During rehearsals for his Black Mona Lisa Tour Volume 1, Porter told me when he goes online that “sometimes you hear, I didn’t know Pray Tell can sing!” Which, of course, surprises me since Pray Tell sang in multiple episodes of the television series Pose: “The Man That Got Away,” “For All We Know,” “Love’s In Need of Love Today” and “Home.” Porter won an Emmy Award for his performance in the first season of Ryan Murphy’s series.

His concert tour, to support an upcoming album of the same name, will showcase all aspects of his career. Porter’s tour begins on Saturday, April 29th in Seattle. The 25-city tour will take him during the first week to Salt Lake City (May 1st), Denver (May 2nd), San Jose (May 4th), San Francisco (May 5th) and Los Angeles (May 6th). To see the full itinerary, please go here.

In Los Angeles Porter will be performing at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre which is very near his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame which he received on December 1st of last year.

Earlier this month I spoke by phone with Porter about the tour, the album that he’s recorded and about his life on and off the stage. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.

On stage, you’ve been able to embody Belize (Angels in America), Lola, Aubrey Lyles and so many other characters. With this tour you’ll be doing what a lot of actors consider the toughest of all possible roles: just being yourself. What challenges and opportunities does your Black Mona Lisa Tour Volume One offer you?

First of all, that is a really amazing question. I moved to New York City December 27th, 1992 to be in the original cast of Miss Saigon. It was the middle of the AIDS crisis. Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The Actors Fund taught an entire generation how to activate. I was trying to get a better deal at the very same time, which I did. My first R&B/soul album came out in 1997. So my trajectory in my twenties was Broadway shows and getting a mainstream contract.

The only way to do that was to do concerts. I did concerts three, four or five times a year fronting a band. So showing up as myself, it’s something that I’ve been doing for the entirety of my career since I was 21 years old. So I am so happy to be able to get on stage and just be myself because I know how to do that very well.

Your book, Unprotected, created such an intimate dialogue with your audience. How would you like this upcoming album and tour to continue that dialogue and move the conversation forward?

I want the next layer to include one of my original dreams which was to be the male Whitney Houston. That was always my goal. Like I said, my first album came out in ’97. The mainstream industry was homophobic. They put my ass out. I had all these years to make something of myself. Now I get to come back to the mainstream industry on my own terms.

This album is everything that I want to say musically and exactly how I want to say it musically, visually, conceptually. All of it is rooted and grounded in the life that I led. I’m so excited to share it with the world. Ironically, I spent the first 25 years of my career trying to get people to take me seriously as an actor. Now I sort of exist in so many different creative spaces.

The unfortunate part of our world is that very often these creative spaces don’t talk to each other. The literary people don’t talk to the music people. The music people don’t talk to the film and TV people. The film and TV people don’t talk to the fashion people. The fashion people don’t talk to the theater people. So the audiences are all there for different reasons. It’s like, okay, so I have some educating to do, you know? My hope is that this concert with music, since it is a universal language, will bring all of my disparate audiences together. 

How autobiographical with this whole album be? The first line in your first single, Baby Was a Dancer, references your own birthday.

It’s completely autobiographical. It’s completely my life. Just like my book, it’s a celebration of life. It’s a celebration of how I can heal trauma. The concert is going to be a celebration of life and love and hope and joy. I’ve been saying I want to give the world a big bear hug. We’ve all been inside of and continue to be inside of a collective trauma that is devastating. I want to be a part of the healing. I’m coming to minister to the people in these 25 cities and start the process of healing together. The only way we can make a difference in this world to heal, to create change, is to do it together. Now we can gather again. So my hope, my intention, is to get the ball rolling with that. My hope is that audiences will leave inspired and hopeful and be called and re-called to action.

What discoveries have you made about yourself since the publication of Unprotected and will those discoveries find their way into Black Mona Lisa?

They have found their way. The album is done. What discoveries have I made? I would say that healing is a journey, not a destination. If we can learn to enjoy the journey in all its forms, even when it’s uncomfortable – and a lot of times it’s going to be uncomfortable -when we can understand that the space of the journey is where the peace is, where the joy is, where the hope lies with healing. It’s in the journey that we find that space in our lives. That’s what I really have been able to lean into that since the book and the trauma therapy that went along with writing that book.

What I couldn’t have known when I saw you in Angels in America in 2010 is that while you’re playing this incredible angel of a nurse who dispenses truth and compassion in equal measure, you were carrying a secret inside about your own health status. What was that experience for you, knowing what you knew about yourself while appearing in this play? 

