Interview: Grant Reynolds of MAMMA MIA! at Orpheum Theater

BroadwayWorld Omaha representative Analisa Swerczek sat down with Grant Reynolds, currently starring as Sky in the Mamma Mia! tour arriving in Omaha this week, to talk about his Chicago roots, life on the road, and all things Mamma Mia!

Well, I'd love to start at the beginning. Like, how did you find your love of theater? What was that transition like in life for you to get into the arts?

The arts have always kind of been a part of my life. My grandpa was kind of a local Chicago celebrity. I'm from Chicago originally, and my grandpa would always sing at the Bud Billiken Day Parade or the Army Observance Day because my grandfather was a veteran of the Army. So he was very, very particular about his singing. I started to sing in choir; it's one of my first memories of him being so on me about how I was singing, and he would call and be like, “Are you practicing?” I was so young to not really understand the importance or just how special that was. But I had a very normal… Illinois, which is this village right in the center of the city. Both of my parents are Chicago-raised, so it's kind of all I know, and I grew up playing sports. You know, I used to be the kid who needed an outlet for all of my energy, and I'm also an only child, so there weren't a lot of other people to entertain me. But I started doing sports forever, and then in sixth grade, I remember they were having musical auditions, and I remember it was kind of the… and all my friends were in it. And so fast-forward, I auditioned. And that program is called Bravo Performing Arts Academy, and it's run by Tina Reynolds, who is like a mentor to me. She's been my boss and everything. But it was really just something that I did because I wanted to have fun. I loved theater. I loved the quality of the productions that they produced. It allowed me to explore myself. I was kind of a shy kid, so it allowed me to step out of that box. I craved being on the stage. I don't think I knew all of these things as I was getting myself into it, but it's amazing. And so, yeah, theater is the one—not sport but hobby—that I've been very consistent with and stuck with my whole life.

So I did that forever. I started in middle school. I was a show choir kid all throughout high school as well, and all things with the arts. And when I was later in middle school, I got the opportunity to dance for this company called iTheatrics and Musical Theater International. They license junior shows. A show does Annie, or your middle school does Legally Blonde—they receive this packet that is full of these materials, and one of them includes example choreography. And they get this example choreography from scouting basically these kids who they bring to New York. That was kind of the turning point for me because I had never been to New York. I flew there with my dad, saw my first Broadway shows—everything. I was waking up early. I remember we had to go and get food because I was waking up early, and I would have to make my breakfast, make my lunch. I would walk to the studio. We would rehearse all day. I'd leave at five, and then I'd go see a show, and I just thought it was the most thrilling thing ever. So that was kind of how my love started for this. I always wanted—I thought it was, and I still do think it is—I thought it was just so impressive to be on Broadway or to be a Broadway touring artist because it's like being an athlete. I remember my dad, who was a former football player, would be like, “It's crazy, they do this eight times a week live.” So I think a part of me was always trying to prove to myself that I could do that, and now I definitely have overproved it. But that’s how I started into all of this.

I love that! You've had quite a history with Mamma Mia. I'd love to hear about your initial audition with it and what that process was like for you.

Absolutely. So I used to be—before all of this—a nanny in the city. I used to work for… me and my Best Friend, my roommate, we used to work for a New York super sweet guy. When I first moved to the city, I was immediately a nanny. So I worked for two families mainly. One was Neal’s, and one was this other very, very sweet family. So I was just kind of figuring myself out in New York. And I remember I was set to go out, like go help Neal or something, and I had randomly gotten this call or this appointment from my agents to come in for Mamma Mia. And I obviously know Mamma Mia—the IP that is Mamma Mia—but I wasn’t so familiar with the story and what exactly… I was kind of missing the middle part of it all. I was like, okay, I know it's about this girl and she's trying to find her dad, but do we find out who her dad is? Blah, blah, blah. So I remember getting the audition, and I was at first a little hesitant because I had never seen a super, super diverse cast of Mamma Mia. I'd only had the movie and previous stage adaptations to reference. So I was like, um… on top of not being as familiar as I'd like, I also don't know if this is going to be for me. Do they actually want to see me? What's the deal kind of thing?

