0:00
My name is Michael R. Jackson and I'm Tony nominated for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score for a Musical
0:12
It's Tony Day, Michael. How do you feel? I feel excited to be here
0:18
It's such a journey you have been on with this show. I mean, Broadway was a dream at some point, but no one knew the journey the show was going to take, did they
0:26
Well, actually, Broadway wasn't really a dream for me. Because I, for many years, was ushering at the New Amsterdam Theatre for Lion King and Mary Poppins and later Aladdin
0:35
And I sort of had thought, watching those shows, I was like, that's not what I do
0:41
And so I just assumed there was no place on Broadway for someone writing something like what I had written
0:47
So when we got Player's Horizons, I was like, for me, that would have been like the pinnacle
0:52
So to sort of be able to go to the main stem is like a new dream come true or like an unexpected dream come true
0:59
Well, let's talk about this dream, because you are touching audience, the show, touching the hearts and souls of so many people
1:06
It's saving lives. I mean, what it means to you to be introducing your show to a Broadway audience
1:13
It's really exciting for me to talk to people after the shows and they tell me what it means to them and how it touches them and makes them feel
1:21
And that makes me feel good because I wrote the show from a place of being like a very young person who was not sure of his place in the world
1:28
who felt unheard, who felt misunderstood and wanted to sort of clear the record for just what it felt like to walk in a skin like mine
1:38
And so for that story to resonate with so many different people, I often say that for some people, the show feels like a mirror
1:46
Like they'll say, I've never felt so seen before. This is my story. I'm a fat black gay man or something of the sort
1:53
And then other people will say, I'm not a fat black gay man. And yet I feel seen and I really resonate with the thoughts of sort of with my thoughts, you know, invading my mind and telling me negative things about myself
2:06
And that for those people, the show is a window and that the show can be a mirror and a window in the theater at the same time to me as a testament to the power of theater and musical theater in particular
2:16
And so I feel really excited to have sort of tapped into the form of musical theater, which is so powerful and can deliver that to people
2:26
Numerous nominations, like a nomination day where you're all like, oh, my gosh
2:30
Yeah, yeah. I don't I don't know what I thought. I thought, you know, I don't know what I thought we would or wouldn't get, but I certainly didn't anticipate that number
2:40
So that's really exciting. And you bring a Tony pin. Yes. I love it. Going to wear it forever