As you know from the book, going to see Millennium Approaches [part one of Angels in America] in 1994, while I was in playing the Teen Angel in Grease, prancing around like a Little Richard on crack, our theaters backed up against each other. The actors from Angels in America, I was friends with a couple of them. [They] were like, “We could always hear in our dressing room where your number was!” That was the play that began the evolution of Billy. I saw Belize and I saw myself – a reflection of a Black queer man who was not the butt of the joke. Who was not the one that was reviled. Who people didn’t want to kill. Who was the moral compass of the show. It changed everything for me.

When I got my diagnosis of HIV in 2007 my biggest fear was that people would find out and I would never work again. So to have my return to the New York stage after a decade of not working be the very piece that changed everything for me, that really changed my life. That was all I was thinking about at that time.

Because it was a piece about HIV I could just be in it. As an actor that’s what we strive for. We strive to not have to be acting, but to just be. So it was magical for me. I was able to think about something else. I was able to not have to wallow in that. By that point I was on medication. My T-cell count was higher than yours is now. That medication is actually a miracle drug. The diabetes and the HIV diagnosis simultaneously turned this Black man into the most healthiest I’d ever been. I was relieved to be working again and happy to be healthy. That was really where I was when I was doing that.

From the outside looking in on your life, it would seem like you have found a way to make the world your oyster right now. Do you feel that way? What would you say to others, particularly those who go to your concert, is the best way for them to live with such apparent joy and appreciation? 

You choose it. Joy is an action. Love is an action. Hope is an action. All of those things are actions that don’t just happen. So we have to be conscious and sure of it at every turn and every success. There’s equal measure of challenges. The challenges never stop. They just are different. The more success I have, the more intense the challenges are. So do not get it twisted. The world is sort of an oyster and there’s a lot of bullshit, too.

We last spoke in 2018. I asked you at that time if it was possible for our government to come closer in parity with the country’s culture. You said “I get to be part of that change, that catalyst that creates changes.” Giving everything that’s now going on with the LGBTQ+ community, what are the conversations you hope your audiences will have after seeing these concerts about further changes, not just in society, but also in ourselves? 

I think the big takeaway from what’s going on right now is to remember that we’re all human. Just in my estimation and what I’ve observed, being separated and isolated in our homes for two years because of the pandemic allowed for inhumanity to flourish and it allowed for people to forget that we’re all human beings. It allowed for that to foster a bit. That’s what I’m excited about with my work is that it’s a reminder that we’re all human beings and we don’t have to agree on everything. We can agree to disagree. The conversation is not about tolerance or acceptance. The conversation is a demand for universal respect for humanity. Period.

So you don’t get to create legislation that takes rights away because you don’t agree with me. That’s not what America is. That’s not what any place should be like. My rights have been up to legislation since the moment I could comprehend it and before that, too. And it still continues to be okay. That still continues to be the way of the world. It’s not just America, it’s all over the world. 

It’s like What is this? It’s hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years of this? It’s crazy. It is. The answer from me is fuck you. If the worst thing that I do is cuss, because that’s what people like to talk about, well, we have much bigger problems than my fuck you. Come on, the sky IS falling, right? It already is falling. I need to see some urgency in these motherfuckers now.

Main Photo: Billy Porter (Courtesy Republic Records)

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So this column is dedicated to anyone who might want to go on Jeopardy! one day, or anyone who wants to deepen their knowledge of musicals, musical-comedy and the men and women who have created them.

Option #1 is The Contemporary Broadway Musical being offered by the Pasadena Playhouse.

This is a ten-class series presented by Broadway producer Adam Epstein. He’s a five-time Tony Award nominee who took home the trophy for Best Musical when Hairspray won in 2003.

Here is the schedule for the ten classes:

February 22nd: High Flying Adored: Eva Peron delivers a Broadway coup de thé·â·tre; Gower Champion dies

March 1st: Michael Bennett’s Dreamgirls vs. Tommy Tune’s Nine

March 8th: The Empire Strikes Back: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cameron Mackintosh and the “colonization” of Broadway: Cats, Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon

March 15th: La Cage Aux Folles and Into the Woods

March 22nd: Americans vanquish the British (again!): City of Angels, Crazy for You, and the return of the musical comedy

March 29th: Falsettos: William Finn and his Tight Knit Family move uptown

April 5th: Broadway in the 1990’s: Disney conquers Broadway; Rent and Ragtime conquer hearts

April 12th: From Celluloid to Greasepaint: The Producers, Hairspray and the changing face of Broadway in the 21st century

April 19th: Avenue Q and Wicked: a theatrical tale of David and Goliath

April 26th: Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and the future of Broadway musicals

All of the dates above are the live presentation of each week’s topic. However, those who sign up for the classes can catch up even if you start halfway through the series. The classes will remain available to you beginning 24 hours after the conclusion of each live class. The 10-series course costs $179. (Members at Pasadena Playhouse receive at 20% discount).

Option #2: What Makes It Great?

