Interview: Canadian Performers Lakota and McKinley Knuckle Talk Being Identical Twins on Broadway

A Broadway debut is a special moment for any performer. Making it alongside your identical twin brother is something else entirely. For Lakota and McKinley Knuckle, the one thing sweeter than living the dream, is getting the chance to do it together. Broadway World had the opportunity to chat with both performers about their journey from small town Canada to being Swings in hit new Broadway musical, DEATH BECOMES HER.

Born and raised in Brantford, Ontario Canada, identical twins McKinley and Lakota Knuckle found themselves immersed in the Arts from a very young age but didn’t always have big Broadway dreams. “We started dancing when we were five years old." Lakota shares. “There was a long time when it was all we did and all we knew.”

“We really just did it because we loved it.” McKinley chimes in.

“Yeah and we were good at it!” Adds Lakota.

The world of theatre certainly wasn’t foreign to them though, as their grandfather was involved in the industry. “He was a playwright and when we were young, our grandparents would take us to see shows." Lakota explains. "The first show we ever saw was THE LION KING at Mirvish when we were probably six years old, maybe even younger than that. So it was always a part of our lives.”

Growing up in competitive dance and honing their skills in tumbling and acrobatics, Lakota shares that he initially thought perhaps he wanted to be an aerialist for Cirque du Soleil. “But in grade eleven, we went on a school trip to New York City with our school’s Art department and we saw KINKY BOOTS with the original cast. That was kind of an aha moment for me.” Seeing performers use the skills that he and his brother possessed “And seeing how much fun they were having” led him to start considering musical theatre as a career.

McKinley echoes this sentiment: “As I started working in the industry, it became more clear where my path in the industry would go. We kind of gravitated towards theatre, I think just because of our personalities – we’re fun, we love to have fun, and a lot of dancers are very serious…I’m so grateful to have grown up with that foundation; that strong technique, the training that I got from being a serious dancer, but when I started working, I just naturally just started gravitating towards theatre.”

Funnily enough, despite being “joined at the hip” throughout their youth in dance classes, competitions, multiple dance contracts, etc. DEATH BECOMES HER is only the second time the Knuckles have performed together in a Musical Theatre production. Initially, McKinley can’t even think of a time they had ever performed in a musical together until Lakota reminds him of a certain high school production… “We did THE LITTLE MERMAID together and we were the eels!” He laughs.

“We grew up working together and we love working together but we also have made a conscious choice in our careers to also do our own things and be our own individual people. And that’s just helped us grow on our own and grow together as we got older.” McKinley shares.

“And then you know, naturally, we kind of ended up on different wavelengths for a long time” explains Lakota. “I’d be at a job, and he’d be auditioning for a job, then vice versa, so it took us a while to line back up again.” He shares it has been 7 or 8 years since their careers first diverged when they took separate Cruise Line contracts. “Now we’re both living in the same city again. It’s been a while since that happened too. Even with Stratford (both are veterans of the famed Stratford Festival of Canada), I was there one year, he was there the next...We’re just always back and forth. So this has kind of been the perfect time for us to come back together.”

There was initially a question of whether this would happen at all though. Lakota has been with DEATH BECOMES HER since the start of its Broadway run and McKinley joined earlier this year as a Vacation Swing, but there was understandably some discussion among the creative team about whether it would make sense for identical twins to both be in the show, potentially on stage at the same time. “'Is that weird? Is that confusing for the audience?' That kind of thing. But because of the way the show is – the show is very magical…it works.” Explains McKinley.

Lakota elaborates: “There was talk of ‘I don’t know if we can hire him as much as we’d like to, and as much as we need his skill set for this job.’” Once it was decided that they could indeed make this work, efforts were made to distinguish the performers from one another. “They did individual wigs…they didn’t want to play into the twin thing at all because like McKinley said it could get confusing and [audiences might think] ‘is that a weird story line that we’re supposed to get?’ (laughs)”

Now the moments of temporary confusion are solely reserved for their cast mates. “It is kind of funny stepping on stage and seeing the confusion on peoples’ faces like ‘wait, which one are you today? Which one are you playing?’ “ McKinley laughs.

“Being a Swing in a show…when you’re doing a different track every night, there’s already a bit of confusion every now and then.” Lakota adds. “But now there’s two of us and there have been moments on stage where I’ll be partnering with someone and then McKinley would step right in to the next part and then be partnering that person as someone else. So it’s been fun and a bit confusing at times but, in a lighthearted way of course.”

Both sing the praises of the entire company of DEATH BECOMES HER:

“The cast is unbelievable. All Broadway veterans, so it’s a wild experience to come into this, not only as a Broadway debut but with such an experienced cast.” Lakota gushes. “They are also just the loveliest people to work with. There’s never been a moment where I’ve felt unsupported…It’s just been a great experience…Its been such a great company to work for as well. From the top, its been incredible.”

“The cast is so lovely - everybody in the building - the techs are amazing, Costuming, everybody. It’s been an overall amazing experience for me as well.” Adds McKinley.

Since joining in February, McKinley has had to learn multiple pre-existing tracks in a short period of time. “Coming into a show that’s already established as a Swing is a lot because all the sudden you have to learn all these tracks and they are tracks that people have been doing.” McKinley explains. “So it was intimidating coming in, of course, but I just really wanted to do the best job I could and focus in.” One perk is having his twin brother as the Assistant Dance Captain teaching him his tracks! While the Dance Captain and Acrobatics Captain are great teachers, McKinley notes that “Lakota knows what helpful tips I might need and he will explain things sometimes in a second way…that I would understand better, which is kind of nice.”

