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Meet the 2022 Tony Nominees: TROUBLE IN MIND's Chuck Cooper
May 17, 2024
Leading up to the 75th Annual Tony Awards, BroadwayWorld is getting up close and personal with the nominees. Today we're studying up on Chuck Cooper! 'I feel that [Alice Childress] was denied her due by her producers,' explained Chuck. 'Since that time, there has been a momentum and a karmic debt due to her to get her play to Broadway.'
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0:00
I'm Chuck Cooper. I'm nominated for Best Featured Actor in a Play for Alice Childress's Trouble in Mind
0:13
How exciting is it to say that? I know! Alice Childress play
0:17
Yeah, right, on the Broadway. Yeah? Like where she belonged like 50 years ago. Totally
0:23
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's way cool. It's exceedingly cool. So when you heard this nomination for this, what went through your mind
0:30
Well, dude, I totally forgot what day it was supposed to happen
0:36
It was supposed to happen like a week ago, and then it didn't happen. I'm like, okay, whatever
0:40
So I was out on my lake fishing, which I am wont to do
0:45
And I get my phone called, my phone rings, which is a little annoying when I'm fishing
0:52
But I saw that it was my agent, and I thought, oh, maybe I got a job, so I better pick up the phone
1:00
And they told me that I was nominated for a Tony for Trouble in Mind
1:07
And it was really cool, and we just laughed and had a wonderful conversation, and oh my God, and here I am
1:14
Did you stay fishing the rest of the day? Totally. Oh my goodness
1:20
The fish were biting on Topwater, which is a big deal. Which is a big deal for you. It's like, oh my God, Tony nomination, and I'm catching fish
1:26
Yes, yes. This was such an important play and such an important production
1:31
I mean, what it meant to you to be a part of this show? Yeah, yeah
1:38
Alice was supposed to be on Broadway almost 60 years ago. She would have been the first black playwright on Broadway
1:46
certainly the first black woman playwright on Broadway. And I feel that she was denied her due by her producers
1:55
who did to her what the director in the play that she wrote does to the character in the play
2:02
I can't believe they didn't see that they were doing that. But nevertheless, I feel that there was, since that time, there has been a momentum
2:12
a kind of a karmic debt that was owed to her for her play to come to Broadway
2:18
And that momentum has been building for the past 50 years. And I think that that wave crested and came to life with our production
2:32
Audiences fell in love with this play, especially young audience members. Wow, wow
2:37
So that must make you feel really wonderful. It always makes me feel wonderful when there are young people in the theater
2:42
It's so important, so important for everyone, but particularly for young people
2:49
You know, talking to LaChanze, we knew her, we fell in love with her as a musical theater star
2:54
The same way with you. And then you got to do plays
2:58
This was her first play. This was LaChanze's first play? Yeah, on Broadway. Huh
3:03
So what's it like? It must be, it's different. A play? Yeah
3:08
Oh, yeah. Okay. An actor once said, an actor who shall remain nameless, who you all know, but I'm not going to say his name
3:20
He once said to me, because he did musicals, you know. So he said, well, you know, when you're doing a musical, you have blah, blah, blah, song, blah, blah, blah, song
3:30
But when you do a play, all you have is blah, blah, blah
3:35
Yeah, but he didn't do musicals, right? No, he did musicals. He did new plays
3:40
All right. If you knew who it was, you'd go, oh, of course
3:46
You are wearing your Tony pin. Those are really cool. I am
3:50
I'm wearing my Tony pin, and I'm also wearing my Life pin. I love this
3:54
I got, Mighty Richards gave us these for opening night. And that's when you won your Tony Award for it
4:01
Yeah, I did win a Tony. Where does your Tony sit? It's on the fireplace in our little cabin. Okay
4:09
Out in the woods. And where do you keep all the nomination plaques? I think those are beautiful
4:13
We have an apartment in North Bergen, and we have the wall of, because my wife's a playwright, right
4:22
So all of our productions are up on, it's like a museum
4:26
It's like this big wall of picture cards, all our shows. We're running out of room
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