Gershwin. Berlin. Arlen. Rodgers. Bernstein. You don’t need to add first names to the list of composers in this title. They are all legends whose work has catapulted them to the upper echelon of composers.

Rob Kapilow, the author of Listening For America: Inside the Great American Songbook from Gershwin to Sondheim, is conducting a five-episode series of classes called What Makes It Great? Celebrating the Great American Songbook beginning on February 23rd and running through March 30th.

Kapilow has teamed up with the Kaufman Music Center and JCC Thurnauer School of Music to lead explorations of these five men and their work. The classes stream on Tuesdays at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST and include a live Q&A afterwards. For those for whom that schedule doesn’t work, the classes will remain available through April 15th.

Here is What Makes It Great‘s line-up:

February 23rd: George Gershwin

March 2nd: Irving Berlin

March 9th: Harold Arlen

March 23rd: Richard Rodgers

March 30th: Leonard Bernstein

Tickets for the five classes are $50.

There is a bonus attraction on April 6th. Kapilow will be joined by Nikki Renée Daniels (the upcoming revival of Company) and Michael Winther (the upcoming Flying Over Sunset) for a performance called What Makes It Great? Stephen Sondheim. Tickets for that show are $15 and will allow ticket purchasers to watch the show through the middle of April.

With either or both of these classes, I assure you you’ll not just learn about musicals. You’ll also improve your trivia games, impress your friends who thought you knew nothing about the subject and more importantly you’ll know the difference between August Wilson and Stephen Sondheim when it’s your turn to play Jeopardy!

Photo: Broadway’s Shubert Alley (Photo by Christopher Firth/Courtesy New York Public Library Archives)

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“I love it! Someone in the cast started it and it just went like a snowball,” he said by phone last week. “They were doing it for their own amusement and it just caught on. I was so proud of them.”

The popularity of the video only mirrors the passion people have for A Chorus Line. The timing for Avian couldn’t be better as his memoir, Dancing Man: A Broadway Choreographer’s Journey, was recently published.

It was while dancing in a production of West Side Story that Avian met the man who would become his best friend and collaborator, Michael Bennett. Together they would work on such landmark shows as Company, Follies, Promises, Promises, A Chorus Line, Ballroom and Dreamgirls. After Bennett passed away in 1987, Avian would continue working on musicals including Miss Saigon, Putting It Together, Sunset Boulevard and ultimately directing that revival of A Chorus Line.

We began our conversation by talking about that iconic choreography that opens A Chorus Line. Here are edited excerpts from the interview. Comments have been edited for clarity and length.

“I Hope I Get It” has such a distinctive style. What inspired that choreography and why do you think that opening remains as vital today as it was in 1975?

What makes it special is Marvin’s [Hamlisch] music because it’s in 6 not 8. Most dance combos you count in 8. Being in six gives it a curve that’s subliminal. The attack is different and you feel it in your gut. I think that’s the root of what makes it so special. Michael did that.

You say in the book that at the age of 10 or 11, even without training, you knew you could dance. Was there one moment that made you come to that realization? Your own “I Can Do That?”

Being home alone and putting on a record player of the things I liked best and I would start dancing around and see where it took me. Being alone you have that freedom. You didn’t know what you were going to do and you let it pour out of your soul. Luckily we had a big living room. My life was concealed because I was gay and my parents were ethnic and it was a big no no. When I put on the music and closed the door and was my myself, I could be who I was and not have any censors around me.

Follies at one point had two men in drag during “Buddy’s Blues.” In 1971 that must have been played as a stereotype. What is the process where ideas like that find their way into a show and as a gay man how did you feel about it?

When we went into the show a lot of the score hadn’t been written yet. Stephen Sondheim needs to see things first. He writes his best showstoppers when he’s out of town. Whether “I’m Still Here” or “Send in the Clowns” or “Being Alive,” it’s because he sees the show. That’s part of his process. I don’t know. It just comes and you roll with it and you do the best you can.

When you and Michael accepted the Tony Award for Best Choreography for A Chorus Line, you said, “This is the professional high point of my life.” Michael said, “Michael Bennett is Bob Avian.” What meant more to you in that moment, winning the award or Michael’s acknowledgement of the importance of your contributions?

Michael and I were so close. We were brothers, never lovers. Everything we did we did together almost 24 hours a day. We were on the phone when we weren’t in the rehearsal studio. It was his ultimate compliment to say, “I love you Bobby.” It’s so much easier and nicer to share success and failure with someone.

Both Sammy Williams (who originated the role of Paul in A Chorus Line) and Baayork Lee (who originated the role of Connie in the same show) told me stories about how cruel Michael could be.

If you are successful and you are working on a multimillion dollar musical the pressure is enormous. You have to have strong shoulders to handle this. The one fear you have is are they going to fire me.

