Tony Nominee Ruben Santiago-Hudson Opens Up About Making History with LACKAWANNA BLUES

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

I am sitting with another one of my favorite people who work in the theater, not only as an actor, but as a director

And he has nominated this year for Best Actor in a Play for his incredible performance in La Cautauna Blues, which of course he also wrote

It is good to see you, my friend. It's good to be here. It's good to be. You don't have a colored one, though. They've got to get you to color one

I need the other one, like I said. But like I said, I like to keep all these things. You know how it is

These are, you know, it has been so great to go back to a theater

You were one of the first shows to open where we could sit in a house, get a playbill, sit, watch the lights go down

What did it mean to you to be a part of this season? The season that brought Broadway back

It was reciprocated because, you know how it felt for me to walk on that stage and be welcomed by an eager audience who were just anxious and excited to be back in the theater

and to experience this common experience together, this social experience and interaction

I walked out, I mean, before I walked out, when they started clapping forever, before I can even come out, I said, wow, they really want to be here

And the only thing that could top that is how bad I wanted to be there. And I don't know if it could top it, but I met them

You know, so it meant a lot, you know. It was a sacrifice to put my play up early because I knew that I would be facing a fearful

audience as far as they wouldn't come in the masses initially and that I would see something

that I hadn't seen in the history of Lackawanna Blues, which would be empty. seats and I did see those. We did everything in our power to make sure that there weren't too many

And eventually, there were not many because, you know, with all of the problems I'd had with my

back and stuff, then the audience, as soon as I got momentum, then I stopped momentum, then I had to

build it again. But when I built it up again, it was ridiculously beautiful. Because everybody who

came early on wanted to be there. And like I said, you were one of the first shows to open where

people like, I don't know if I want to go back. I don't really know, but you know, you brought so much

joy to so many people, because I saw your show early on, and I went back to see your show

And it was just to watch, the great thing about watching your show was the young audience that was

there. You brought a lot of young theater audiences for maybe the first time that was seeing a show

what that meant to you of introducing a whole new audience to the theater. It was very important. The lifeblooded the theater is human beings walking into the theater

So there's no theater without a wide out of performance and an audience. And this audience who have been so supportive of theater for decades and decades are now saying it's harder to get here

So who is going to carry the mantle? Who's going to carry the torch from here

And it's like it's the younger people. And particularly in the BIPOC community, those kids who cannot afford to get in

And MTC has a great educational program where they bring in a lot of students

And a lot of the not-for-profits do. So, you know, I'm adamant about it

Dominique is adamant about it when we did Skeleton Crew. We wanted the next generations to know that there's some ownership in this thing called theater and art that you are worthy, that there are people that look like you up there, people that matter to you up there and not just entertainment but enlightenment

And so it meant a lot to bring the young people. But, you know, a big thing, though, Richard, I have to tell you, the amount of single ticket buyers that came to see Lackawanna Blues overwhelmed the subscribers

I'm looking at everybody. So you go to a not-for-profit, you've got the subscribers. They're going to come big time

They did not come big time. 90% of my tickets coming in for a long time were people who just came up and said

I here to see Lackawanna Blues and that guy whatever his name is I want to see that And it set the path open for Skeleton Crew Yeah

What did you enjoy the most this time around with Lackawanna Blues

What I enjoyed the most is I was in a real funk from the pandemic

And what seemed to give me the most joy was all of a sudden I was enraptured by not only an audience

but by a spirit and a soul that was Nanny and all these people that said

junior we got you we got you little fellow you know we're with you

you will not fail you will not fall and we love you and so I not only

got the love from the people out front which which was overwhelming but I got the love

from spiritually from my life and people in my life that made me

because what inspired you originally to write this I don't think you and I have spoken about

this well I had been telling the story forever because you know people never believed that I lived in a room and house

and that these people this man with a tongue this man with no fingers, this man with one, no leg

And they would be like, yeah, Rubin, yeah, Rubin, yeah, Rubin. And so it was just always fun telling it

And after a while I was missing Nanny so much, she died in 1989, and it was like 1999

