going to look you dead in your face that you can do anything you put your mind to.”
Director Michael Arden won for his direction of the revival of Parade, which is about violent antisemitism in the South but also speaks a hard truth about where we remain today. “Parade tells the story of a life that was cut short at the hands of the belief that one group of people is more or less valuable than another and that they might be more deserving of justice,” Arden said, using well his moment on live television before a national audience. “This is a belief that is the core of antisemitism, of white supremacy, of homophobia, of transphobia and intolerance of any kind. We must come together. We must battle this. It is so, so important, or else we are doomed to repeat the horrors of our history.” I felt my heart swell at this words, because it also why I also wrote and remain so passionate about Allegiance.
Arden spoke directly to the young people in our community. “And to our beautiful trans, non-binary, queer youth, know that your queerness is what makes you beautiful and powerful,” he said. “Everyone in this room sees you and needs you and will fight alongside you, and we will win.” He then added something that had the censors scrambling but the many gay people and our allies cheering. “Growing up, I was called the F-word more times than I can remember,” said Arden. “And all I can say is that now I’m a fa**ot with a Tony.”
The night was unscripted, by agreement with the striking WGA, which graciously allowed an exception for the show so that our struggling theatre industry could still hold its biggest showcase before the whole country. My favorite moment came when TV and stage actress Denée Benton presented the annual Excellence in Theatre Education Award from Carnegie Mellon University.
Benton drew amazed gasps when she took direct aim at Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida:
Hi, I'm Denée Benton, actor and proud CMU alum. Earlier tonight, CMU and the Tony Awards presented the 2023 Excellence in Theatre Education Award. And while I am certain that the current Grand Wizard… I'm sorry, excuse me, governor of my home state of Florida…
The noise and the cheers quickly grew deafening in the theatre, and I couldn’t even hear the rest of her sentence. Ah, the “Unscripted Tonys”—they certainly did not disappoint!
Jay - I was just reading about your love of Broadway AND that you co-produced Hadestown, which was by far my favorite of all the shows put on here in Durham, NC at DPAC. I just shared your Substack with my 81yo stepmom, hoping she will embrace the idea that real people are out doing very important and cool journalistic work by covering issues and speaking about them in ways that you just don’t get when you read the NYT, which is her go-to. Thx for all you do. Love your posts, and love them even more as I’ve understood more about who you are and what matters to you.
Love the anecdote about Kamala firing you. Question: what would you say to those who blast her as a corporate Democrat, who put POC in prison? I have an extremely liberal gay son who is frustrated with identity politics and thinks the main problem is wealth inequality & plutocrat-influenced politicians (and judges). I look at someone like Kamala and think, “well, how the hell else is she supposed to get a foothold & advance?” To me, she has to play the hand she’s given, hoping to shape the game, and now that she’s in a relatively more influential position of power, she can do more. Or, I think, she’s evolved in her views. The people I can’t stand are the liars and cheats. People trying to do the job in front of them--the best they know how do it--do not get blasted by me on some purity test. Especially not retroactively.