Video: Alex Joseph Grayson Digs Deep Into His Complex PARADE Character

Welcome to Backstage with Richard Ridge

We're here at Rick Miramantez's Atelier at Civilian, and I'm sitting with one of the season's greatest breakout stars, Alex Joseph Grayson, from Parade

Okay, you are co-starring now in one of the biggest hits in town Parade

How excited are you? I'm very excited. I mean, it's a lot of fun to go to the Jacobs Theater every day and create and be a storyteller with so many amazing artists

And I'm having a blast. Okay, take me back to the beginning. Like, when this was first announced parade at City Center for Encores, were you like, oh, I'm going to go in for this

Did you know the show? So I knew the show because I actually saw a close friend of mine in a production in upstate New York

The music is beautiful and it's a tough story because it's a true story

It's a court case that really hasn't been resolved. I don't think anyone has gotten justice that was involved in this case, this murder

But the music is so beautiful, Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Yuri

and it just opens up your heart. And I think it really puts the audience in this position of true vulnerability

So that's why we always see these tears at the end of the show. I mean, everybody's in tears at the end

But I think it's worth people's time. It's an important story. And people should hurry and get there before August 6th

Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to get a ticket to parade. I mean, it's one of the biggest hits in town, which is really exciting

It is exciting. Yeah. So take me back. So when you found out you were cast in this. Yes

Like, do you remember your call when you're like, yes, you're going to be gym? Yeah, well, you know, it's funny

It was, it was a tricky time because when the show was announced, it was, I didn't even think of it as something I could do because I was doing Into the Woods on Broadway

And we didn't have, it was a limited run, but then we got extended and we didn't know how long we were going to be there

And being an understudy or swing, you really have a lot of responsibility to the show

because if somebody else goes out, they need you. So it was a tricky navigation of seeing

if I was going to be able to get away for that week. It was right in the middle of our Into the Woods run

So there was a moment. I had gone through my audition process. I heard from the director that I was like the first choice

which is unheard of. That's not a normal thing to hear as an actor, but I had worked with Michael on a previous production

Michael Arden. Michael Arden. Yeah, we did once on this, Island on tour, which was a great experience

But there was a short amount of time where I was like, oh no, am I going to lose this

opportunity because I'm already working? Like, I mean, it's a great problem to have

But this show is so special and so important, but it worked out

And it was because of some very generous people that I was working with and people that

really believed in me and wanted to invest in me being a storyteller in this process

and when I found that I was doing it, I was just over the moon. So at City Center, Jason Robert Brown conducted the show

He did. What was that like for you? It was really, really cool

I met him for the first time, actually, in the audition room, my first in-person audition

And, you know, that sounds kind of wild, but now I'm just so used to being in these musical theater auditions for Broadway

And you walk in there, and you're like, okay, I'm. I know my song. I know the lines

I'm going to make these choices. And you walk in the room. And it's like, hey, I'm Jason Alexander

I was like, okay, I didn't prepare for that. Okay, nice to meet you

Back to being an actor. But that was sort of the Jason Robert Brown meeting

But he was super cool and super chill. Not a lot of pretense

He's just like, let's do the thing. I want to hear you sing the song

And now at this point, I've been in New York for almost eight years. I recognize a lot of the faces in the room, so I had a lot of other familiar faces, and in addition to that, Jason Robert Brown

So we met there. He apparently really liked the work that I did because I got the job

And then to have him conduct at City Center, it was awesome because we were telling the story with one of the creators

And, you know, he kind of downplayed his ability to conduct the score that he wrote

But he did a really great job. and his wife Georgia was there for part of the process

and even now she comes in and Jason comes in to visit Georgia will play the piano from time to time

so it's a family affair yeah it's great so you sang Jim's big number yes

for Jason Robert Brown yes yes I sang both of the songs that I sing in the audition so it had a little daunting right

were the voices in your head or no you're like no I'm just gonna do it I you know I think because I'm a person that

It learns by ear. I spend a lot of time with the studio recording

but I love to sing, and it's something that I've been doing my whole life. So I actually find a bit of ease

when I'm able to enter an audition process and sing a song

because that's just like sharing part of myself. So it just really felt like an honor to be able to do it

What's it like living in his score and singing those songs that you do each night in parade

Well, I find myself in this production where actors who are not involved in the scene proper are still on stage observing, I find myself having to say, Alex, don't hum, don't hum along with this. I know the songs are pretty, but you're an observer, you're here on stage, or just be a listener, be an active listener. It's beautiful. It's beautiful music. And I cheer for my castmates when they come off stage because it's

They're just beautiful performances and beautiful songs. It's a privilege. Talk about working with your director, Michael Arden