In many cases it’s about their anger in themselves. I find myself getting so angry at a dancer or a group of dancers when I’m unhappy with myself. It’s aimed at me, but it comes out of my mouth and at them. It’s like using the wrong color on a canvas.

Miss Saigon, Sunset Boulevard, the London revival of Follies and many more are part of your post-Michael Bennett career. Some artists say they don’t choose the work, the work chooses them. Is that your point of view?

Well it happens to me. I had no idea what was going to happen when Michael died. He talked me into doing Follies in London on his deathbed. I didn’t want to do it again. I kept saying it’ll never be the original production. What it gave me was Cameron Mackintosh. He just took to me and globbed onto me and dictated the rest of my career.

Michael was clearly so important to you. What do you think he’d say if he could see what you’ve done with your life and career since his passing?

Our respect for each other was so honest and so real. We exposed all our inner souls to each other. I was lucky to have that relationship. I think he would say, “Well done, Bobby.”

Photo of Bob Avian and Julie Andrews courtesy of Bob Avian

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Miss Saigon sets the story of a young girl who falls in love with a soldier in Vietnam. Kim (Emily Bautista at most performances; Myra Molloy at others) works for an insidious man at a club named The Engineer (Red Concepcíon). He puts on a “contest” called Miss Saigon with the winner to be the prize for a Marine. One of those Marines, Chris (Anthony Festa) becomes smitten with Kim and after a night of sex (her first time), he offers to bring her to America. When he leaves Vietnam, due to the imminent fall of Saigon, he goes without taking her. She holds out hope that he will one day return for her and honor his promise.

Three years go by and lot has changed for both Chris and Kim. When they are reunited those changes lead to a tragic ending that won’t be revealed here. (Not everyone knows Madama Butterfly – no reason to give it all away.)

The original production opened in London in 1989. It was soon followed by a Broadway production in 1991. In both productions, Lea Salonga played Kim and Jonathan Pryce played The Engineer. They both were awarded the Olivier Award and the Tony Award for their performances. In the 2017 revival, Eva Nobelzada (who is currently in Hadestown) played Kim and Jon Jon Briones played The Engineer.

Musical staging and choreography for this production is by Bob Avian, who collaborated with Michael Bennett on A Chorus Line, Dreamgirls and more. He was the original choreographer of Miss Saigon.

Laurence Connor is the director of this production, as he was of the revival. He was also the director for new productions of Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera.

It should be noted that Michael Mahler is also credited with additional lyrics.

For tickets at the Pantages go here.

Tickets at Segerstrom Hall had not gone at sale at press time.

Main Photo: Anthony Festa & Emily Bautista in “Miss Saigon” (Photo by Matthew Murphy)

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If you have children you might know Lea Salonga from her work as the voice of Jasmine in Disney’s animated film Aladdin or the voice of Fa Mulan in Disney’s Mulan. If you are a theatergoer, you might know her from her Broadway debut in Miss Saigon as Kim (for which she won a Tony Award) or from her two stints in Les Misérables or for the musical Allegiance. Recently she appeared in the Tony Award-winning revival of Once On This Island.

Lea Salonga returns Wednesday & Thursday to The Soraya for two concerts where she will celebrate her life and her film and stage career. Just as she does in this medley she performed Live at 54 Below in New York in 2016.

In 2017 she released Blurred Lines, an album that found Salonga performing songs by The Beatles, Rodgers & Hart, The Gershwins, John Legend, Pharrell Williams and more. Like the clip above, it was recorded live at 54 Below.

Which is to say, the best way to experience Lea Salonga is live and in person. She’s previously played one night concerts at The Soraya. This is her first two-night engagement at the venue in Northridge.

You can safely assume her set list will now include a song or two from Once on This Island where she played The Goddess of Love.

The only available tickets at press time for the May 22nd performance are re-sale tickets. You can find them here.

For tickets for the May 23rd performance (and there are very few left) can be found here.

Main Photo by Luis Luque/Courtesy of The Soraya

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In the opera, an American naval officer (Peter Lake) falls in love with a Japanese girl (Keiko Clark.) They get married and he returns to America. She is desperately in love with him and is pregnant. He continues his life in America until circumstances require he return, with his American wife, to Japan.  If the story sounds familiar, but you’ve never attended the opera, you might have seen it as the foundation for the musical Miss Saigon.

Puccini wrote this opera, with his librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, in Italian. A language neither the American officer nor the Japanese girl would natively sing. Pacific Opera Project has reworked the opera so that the native languages of the characters are being sung. So how do these two communicate their love and troubles to one another?

Shaw has cast Japanese-American artists for all the appropriate roles – including the chorus. The English speaking characters will also sing in English.

This production is co-financed with Houston’s Opera in the Heights where performances begin there on April 26th.

Read our interview with Josh Shaw here.

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