Raleigh native gets first Tony nomination in his Broadway debut, ‘A Strange Loop’
Fresh out of college last year, 23-year-old Raleigh native Jaquel Spivey is already nominated for a Tony award for his Broadway debut in “A Strange Loop.”
Spivey, a young, Black, gay theater actor, leads the cast in the almost metaphysical role of Usher — a young, Black, gay theater writer confronting his self-doubt while writing a musical about an also young, Black, gay theater writer doing the same.
On Monday, the nominees for the 75th Tony Awards were announced. Spivey is nominated for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. The musical is nominated for 11 total awards, the most of any production, including Best New Musical and Best Original Score.
Spivey faces competition in his category from other veteran actors: Billy Crystal, “Mr. Saturday Night,” Myles Frost, “MJ,” Hugh Jackman, “The Music Man” and Rob McClure, “Mrs. Doubtfire.”
Themes of identity and representation (or lack thereof) immediately become clear in the play’s opening scene with “Intermission Song” where Usher and “his thoughts” sing about making Broadway “big, Black and queer,” like him.
The play, which officially opened April 26, has drawn critical acclaim.
“Spivey gives an earnest, lived-in performance,” wrote New York Times critic Maya Phillips. “Electric” and “galvanizing” said The Washington Post’s Peter Marks.
Spivey’s NC roots
While his time in North Carolina was short-lived, Spivey has acknowledged his roots in recent interviews.
“I’m originally from little old Raleigh, North Carolina,” he told The New York Times. “There wasn’t too much theater, so I found it through musical movies, like “Dreamgirls” and “Annie.””
He moved to New Jersey very young. It’s where he spent the bulk of his youth and got to take acting classes.
“People were like, ‘You should really look into this as a major,’” he said in his NYT interview. “And I was like, ‘People go to college for this?’”
Spivey majored in musical theater at Point Park University in Pittsburgh and graduated last May. He landed his first professional acting role shortly after in the Washington production of Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, “A Strange Loop.”
Then came a big announcement in the middle of production in late December: “A Strange Loop” was headed to Broadway.
A Broadway debut and first Tony nomination
“I was in a good amount of shock,” Spivey told the Times about the Broadway announcement. “But I’m also actively choosing not to put on the added pressure of Broadway because I feel that we can tell stories anywhere — I told stories in North Carolina, I told stories in school in Pittsburgh, I told stories in D.C.”
Elisabeth Vicentelli wrote that Spivey was “teary” and “overcome with emotion” during his first-ever Broadway curtain call April 14, the night of the first preview. He and his castmates received a standing ovation.
Spivey’s hard work on his performance in “A Strange Loop” has paid off big time.
The Tony Awards will air June 12 on Paramount+ and CBS and will be hosted by another North Carolina native, Ariana DeBose, who just won an Academy Award for her performance as Anita in “West Side Story.”
This story was originally published May 9, 2022 at 12:59 PM.