Michael Arden. Okay. Michael Arden, I hope that everybody gets a chance to work with Michael Arden

because I think that there's not really anybody better at creating moving paintings

living paintings on stage. And what I will say now having worked with him twice is that you can really see what the audience is seeing as somebody who on stage He creates an image for the viewer much like a book is written for the reader

It's the characters, the players inside don't have the same awareness. And I wish I could watch the show because it has a completely different effect

he leaves a lot of room for the actor to fill in that painting

and to work on the internal stuff, which I really like. It's not about doing this specific thing

and he trusts the artists that he works with. And that extends to backstage

technical design lighting. He has a group of people that he loves to work with

over and over again that are really talented that he trusts, and it shows up in

all of his projects. Yeah. Yeah. You take us on such a wonderful journey with what you do in this show

And I wonder, when you see how you're affecting an audience, what that means to you

I keep saying privilege, but I feel like it's just a privilege to share, I think a gift

that's been given to me to be a storyteller, to be a performer

It's something that I've always been doing, trying to find an audience and express myself in some way

And, you know, this is the largest one and the most consistent audience that I've had

And it just, it's a gift that I'm passing along. I will say what I'm doing doesn't really come from me

I'm very much a conduit for this text, for the behavior and way of living that I've picked up from my varied experience in life

I'm just filtering it through. So I'm just thankful for the opportunity to share that

This show touches so many people in so many ways, and it's such a relevant story for today

Just talk about meeting some of the fans afterwards or what you've heard about what

this show means to them? I mean, tears, literal tears at the end of every show

And it's a moment, there's a wow factor to that because my process in

I come in with a lot of joy. I come in really feeding off

of this sense of community that we have as actors. And singing this beautiful music

and enjoying it and enjoying playing off of other actors that are doing so many amazing things and making so many amazing choices

But in being true storytellers, it's a difficult story, you know. And there are difficult truths

And then being confronted with those emotions, it's just, I'm often in disbelief

even at this point in the run, that I can have such a profound effect on somebody else

It's moving. It is moving. See, I love, you don't have the typical history of someone starting in musical theater

I mean, you were a military brat, right? Yes, I was, yes. For all those years, right

Yes. Yeah. I was born in Watertown, New York, because my parents were up

My mother was involved in the Army Reserves. So she would go to Fort Drum, which is nearby for her weekend training

And I think she was working as a dental hygienist at the time, or she was

dental hygienist assistant. I'm not sure I'll check in on that with her later

And my dad was actually, he had been discharged from the army, but he was working as a prison

guard at Attica, so he would commute. And they separated when I was very young, but we were up there

until about 1996. My mom got mobilized by the army and sent to Germany. And shortly after that

I went to Germany for a little bit with her. And then we came back to Georgia. And I

ended up around the Athens area, University of Georgia, that area until my freshman year of high school

And then kind of moved back up to upstate New York and then left the country for a bit

I started college in the Philippines actually for aeronautical engineering, believe it or not

So just all over the place and in that time not really knowing like what I wanted to do for

a career very much just sort of like on this ride that I didn't really have a choice in

But what I was doing was observing people trying to figure out how to navigate new social circles, understand hierarchies where the power lies, how to sort of protect myself emotionally, not get bullied and all those things

And I ended up in a place of like realizing, okay, if I'm a bit of a clown, if I'm a bit of a performer, it almost overwhelms people

with stimulus in a way that they're never going to have any energy to sort of come at me with

anything negative. So it's sort of a survival mechanism. I feel like I'm giving away too much

of myself here. But in that, it's really the work of the actor. I mean, you're, there's some

exhibitionism to that. And it wasn't until 2009 when I was in upstate New York

Western New York, Batavia, to be exact, that while I was playing in the church band at the Catholic

church that I was attending, one of the kids that was doing music with me suggested that I auditioned

for the community theater. They did a production of Jesus Christ Superstar that year, and I just

showed up, and I can't remember what song I sang for the audition, but they picked me up right

away. I think they needed more guys, as they usually do, and that was my first show. I loved it. I did three more

shows with that community theater, Batavia Players, to be exact. We did The Whiz

I did a play. I can't remember the name of the play. And around the same time, I was working as a

nursing assistant. And I had just gone to trade school at the time

just to do something. I was in between. And then I enrolled in the

community college, in the area, took an acting class, and that changed

my life I was like no that what I This is what I am I an actor I need to commit myself and devote my life to telling stories in this way

doing something that feels natural to me that I've been doing for my whole life

And it's been working out. And I've run into so many amazing people that have guided me

so many amazing artists that have been inspirational. and I'm just lucky to have the right people support me

You have this God-given voice. Where did you know you could sing like that

You know, I think it started as making noise. And I was an only child for like most of my childhood

