J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell appear to have made history Tuesday as the first openly nonbinary actors to be nominated for Tony Awards.
The two were nominated in the categories of best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical, in the case of Ghee for their role in Some Like It Hot, and best performance by an actor in a featured role in a musical, in the case of Newell for their role in Shucked. Newell uses all pronouns while Ghee uses he/they pronouns.
Both actors view the nominations Tuesday as a sign of progress in the industry, even as there is still a ways to go, as the Tony Awards categories remain gendered.
“It’s a step in the right direction, because there are so many gender non-conforming and nonbinary performers that might not ever get to shine because of these gendered categories,” Newell said.
“It’s such an honor. I just continue to live in the four-fold way of living. I show up, tell my truth in present and I’m not attached to the outcome. So I’m just honored that the work is speaking for itself and I’m so proud of the special show we’ve got going on at the Shubert,” Ghee said.
The nominations come after Justin David Sullivan, a nonbinary actor who plays a featured role in & Juliet chose to withdraw from Tony Awards consideration this season due to the gendered categories. The New York Times reported that Asia Kate Dillon, a nonbinary actor who appeared in Macbeth last season, had also withdrawn from consideration. Last year, Toby Marlow, the co-creator of Six, became the first openly nonbinary composer-lyricist in the show’s history to win for best original score.
In response to calls for change in the industry, several theater awards shows have opened up categories, with The Drama Desk Awards choosing to have gender-less categories this year, after the Lucille Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Awards made similar moves.
Newell chose to put themselves into Tony Awards consideration in the actor category because they viewed that as the most gender neutral term for their job, adding that there aren’t gendered terms for professions such as a doctor, for example.
Ghee similarly did not view the gendered categories as speaking for them.
“I’m always going to show up in the fullness of the human that I am and somebody else’s compartmentalization of that of me, doesn’t affect me,” Ghee said. “So I’m just walking in my truth and standing tall in that. I was confident that wherever you put me I will rise to the occasion.”
Newell received a nomination for best supporting actor in a musical for their role in Shucked, a musical comedy (and best musical nominee) about a small town whose corn crop has mysteriously died. Newell plays Lulu, a female whiskey business owner and wisecracking source of advice to her naive cousin Maizy, who is trying to save the town’s crop. In the role. Newell routinely gets a mid-act standing ovation for their high-belting rendition of “Independently Owned.”
“It’s wonderful. It’s cathartic, it’s fun, it’s sexy. It’s all the things that I ever wanted to see out of one character that looks like me,” Newell said of playing Lulu.
Ghee portrays the character of Jerry/Daphne in Some Like It Hot (another best musical nominee). At the beginning of the musical, Jerry, on the run from the mob, disguises himself as a woman, named Daphne, and then later finds joy and authenticity in that gender expression. Ghee has been developing the character since the musical’s first reading in 2019.
“It’s so special. I love the opportunity to be a mirror for people so that they can free themselves to see themselves in much bigger and different places than they ever imagined for themselves. And I think there’s a little Daphne in everybody. You’ve just got to give yourself that permission to be free,” Ghee said.
Both Newell and Ghee attended the Met Gala last night, and were able to catch up there ahead of the awards (Ghee then went on to perform with the cast of Some Like It Hot on the Today show Tuesday morning, where they found out about the nomination, in a whirlwind 24 hours). Newell has also seen Ghee in Some Like It Hot, and added that it was “one of the one of the most cathartic” performances they’ve seen on Broadway.
As for what they’d like to see from the Tony Awards going forward, Newell said this will likely involve a deep conversation, as they fear eliminating the gendered categories would mean cisgender white men “dominate the field.” Ghee is also hoping that the conversations continue.
“I hope to inspire more freedom, more space to free ourselves,” Ghee said. “Especially as an artistic industry, we limit ourselves far too often. And so there’s room to expand and continue to have conversations, which I’m grateful are being had and people are opening their eyes. So we’re moving in the right direction.”