And I was saying, I miss her so much. And I was telling the story to John Diaz

And he was like, at the public, and he was like, we got to go talk to George

This is a play. You know, and he said, why would you want to write the play, Ruben? I said, I don't want anybody ever forget Nanny

Or the women like Nanny, or the men like Nanny, or the people, the human beings that fortified what it meant to be human

that gave everything of themselves to make sure you had something. And I didn't want people to forget them, but personally and selfishly was Nanny

And I wanted to write this love letter. So when I'm gone, somebody can pick that up and say, wow, there was this lady that lived and helped and made something out of this little boy

And he went out. the only reason, well not the only reason, but a big reason I'm successful

is because I never wanted to let her down. I never wanted to fail because I wanted to make her proud

Yeah. Because not only you're up for best actor, but you play dozens of characters

in this show. This is what I love about your show. You know, one person's shows, I spoke

to Vanessa Redgrave about this and many others, and she said early on

because the toughest thing was being in the rehearsal room when it's only your director, and you're

sitting there and you either get a lot or you don't get a laugh, and you can't time the show, really

So she would put up cutouts of people that she could look at in different areas

like when she would tell a story. So early on for you, I mean, was it challenging for you to write this and then present it

Yeah, of course. I mean, it's challenging whatever I do. Yeah. When I do Leontes and Winters' Tales is challenging

Whatever I do is challenging Cainwell and Seven guitars. But it's a different challenge because I have responsibilities in three areas

and I have to protect those three areas and singularly, with those areas at times, which seemed like schizophrenic, but I would say, I'm the writer

Look at this the way the writer has to look at it and take notes from the director

Okay, I'm the director. But my good audience is, you know, Gabriel Vega Wiseman, who was my associate on it, and Bill Sims, Jr

When he was here, you know, they were the best audience in the world because Bill would, like, almost fall out of his chair at certain things

Because he knew these people as well as I did. He's from Marion, Ohio. Bill would know every story and would have a story similar from his hometown

And Gabriel was like this young, exciting, excitable young director who was like, wow, wow, wow, and just fell in love with it

So I had a great audience and plus you know I tickle myself sometime you know when you came to see the place sometimes I get tickled Because I start remembering you know opposed to being inside the story where I was a scared little boy watching this man with the keys go crazy and break up everything in the house where I scared it going to kill Nanny That was a different feeling My feeling now is on the outside saying Nanny had this thing the whole time when she sat him down and say here he just going to brunt up all that noise This is not me being

Being an incredible writer, it's having an incredible memory. Yeah. And being able to make it poetic, being able to make it theater

August Wilson did the same thing with his work. He took black life and made it theater and made it poetic

Broke it down structurally, broke it down, dynamically, broke it down technically

and made our lives of people of color poetry. Yeah. And theater

And so that's what I had to do with Laquana Blues. But I had John Diaz initially as my dramature, George Wolf was the producer

you know, Loretta Greco was directing at the time. So I had a great team around me

And then once I took it over, you know, once I had built myself up as a director

and said, well, I got a higher director. And I was thinking, thinking and a little birdie told me that wasn't me the birdie

It was somebody very close to me. He said, you like one of the finest directors out there

Could you do it? And I'm like, well, I got to figure out how to do that

So Gabriel walked my paces. Once he saw me do it, he memorized everything I did

and he would just walk. The way I sit down, the way I'd get up, when I move. And I'd be doing lines, you know, 1956

No, move. No, no, no, Gabe, on four. Get to that chair at four. 1956, like one of blues, you know, and then he was like, that's it

Lift it easy. I said, turn that corner. Don't rush. Turn the corner, realize, see something

So I'm teaching him as I'm going along. Then once he did it, and my designers could put the sound

and light to it. Then I saw it. Then I would, we would talk, me and Jen or Carnahan

whoever, and then I would walk on stage, you know, Darren, and I would just walk on stage and

trust them. Wow. You know, because they would show it to me with Gabe, and then I'd say

we had to make this adjustment, too much red there, just a touch. What color is blue? Too deep blue