I've got some siblings, but my mother's only child, and my dad has five kids

So when I was living with my mom, I was like, It was me

So I was like playing with my toys and giving them voices and we're doing epic battles

And then repeating what I heard on the radio. And we listened to so many different things

We're listening to R&B and rock and roll. So I thank my parents for like very diverse musical influences

And I was just repeating the sounds that I heard. And I was the kid that had to be told to be quiet

But I was never told you can't do anything. So I think that's what it is

And then I ran into a really great voice teacher when I was in school. Dr. Alexander Hurd, who taught at SUNY Fredonia

and he equipped me with some great technique to protect my voice

to put me in position to do eight shows a week. And I've just kind of kept going

and I don't really limit myself to one style. And people seem to like it

Yeah. There's always that one teacher or somebody that you meet along the way. Yeah

Like the doctor, your voice teacher, who says, you can do this, and this is how you can do this

Yes. Yes. All right, so your first show, you got to New York, what was your first show here

My first show in New York? Well, you did the tour. You got the tour of Once I'm Asylum, right

Yeah, so my first professional job was actually with the Walt Disney Company. I worked on Disney Cruise Line

I was hired as the Lion King Singer, and, you know, they do a bunch of shows

You do a show every night on the cruise ship. You do it twice, and they're usually like 30 to 45 minutes

And that was like boot camp for musical theater because I didn't really have dance experience

but you had to dance in the shows. And it was great because they had a very high standard

of professionalism. And I got to travel, and it also gave me enough money to move here

And shortly after that, I got my first sublet, and I started going to auditions all the time

But the first show I did in New York was a fringe show with very talented Luis Salgado

It was called Zucati Park, about the wall street, sort of, it was like a sit-in thing

So we did that. And then my first Broadway show was a Bronx tale, the musical

And I was lucky to work with Chas Palmetry. He came in and played the lead role at the time

So that was awesome. I was a swing in that show. Did the tour of Once on This Island

Now, you met your wife to be. on the tour of Once on Asylum

We met in rehearsal. Okay. Yes. It wasn't love at first sight, was it

Well, she would say that. But I always thought that she was an amazing person

and I always felt like, oh wow, this is a really cool woman

I thought she was super talented and funny, but I think that the way that our energy goes together

you know, she interpreted that in a different way than I did. But I was always a huge fan of hers

hers as a person yeah okay so during COVID you're all locked away somewhere was

it Nashville so we started in Paducah Kentucky which is her hometown actually

where the Carson Center is yeah so we had actually gone to Paduca to tech once

on this island and we ended up there and we got all the way to Vegas on the

tour in March we shut down and we were dating at that point and she said well

hey I'm going back to Paducah because my parents were there. I'm not going to stay with my parents. I'm going to stay in an Airbnb. Do you want to come

And I was like, I mean, I don't have an apartment in New York right now. I got rid of that for the

tour. So it was like, yeah. And we were there for like five months. And then we decided, hey

let's get out of this town. There's not really anything going on here right now. In Paducah

And we moved to Nashville. And that's where we were for the bulk of the pandemic

And we just, we made a home there. And I built a recording studio in the, and I built a recording studio in

in our laundry room, and we just made it work until things started to come back and

we came back to New York. We were originally going to get married in Nashville

Who proposed to whom? She proposed to me, believe it or not

Over a crock pot or something? Over a crock pot, yes, yes. Yeah, it was just one of those pandemic days and we're making some food

and I think I was just checking on the status of the food

and she walked into the kitchen. I don't know where she was at that time

emotionally or mentally, but she felt strongly enough to ask me to marry her at that moment

And I felt strongly enough about her to say yes. I was unprepared, but I said yes

Over the crock pot. Yeah, and, you know, it was worth it

Yeah. Could you just got married? What a year this has been for you. It's been a great year

Yeah. So the wedding just happened, right? Well, of course it is because you have to, you know, open on Broadway

Sure. Eight shows a week. Yes. Plan and produce a wedding. Yes

Yes. Do you get married in Central Park? We got married in Central Park in the conservatory garden

And it was beautiful. We didn't know what the weather would be, but it, you know, it just kind of turned out

Everybody showed up. It was wonderful. You were like, let's just go for it. Yeah

Just plan an outdoor wedding. Yeah, and she was beautiful. and our friends and family

They were beautiful and so supportive. And it was quick. It was in and out

30 minutes. And then we went down to Soho for the reception

Yeah. At karaoke at the reception. It's great. I love karaoke. Everybody sang

Not everybody sang. We didn't have enough time for everybody to sing. But the people who needed to sing, sang a song

Okay. Do you favorite karaoke song that you do? I actually didn do it at that event But one of my favorites is Lips of an Angel by Hinder It from the early 2000s a deeper cut

And I also love Kiss from a Rose by Seal. Nice. Do you two ever duet at karaoke night