I ended up going in. I did the material, and the first time I was paired with someone… with theater and auditions, you really can't get too excited about anything. So the first round I was like, okay, I did good work. That's always the goal. And I left. I got called back, and I was like, okay, this is exciting, but we're just not going to get too excited. Did that, and I left. And throughout all of this, every time was incredibly pleasant—which is not rare for an audition, but you're normally nervous or you're feeling a bunch of things. But each time I felt very calm and good. And by my third time going in, I was like, oh, I'm actually falling in love with this. This is so fun to do. I was so intrigued and everything.

Fast-forward a couple of weeks, I was back to working my normal job, and I knew they had the final round of callbacks the next day. And I hadn't received a call, so in my head I was like, okay, you know what? It was not for me, and that's totally okay. And then literally like 30 minutes later, I got a call from my team and they were like, “Oh, they forgot to put something in for you, but they really want you to come tomorrow,” blah, blah, blah. Fast-forward, I ended up going, and it was the best audition that I had ever had—not just a personal victory for me; I tried to do the best work—but it was such a fun environment. I remember that was when we had the dance audition, and it was just an amazing dance, and the energy in the room was very inviting, which is kind of rare to have, especially in the final round of a major musical that's about to launch on tour. It's normally very competitive, cutting-edge vibes. So I think once I finished that day, I was like, you know what, even if I don't book this, I'm just so thankful that this was a safe and welcoming space. And then that was on a Friday. And then on that Monday, I found out that I booked it. So it seems really full circle just because it felt very comfortable from the beginning.

If it's okay, I'd love to pop back to a comment you made about diversity. Mamma Mia has not historically always been one that has been known for being very diverse. What do you think that looks like in the theater world today? And why is that so important for artists coming up in society today to get to see that diversity and know that there is a place for everyone on that stage?

I—oh my gosh, amazing question. I think for me, just because I'm a Black man. I've lived my whole life as a Black man. My family is Caribbean, so I have a lot of Afro-Latino family, and that's always been a part of my life—embracing every aspect of my identity, especially growing up with a Caribbean heritage that is so multicultural. I think that the visualization of representation is everything. Because Mamma Mia is kind of like the UK’s flagship show, almost like how we have Wicked. Mamma Mia started in the UK. So it's very cemented in a lot of their humor, a lot of their modernity from whenever this was—1998—a lot of their colloquialisms. So I think what was such an amazing, smart, delusional choice by the Mamma Mia team in casting us—which is inherently a new, diverse, fresh face of people—is it allows access to not just Americans who are seeing the show, but anyone who is seeing clips of our show or coming from anywhere to see our show, that it is very possible and it's real.

The big thing with representation is seeing yourself. Me seeing a career on Broadway as possible for myself was only attainable because I was young and I got to see people like Leslie Odom Jr., Billy Porter, Norm Lewis, Audra McDonald, Nikki Renée Daniels, Heather Headley—strong African American performers… John Leguizamo, an amazing Hispanic actor; J-Lo—people like that. I think when you're in a society and you grow up and you see everyone that looks like you, it becomes very normal and familiar. And I think for a lot of people of color, even people who are within the LGBTQ+ community, having somebody who represents where you're from makes it seem like you're able to do it.

And I think for me, I have this weird situation where my dad's fiancée—they’ve been dating since I was probably in sixth grade—her brother was actually a part of the original Broadway cast. And he was in the ensemble. He's an actor and now he's a writer. He's actually, weirdly enough, in Death of a Salesman at the Winter Garden, where we just closed Mamma Mia, and he's in my dressing room. It's amazing—such a weird thing. But he was a part of the show back in the day when they were not seeing boys of color for the role of Sky. It wasn't really an intentional thing; it was just kind of a systematic thing that they had put in place, similar to what we've seen with Wicked and how they just recently got their first full-time Black Elphaba. It was something that never really made its way down the reins.

