Interview: Ellis C. Dawson of SPAMALOT at THEATRE UNDER THE STARS
There's not a funnier spot than here in SPAMALOT!
BROADWAY WORLD writer Brett Cullum got to talk with Ellis C. Dawson. He's coming to Houston with a tour of Spamalot, sponsored by THEATRE UNDER THE STARS. It runs from April 15th through the 26th at the Hobby Center. It is a musical version of MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, and is likely one of the funniest shows that you will ever see.
Brett Cullum: So, welcome, Ellis, thank you for joining me to talk all things SPAMALOT. So, tell me, who do you play?
Ellis C. Dawson: I play a plethora of characters, actually, there are three. I play, mainly Sir Bedevere, but you meet me as Mrs. Galahad, Dennis' mother, who then turns into Sir Galahad. I also play the Concorde, which is Lancelot's Concorde, so… But you mostly see me as Sir Bedevere, but all of the knights we play multiple roles, which is very Monty Python-esque.
Brett Cullum: So tell me, Ellis, how did you end up in this show? Did you go through a normal audition process?
Ellis C. Dawson: I did, I did. Prior to booking the show, I was doing an out-of-town Broadway tryout of this show, called REGENCY GIRLS, directed by Josh Rhodes, at The Old Globe.
In that show, I was in the ensemble, and I understudied Nick Walker, who was Sir Galahad in the recent revival of SPAMALOT on Broadway. We were backstage, and Josh Rhodes directed SPAMALOT, and was going to direct us for. And we were backstage, and Nick said, “Hey, have you ever considered being in Monty Python’s SPAMALOT? And I was like, “I don't know if that's the show for me, but I'm open to it, and I didn't really think much of it, and I did the show, and I was hoping Josh liked me. He's really awesome, a great director. And then, a few months later, I got an appointment for the tour, and I was like, oh, okay. And then, yeah, and then a few callbacks later, I found out I booked the role, so never say never. Never say never. Prior to this, my last show was HAMILTON. I did HAMILTON for two and a half years, so very different. I never saw myself in this show. I'd never seen the movie! But I'm glad that Josh Rosen and the lead producer, Jeffrey Finn, decided to take a chance on me, and I got to learn a lot.
Out of the knights, I knew the least about Monty Python, so I had a lot of catching up to do. I was building the plane as I was flying it, but they were so gracious in helping me learn about the style of comedy that it is. But it is such a joy to do every night. It's really, really fun. And there's a lot of improv, so it's great to be a part of. I feel like it's a little bit of everything. There are a few highbrow jokes, there are some lowbrow jokes, there's some stuff in the middle, so I think there's stuff for everybody. There's potty humor! It's a wide array of comedy, it's quick, it's really goofy. You can come in and turn off your brain, meaning, the woes of the world, of everything that's happening around us, and just sit and enjoy, and allow yourself to be surprised by the antics that are happening on stage.
Brett Cullum: Well, tell me a little bit about you, Ellis. How did you get into acting and singing? What was the start of all this?
Ellis C. Dawson: I wanna say I was a shy kid. I feel like this is everybody's story. I was a shy kid who grew up singing in church. My mom says I sang before I talked, so I knew… they knew I had the gift for singing. And then, maybe about when I was 11 or 12, we got a new pastor at our church, and his sister was a drama teacher. She decided to put on a Christmas play, and it was a version of THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER, and I auditioned to play one of the siblings, and they're supposed to be tough and bad. I tried, and she's like, you're not good at that. But to go outside, look at the nerdy character, he's really funny, and I was like, okay, well, I guess I'm just gonna put on my best impression of Steve Urkel. I did that, and I thought it was really, really funny, and I did the show, and then she pulled me aside afterward, and asked, “Did you know you could sing and act and dance all at the same time? It's called musical theater.” And I was like, oh, no, I didn't know what that was, and she showed me videos, and she introduced me to community theater. Community theater was a huge part of my life. Then I started taking it more seriously. I went to Performing Arts High School. That turned into me going to college for theater. I got an agent, and since 2016, I've been working rather consistently, once I graduated from college. It was like one thing after the other. It kind of just kept happening, and then before I knew it, I was a full-blown thespian.
Brett Cullum: I'm proud of being a thespian. I noticed you gave me that date, 2016. What was the pandemic like for you?
Ellis C. Dawson: What happened? Okay, so in 2016, I graduated from college. At the end of 2016, I booked ALADDIN, the first national tour. I did that until 2019, and then I did an out-of-town trial of a show at ART, MOBY DICK. And then the world shut down, and it was obviously a very hard time, but I got to sit down with myself and be like, okay, what else do you want to do? And I, weirdly enough, started writing. Within that time, created a very popular web series, a Black queer web series FOR THE BOYS that I shot with my writing partner in the middle of the pandemic. There wasn't a vaccine. We were all Broadway actors out of work, and like, we don't have anything to do, so let's, let's do this, and I got a group of friends together. It's like, SEX AND THE CITY meets INSECURE. Black and queer, 20-somethings in New York City, and we wrote that, and it was a time of discovery for me. I learned that I really wanted to tell stories that showcased people who were like me. I didn't see myself on television, and I wasn't in the web series; I was just the creator and the director, so… yeah, it was a strange, but really fruitful time.
Funnily enough, it caught the attention of Coleman Domingo, who was right before he won the Emmy. He reached out to my writing partner and me, and he got us in contact with Sarah Jessica Parker's production company and his production company. They teamed together with me, my writing partner. We pitched the show to a whole bunch of networks. In 2022, we sold the show to Showtime for 2023. Then the writers' strike and the actors' strike happened, and it went pretty far. But then Paramount bought Showtime, Skydance merged with them, they gutted their comedy department, and it's a different landscape. Networks aren't too keen on buying a show about three Black queer men right now. But it was a crazy experience. I sold a TV show while I was in HAMILTON. It was insane, but that all actually came from the pandemic, and it really fueled my passion to create and step outside of just acting.
Brett Cullum: What do you want to do next?
Ellis C. Dawson: Yeah, we're on the road for a year, and we started in November, so I believe I'm done in November, as of now. I'm a multi-hyphenate, so I do a lot of things. I also do photography. I did that full-time, as you can tell, I don't like sitting behind a desk. So, I just want to create, really. I don't actually know what's next. Moving back to New York City after being away for so long. Yeah, and continue to write and things like that.
Brett Cullum: Well, Ellis, thank you so much. I am so excited to see you in SPAMALOT. It's one of those shows; it's so much fun. Right now, the world probably needs this.
Ellis C. Dawson: You know, there are some shows, some nights of being in SPAMALOT where we're all on the same page, the cast, the crew, the audience, and it's like, it's all right there. It's such a beautiful experience, and that's why people should come see the show. I love leaving the stage door, and people are like, 'I needed this. I really, really needed this.’ And I'm like, I am so glad that I get to be a small part of that.
Brett Cullum: Well, we're glad to see you! I can't wait! So, SPAMALOT, it's sponsored by Tuts, coming April 15th through the 26th at the Houston Hobby Center.
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