Oh, yes. Yes, and we sang a duet at the wedding reception

What you're saying? We sang Speechless by Dan and Shay. Nice. A little country

So everybody got a show too. Yes. Which I think is great

So your wife now is in Shucked. She's in Shucked on Broadway. Yes, she's a swing in that show

All right, so that must be wild too. I mean, you know, I love the job of a swing because you have like five or six tracks that you have to keep in your head, right? Yeah

Sometimes more. Okay, so in Into the Woods, how many tracks did you have to keep in your head? I covered four

So who did you cover? I covered Jack, Rapunzel's Prince, milky white and Cinderella's father

So, I mean... It's a nice blend. It is a nice blend and apparently there was no age limit on any of those

Did you go on for all of them? Who'd you go on for? The only role I didn't go on for was Milky White. Okay

Yes. Which I'm okay with. That's totally. Yes. But you all hung out there was like an understudy stand-by room downstairs at the theater, right? Yes

Okay. So, we didn't have dressers. rooms and that was just, that was the situation

And for that reason, they put us in the orchestra pit. And the orchestra was on stage

That's right. And we were like, okay, this is not ideal. So we kind of just fixed it up

Yeah. We put some lights up and we spread all the equity cots around

We lined them up. It felt like a college dorm. And we would just hang out there

It was really fun. We would play games. We could watch the show through the conductor monitor

because that was still plugged up in the orchestra pit. And it was great

We had a great time, and we could always hear the show because you're right under the wood of the stage

So whenever Patina would come out, there were multiple witches, but there was something about Patina Miller's witch

where she would really bang that staff really hard. And we knew that moment was coming

so we'd kind of be like, okay, here comes Patina. Do do, do, do. But it was so great

And a master class in musical theater performance every night. I met Cheyenne Jackson in the rehearsal room singing Agony with him

That was how I met him. It was like, hi, I'm Alex, I'm Cheyenne Jackson

Okay, let's do agony. Okay, great. That's a great way to meet somebody

Let's just sing. Yes. Sondheim. Yes. But I understand, I knew your room downstairs

That was the coolest room. Everybody wanted to come into your, the understudy standby room

Oh, yeah. Everybody wanted to hang out in your room. Yeah, it was cozy. Yeah. Great vibes

It was awesome. Who was the first person you went on for in the show? What was the first one? The first role I went on for was Jack

Okay. And they, you know, that was sort of my biggest role that I covered

So I had been prioritizing that, which was great. So I was off book, but it was like a matter of learning the blocking and where you fit

That's always the trickiest part, I think, as. an understudy just knowing where you are in the big sort of dance numbers there

wasn't really a big dance number but you know there's traffic and you don't want to

run into anyone so I went on for that the very first week we we had a lot of

COVID cases but I went on and it was fun and I got like 10 shows in a row

it was great how cool is it for both of you your wife's doing shocked you're

doing parade I mean this is like you just got married I mean everything it's just

It's got to be like this ideal life you have now. I mean, it's how many people dream of

Yeah. Like, will I ever be on Broadway? Like, you know. It's wild to think of

And it's very, it's very busy. But they're, you know, when you're inside of it, you're like, okay, so I'm going to work today

Okay, it's going to be a long day. I'm not going to have time to come home at all

But sometimes we get to commute together. We get off at the same train stop

She's a couple blocks over. We can meet up between shows. There are really cool things that happen when you're on Broadway

Reba McIntyre came to see Shuck, and she's like an idol of my wife

Like a huge inspiration. My wife was a competition country singer in high school

I don't know if you know that. And she's from Kentucky. So like country music is her thing

So that was a big deal for her. And, you know, go into the red carpet things

in the opening nights, it's really cool and it's fun. Yeah. Yeah

One of my final questions is, I mean, you are sharing the stage with some incredible cast members, Ben Platt, Michaela Diamond

What is it like sharing the stage with them in this beautiful show? It's amazing

You know, they're so wonderful in the roles that they play. And it's great to see the process and to see how things shift

and grow and how everybody in the in the company sort of economizes the the

movement and time and the space that they have because you know it's like it

becomes muscle memory but finding how people sustain it is one of the most

impressive things yeah yeah well finally you're giving one of the the greatest

breakout performances this season with what you do in parade what has

made being a part of parade so special for you. Gosh, I think just having the responsibility

of telling an important story that I think is necessary for Americans right now to just take a

truthful look at where we are and take a step away from sort of

of the ideals that we have about being Americans and challenging people

I think it's a huge responsibility and it's tricky. It's not easy all the time, but I'm grateful for that opportunity, for it mattering, for

what I'm saying, having meaning and worth. I'm just thankful for that

This has been wonderful. Thank you. Welcome back to Broadway. Thanks. You know