And so this was so special for me—not just to honor my uncle, because he was so proud of me, because it was such a barrier shift for him, because he had seen when that wasn't a thing. But the response that I have gotten, especially with the blessing of touring the show—young boys, especially Black and Latino boys, who come up and their moms are like, “Oh, he never thought he could be a lead, and we saw you on the commercial and we wanted to get tickets because my son loves theater and I wanted to show him.” I think that is so… it's beyond special to me. It's so important because from a young age, you want to be able to see that it's possible, that you can do it. Whether you're a young Black boy, young Latino boy, young Asian boy, a young girl who is seeing maybe these amazing astronauts that just made their landing last week—I think that's so inspiring, just to see people who are taking the dreams that seem almost too whimsical: the astronauts, the mad scientists, the superstars. I think all of those things, even though they're kind of inflated, they're super possible.

And I think that in making the conscious choice to diversify it, it only makes the show better. I think you can have people get worried, like, oh, are we going to fare well in this city? Are people even… As we travel to Nebraska, everyone's like, I don't know, what's in Nebraska? I've been to Nebraska once. But I'm like, girls, there's stuff to do. There's a huge… I got my nails done in Nebraska. Oh yeah, Gabrielle Union is from Nebraska—that's always my fun fact. There's just so much to do. And I think at the end of the day, people don't know… to an interfaith couple. So I think it's just about normalizing and modernizing to the times. And I'm really thankful that Mamma Mia did that because it's opened a huge gate, not just for me. Jalynn Steele is the first full-time Black Tanya. Her performance every night—I don't know what we're at, number 908—is a standing ovation every single time. So I think that injects more positivity into our life, and it also just makes things normal. It's a hurdle that the boy behind me, who is playing another role in another show, just won't have to cross.

I know audiences last time you were in town—and it was the same Tanya and Rosie last time too—audiences here loved everyone. They're were wonderful!

I mean, this cast—I'm biased, I work with them every day—but it's insane what they can do. And even now with our refresh, because we have some new members, it's really… it's such a joy to watch on stage. And I'm not saying that because I'm in it, but I do find myself sitting back a lot and just being like, wow, this is incredible. I think it would be hard not to.

Well, speaking of refresh—you've done the tour, then transferred to Broadway, and now you're back on the tour. And a lot of people in your cast have had that same kind of path. I mean, you're talking about show number 900 for Jalynn. How do you keep a show fresh for each and every one of you, or how do you keep that show fresh for you?

After so many performances—because a lot of people, I think, would assume, oh, it's just plug and play, you just kind of zone out—but how do you keep that from happening for yourself, and how do you find new experiences every show? For me, I always try to go in listening first. I think that's my Carnegie Mellon acting training—always be a listener. But truly, that is my biggest asset with the show, especially when you're hearing it every single day, sometimes twice a day, and you know all the songs by heart. I think going in with any situation, but especially with acting and with Mamma Mia, I want to be listening to what's happening so that I can genuinely respond. You get in a rhythm, and then there's a comfortability about having a certain pattern and saying certain things a certain way. And we have to do some of those things. We have to go here so the light hits us here. You move here so that the set doesn't… you know. But I think coming in with an open gaze, and also it's very important for all of us to have separatism. The show is such a big thing in itself, and you can definitely get swallowed up into the show. And when we were on Broadway, you leave home and it wasn't until I got back to Brooklyn where I could be like, okay, a deep breath—nobody is asking you questions about the show or if the… you know?

So I think grounding myself and having… like today, we have two shows. We're in Arkansas. It's a cute gloomy day. Just me standing out on the balcony, having a cup of coffee, stretching, making sure my body is as warm as I can, as prepared as I can be, is how content I will be. I'm not type A, but I am the type of person who's like, okay, I want to make sure I have all my stuff and that my body feels good. I want to be ready for anything. So I think just listening and preparation are the big things. And obviously sleep and water and physical therapy and voice lessons—all those things help too.

Perfect. Just one more question. I'm sure everyone is excited for Mamma Mia. Everyone loves Mamma Mia throughout the world. But last time, it was such a great audience and reception for you all here. For those people who haven't quite yet pushed the purchase-ticket button, what would you say to those individuals, and any last thoughts on the show here in Omaha?