Lakota queries if this actually has more to do with them both being Swings than them being identical twins. Somewhat comedically, as he makes this point, his Zoom audio goes out and McKinley seamlessly finishes his thought – So, I think we can conclude that perhaps it is a bit of both.

This brings us to some more questions. Has the “twin thing" ever been frustrating? Did they make a concerted effort to differentiate themselves from one another when younger? Have they always had similar passions and goals? Are they competitive with one another?

“I think it was almost to the point of frustration at times, how similar we were.” Lakota laughs. “I remember there was a time we went shopping at the mall with our mom…and we both showed up at the cash register with the exact same sweater. We were like ‘ok, we’re not both buying this so which one of us is it going to be?’ I think we settled on same sweater, different colour or something like that (laughs).” He adds: “Of course, there was always an element of competition between us. We're both dancers, we grew up literally competing against each other at competitions. But I think it was beneficial in that we were always kind of trying to one up the other one and it made us work that much harder.”

He acknowledges that there have been times when he’s had to stick up for himself over the ‘twin thing’: “There were times where it would get frustrating with people who didn’t understand. I’d have to say Can you not call me 'the other one’ or ‘twin number two’? Like, we are separate people (laughs). But for the most part it was fun to mess around with people and be recognized as ‘the twins’ in the industry.”

There have certainly been some benefits: “It definitely helped us in the beginning because when we were growing up dancing, being male twin dancers really got us a lot of attention and so that was a good thing for us obviously.” McKinley shares. “But also, now that we have separated, we both cast our own webs of contacts and it’s almost like my contacts are now his contacts and his contacts and now my contacts and we’ve gotten each other jobs in the past based on knowing different people. So it’s been, I would say, nothing but helpful being twins.”

One comedic pitfall of having different sets of friends and contacts in the industry, is that not a day goes by in New York City where one of them doesn't find himself in a situation where someone waves hello to him and he has no idea who it is. “At this point I will just wave back and be like ‘Hi!’ as if I know the person!” McKinley laughs.

At a glance, it might look like Lakota and McKinley’s lives are back to being identical like when they were young kids in dance class, but this is not quite true. Although they both have dreams of living and working in New York City, this has been a goal that McKinley has been working towards for a bit longer. "[More so than specifically debuting on Broadway], living in New York City was a dream for me.” He explains. “I was on tour in the US before COVID and lived in New York briefly for a period before that, just auditioning and stuff. When I was on tour, the whole plan was to come right back to New York City and build my life in New York, and then COVID happened so I went home. I did tonnes of great work in Canada and around the world since then, but the goal was always to get back to New York City. A lot of the contracts I’ve done have been with US actors so I would say the majority of the friends I’ve made in the industry live in New York as well.” McKinley explains that he has a different type of work Visa than Lakota does, making it easier to audition and be considered for jobs in New York.

“I don’t know if [being based in New York] was quite as strong of a goal for me as it was for McKinley.” Lakota shares. “I love Canada, but the entertainment industry in Canada is just not even close to what it is in New York City or the States in general as far as work opportunities. In Canada, if you want to work consistently, which, I’m grateful that I have been able to, you are jumping from city to city every couple months - unless you book Stratford, which is great, but that’s still only a nine month contract and then you’re left without income for the other 3 or 4 months of the year, which is not ideal. I had almost given up in my head on the New York idea just because of the difficulties of getting the Visas.”

And then a certain show came along. “I was lucky in a situation where [the producers of DEATH BECOMES HER] were in such dire need of someone that could cover these acro tracks as well as all the other tracks in the show, that they were willing to hire me and put me on a Visa…which I’m so grateful for. However, that means that when my contract with the show ends or the show closes, I will have to go back to Canada.”

Navigating work Visas is just one of the challenges and sacrifices that Canadian performers are faced with when wanting to build their lives in New York City. “You never think of all the sacrifices you’re going to make to get to that dream.” Lakota imparts. “You picture that dream and how incredible it’s going to be, but there’s always so many sacrifices along the way to get you there. It’s just a part of life, you always make sacrifices, but it’s definitely been a transition, moving here after having lived at home in Toronto for the last five years now. I’ve been here for six months now. Still working my way into the city every day and trying to go out and meet new people. It’s kind of like starting from scratch again.”

Challenges and sacrifices aside, the brothers agree they are currently living the dream and are eager to talk about their current project.

“Everything about this job has been so great.” Lakota beams. The work is exactly what I dreamed of it being. This show that we’re in, I don’t think I’m being biased when I say it is maybe my favourite Broadway show I’ve ever seen, let alone been a part of. I love the music, the cast is incredible, the choreography, it’s just like, a dream.”

Based off the cult classic film of the same name, DEATH BECOMES HER is “A big, beautiful Broadway show, with a big, beautiful set, and big, beautiful choreography." McKinley shares. "It’s not trying to be something that it’s not. It is exactly what it is and it does it really well. There’s lots of fun stage trickery in the show…My favourite thing about the show is that it is a good old-school Musical Theatre show. There’s not a crazy amount of technology. It's really all old-school theatre tricks and body doubles, and comedy, and acrobats, and dancing. The costumes are by Paul Tazewell who just won the Oscar [for the Wicked movie] so the costumes are beautiful. It’s everything that I feel like Broadway’s been missing for the last few years.”

“The show hits a lot of the most iconic moments from the movie and of course the story line is very similar, but it is a big classic Broadway production.” Lakota adds. “The music is so full, and the show is hilarious. I would say the movie is funny, but it’s not quite slap you in the face funny like this show is. From start to finish it does not stop. It is hilarious. The production value is exactly what you want from a Broadway show.”

And the icing on the cake: They get to enjoy this experience together.

PHOTO CREDIT (Header Photo): Bartosz Jankowski