The show’s creative team also created a lane for Lee to bring up any concerns with the show’s material or triggers that came up. Instead of accepting her resignation outright, the show’s creative team informed her that they had discussions about her role in the show and that, instead of stifling the musical, her participation could actually expand the show’s reach. The show’s earliest incarnation was about a cast of seven gay, Black men, something that Lee no longer felt aligned to as she became more public about her gender.īut, when Lee informed the show’s creative team of her decision, their response surprised her. “I felt like this was not a story that I needed to be telling,” said Lee.Īt one point, Lee was prepared to pull out of A Strange Loop, believing it would be mutually beneficial for the show and herself if she stepped back. But, as Lee transitioned during the development of the show, she “started to feel less and less like this was a space that I belonged”.
Lee has been with A Strange Loop since 2015, when Jackson first messaged her via Facebook about reading for the project. She starred in a workshop production of a musical version of The Danish Girl in the UK and as Paula Maxa in the musical Maxa: The Maddest Woman in the World, which is also in development. Since then, the work she has felt most connected to came after her transition, which took place during Lee’s tenure in A Strange Loop: “The minute I was honest with the world about who I am, all of a sudden, it’s as if the world began to see me,” said Lee. Being a performer, being an actor, in some form or fashion, always felt like it was at my core.”Īmid a slew of roles that didn’t connect with Lee, she says a scene she did in college (she attended Philadelphia’s University of the Arts as a musical theatre major), where she played the character Clare in Jean Genet’s Maids, left her feeling more confident about her ability to act and do work that felt truthful: “That was like one of the first pieces of scene work I got to touch where I felt like the pieces all fit together.” “I knew that things were not aligned the way they were supposed to be,” said Lee regarding her gender identity.īut, with her early gravitation towards performance, Lee says she was innately attracted to acting, even though her earliest roles didn’t line up with what she wanted to play: “Being a trans woman, there is sort of this element of ‘things felt right’. Reflecting back, Lee says that since childhood, despite a fairly happy upbringing, she knew that “something wasn’t quite right”. James Jackson Jr, Jason Veasey, Michael Lyles, Jaquel Spivey, L Morgan Lee, Andrew Morrison and Antwayn Hopper in A Strange Loop. You were already attuned to sort of breaking gender barriers.” “Like, you were in preschool and they had you in hair and makeup before you understood everything for your own self. “In some ways, I look back now and sort of chuckle to myself,” recounts Lee with a laugh. Her first public performance was in pre-school, where she participated in a nursery school talent show singing Karma Chameleon by Culture Club. “I have been performing in some form or fashion since I was in a crib,” said Lee. Lee also takes on a number of other characters, swinging from a sympathetic theater-goer who listens to Usher’s despondency to Usher’s brother’s on-and-off girlfriend named Rafiki. Lee plays Thought 1 (AKA the overseer of Usher’s sexual ambivalence), one of six, personified thoughts swirling around Usher’s jam-packed head. In A Strange Loop, Usher, a Black, queer, fat theater usher, attempts to write a musical about a Black, queer, fat man writing a musical about a Black, queer, fat man, and so forth. She figured if she didn’t receive a nomination, she could catch an extra hour of sleep and go about her day. Lee had originally planned to not watch the Tony nomination broadcast, but her own anxiety ultimately forced her to watch the announcements on her phone, in bed. “The thing that I always thought was impossible growing up suddenly, is sitting in front of me.” “For this to happen, the opportunity to be one of those beautiful women in that space, it just puts me in disbelief,” said Lee to the Guardian in a video interview.