Composer Richard Rodgers once said, “If a composer is to reach his audience emotionally – and surely that’s what theatre music is all about – he must reach the people through the sounds they can relate to.” Though he hadn’t ever heard that quote, Billy Porter, who won the Tony Award for his performance as Lola in Kinky Boots, was happy to hear it. After all, his most recent album is The Soul of Richard Rodgers and that’s what he’ll showcase this weekend in his appearance at The Soraya (Valley Performing Arts Center) on Saturday.
On the album, Porter does not offer traditional show tune performances of Rodgers’ songs from musicals like Oklahoma, The King and I, South Pacific and Pal Joey. Instead he has done the kind of album you can imagine Stevie Wonder would have done had he chosen to do one. And Porter has brought along some friends like Tony Award winners Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton), Patina Miller (Pippin) and Cynthia Erivo (The Color Purple). And he has some other friends like India.Arie, Ledisi and Pentatonix along for the ride, too.
When I brought up the Rodgers quote to Porter during our phone conversation he was thrilled to hear it. “That’s a person who really understands the power of transcending their time,” he enthuses. “It’s like it really matters that we can recontextualize these great pieces of work and make them relevant. I think it’s a great thing he said that and I wish more people knew he said that. We get squashed a lot by the purist intention to sort of preserve. I get it, but I like to be expansive.”
Not that he was looking to satisfy Broadway purists nor convert non-fans of that music. “I set out to make a Broadway album that is authentic to myself,” he revealed. “I came into theatre via the Pentecostal church and gospel music. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard my version of ‘Sunday.’ The first time I heard Sunday in the Park with George, I heard in my ear what you heard on my album. I didn’t hear it the original way. It was going inside of me and resonating in me with a completely different sound in my brain. When I was in college and my voice was unique and different, I had to think outside the box. I was forced not to be traditional.”
Audiences, Porter says, have taken some time at his concerts to realize what he’s doing. “Most of my audience is going to know me from the theatre. We think the sound and the arrangements are challenging for some people from the Broadway audiences. Last summer I was able to go into many different venues and watch the transformation when they finally realized what I was singing. To see the light bulb go off. There was one person who was a little mad at me because my show is a little loud. That’s the authenticity of R&B and Soul. But the person was mad because I didn’t do any Broadway music. It’s a compliment and you’re an idiot. Literally 80% of my show is Broadway.”
I relayed to Porter a conversation that recently took place on RuPaul’s Drag Race where one of the African-American queens talked about how hard it was to be black, gay and a drag queen. No doubt Porter could relate given that his role in Kinky Boots was all those things. It did and it also lead to his new television series, Pose.
“Yes, I’m gay, black and grew up in the church and ended up being a drag queen and it changed my life for a period of time. Now I’m on Pose and there are five transgender actors of color! In series regular roles in network television! The education I’m receiving you add to what you heard [on Drag Race] and add transgender woman of color to that. These people think they can just kill them because nobody will care or look for her. That’s what they live with. I had no idea. Imagine living with that reality every single day. Those of us who have the position must continue to fight for those who don’t.”
Like many who know Rodgers & Hammerstein’s song “Carefully Taught” from South Pacific, Porter does not believe the song will ever not be topical. “There’s always going to be stupid people in the world and art will have to check them.” Which lead me to ask him if he’s optimistic that politicians, usually the last people to catch on, will finally find closer parity with the culture of the country they govern.
“That’s what brings me so much joy as an artist. I get to be part of that catalyst that brings that type of change. That’s why we get attacked first. People who think slavery should have stayed and that kind of thing. As James Baldwin said, it’s an artist’s responsibility. I take that task very seriously.”
“The artist is distinguished from all other responsible actors in society — the politicians, legislators, educators, and scientists — by the fact that he is his own test tube, his own laboratory, working according to very rigorous rules, however unstated these may be, and cannot allow any consideration to supersede his responsibility to reveal all that he can possibly discover concerning the mystery of the human being.” – James Baldwin
Main Photo courtesy of Ron Cadiz for Sony Music Entertainment