Go to blue six. No, blue seven. Keep it there. Then I would go on stage and trust that they did

it. And they did it. That's amazing. Yeah. So, well, this, this is, this is

This is the thing that sometimes, I have to stop some time and get away from that thought

but I did something that never had been done on Broadway. Never

White, black, otherwise, the Barry Moore's or whoever. No one has ever written, directed, and starred in a play on Broadway, ever

And I ain't heard a word about it. That's history. That's history

And so my wife said, don't say this. that because then it'd be like you're tooting your own horn

I said it is to a certain degree, but I want us as theater historians

and theater people to take notice when things change. When things move forward in a different way

when Gidney was on Broadway, it was the first time a writer wrote

10 plays and all 10 were produced. Now people have written 40 plays and

14 were produced, but no one's written 10 and batted a thousand

Did we make that acknowledgement? So we have to acknowledge these things, and it even means it has even greater impact when it's BIPOP people who have been on the periphery, who have not had access

So for us to break that wall down and for me to do this and it be forgotten And somewhere in the history book some kids will look up and say I going to do this It never been done Somebody said well Ruben Sondack Watson did it in you know

in 2021. But I just wanted to, I wanted people to know that that happened

whether they acknowledge me or not, I want people to know that something new happened. What does this Tony nomination mean to you

Like I said, this is the first season. You helped bring Broadway back. This will never happen again the way this happened this year

What does this mean to you? I'm exceedingly happy that my work is acknowledged because my work was not work of entertainment

but in recollection and enlightenment of the lives of those people who get pushed away

So for people to say that's valuable, when they give you a Tony, Nam, they say that mattered to us

That was one of the best we saw. and for people to give credence and give credit to these salt of the earth people

these blue-collar hard work, people said, that's worthy theater. It means a lot to me

But, you know, I've been in a game now over four decades here in New York

and it's like I look around and see these incredible artists that don't have the luxury of being on Broadway or being noticed or getting

it's almost expected in my house with my kids, you know, I said, did you watch the nomination

No, we know you're going to get. No, it's not because they come and see it and they figure that work, plus they're my kids

You know, and my wife and everybody, they almost take it for granted. And I say, you can never take it for granted because there's so many people that are as worthy as I am that didn't get the nod

But this year, to see those seven black plays open up Broadway gave me so much hope. Yeah

Well, like I said, I could talk to you forever. Talk to me forever, man. Talk to me forever

I want to thank you for what you've done and what you do

And like I said, Lackawana Blues came at the most perfect time, and we were there at the beginning of it

You brought an audience back to the theater, and that was the most important thing. And you got to direct this season, too

Yeah, and I'd be remissive I didn't talk about skeleton crew. Skeleton crew

Let me explain this to you right quick. Just the music, what happened with the music would bust your brain over

I took four artists, stuck them in the room, pulled them together, and said

machine sounds, some auto factories, Rob Capulowitz. I want hip hop from

Detroit, Jimmy Keys. I want a beat boxer, a Chesney Snow, and I want a Desla to go in there and stand

with them and create this music to create, to show me where does machine

and man meet. And, I mean, people just thinking, man, grabbed this music and threw it in there

That music took weeks, and I'm in a rehearsal room rehearsing, and then I'd walk over

and say, let me hear it. And the desola would be in the corner doing his moves, and I would

Easy there, easy with that. Come in a little bit. I don't know what that job is, you just showed me

Got to be clear what you're doing. Now, it's not enough bottom on that

And Chesney, take some of the machines out. Chesney, give me more of this. The music is so intricate

It's so incredibly intricate. Just if people actually knew what happened, that might have had 27 nominations

But I love that crew and I miss that crew. And that was the ultimate joy

to be able to walk out of Lackawana Blues and then walk across. across the hall to another room, and those people would meet me there and give me all they had, you know

It was brilliant. I loved Skeleton crew. Skeleton crew, man. Anyway. I could talk to you forever, like I said, my friend. Congratulations on all of this

Ruebing, good to see you as always, my friend. Thank you. Thank you very much