Interview: Broadway's Newest Power Producer, LaChanze, Talks JAJA'S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING and More

One of Broadway's best, Tony Award-winner LaChanze, has broken the fourth wall and crossed the footlights to perform a new role- producer. 

Last season, her first producing gigs, Kimberly Akimbo and the revival of Suzann Lori-Parks' Topdog/Underdog, snagged the veteran actor her first behind the scenes Tony wins, taking home Best Musical and Best Revival of a Play, respectively. 

This season, Ms. LaChanze has returned with a slew of new shows, lending her decades of experience and high-profile name to a number of productions including Here Lies Love, Jaja's African Hair Braiding and the incoming new musical adaptation, The Outsiders. 

BroadwayWorld had an opportunity to chat with this theatre legend to learn more about her new role. In excerpts from our conversation below, learn how LaChanze got into the producing game, what she looks for in a script, and what Broadway fans can expect next from this quadruple threat!

I have to begin by telling you that everything you're producing is a home run. Everything with the LaChanze stamp of approval so far is so incredible, and I had the opportunity to see Jaja's African Hair Braiding a few weeks ago, and I just loved it.

Oh, thank you. We're so proud of it. We're so proud of that. We're lucky that audiences are really enjoying Jaja. We're proud of the fact that we are bringing in new audience members. You know, we're bringing in people that would never even come to the theater. So that's exciting for us because that's my mission ultimately, is to just help create new audiences for Broadway.

One thing that I really loved about watching the play is that it does bring in a new audience and there's a real kind of knowing laughter that happens throughout. What does it feel like for you to know that you are part of the effort that has created a space like that on Broadway?

You know, it's inspiring because, having been in the theater for 40 years as an artist and witnessing what it takes to build a great piece of theatre, off stage and on stage, it's very satisfying to me to see that this 40 years of experience that I've had can be applied in a way that can help cultivate the future of Broadway. My method, if there is such a thing, is to try to find pieces that have fresh voices, fresh vision, and that could be inclusive for a community that's not necessarily highlighted on Broadway and in commercial theatre. It's important to bring these voices to the stage and, and really align myself with writers and creators who are trying to do something different. Who are really trying to say something different on Broadway and be innovative in different ways. Here Lies Love is a completely different idea for a musical. It's the first time that you've had an immersive musical on Broadway. Everything I've done is just different in different ways, but also important for the future of what we expect to see in commercial theatre.

When it comes to the rehearsal room, are you able to contribute as an actor as well as a creative producer? Or have you found a way to keep those identities separate?

No, I think my acting informs my producing and now as a director, it informs my directing, because listen, I'm always an actor. Every room I walk into, I'm an actor and a producer and a director. I just am. It depends on what hat I'm wearing in the moment. So if I'm in a rehearsal process as a producer, I can't deny the creativity that comes up and the technique as an actor. It automatically helps me not only help an actor, but it also helps me see the full picture of the production and where my influence as an actor, acting as a creative producer, can really help. All the productions that I've been working with, the actors seem to be so grateful that they have an actor as a producer who can basically speak the language, but also be sort of a bridge for the management and the creatives. It's important that people in the room listen and create space.

A play rehearsal, a musical rehearsal, it's a very vulnerable room to be in from the beginning because everyone is leading with their emotions. That's the job. So you've got to be able to synthesize that down the motivation behind each character, but also to make it relatable and palatable for the audience members. So when I apply my creative producing to our project, the actors and even the director, even the creative team is excited because they know that I come from the the foundation. I come from being an ensemble member, so I know what it's like for the third girl from the left and know her position, but then being a producer, I can go all the way up to where, where the producer sits and have an opinion. I've had experience in every single element of it. So it really does inform my producing, and it helps the whole production overall, I think.

It really feels like you're part of a generation of producers and creatives who returned after the pandemic with a real humanity-first mentality. 

We've had so many decades of theatre and, and the arts, in general, when you talk to artists that have been a part of it for a while, it can be a harmful situation for so many people emotionally. So I'm glad that we've evolved to the place where taking care of people's emotions, making sure that everyone feels safe and heard, and and seen in the space is how we can move forward and it, and bring the best to the project for everyone.

When and why did you decide to make the jump to producing?

I was fortunate enough to attend the National Black Theater Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It happens bi-annually, and I went in 2009, they were honoring me. And so I went to be honored. While I was there, I got to see a bunch of plays, and one that I saw was a play called Reunion in Barbersville, which is a whodunnit set on a group of African American senior citizens. It is hysterical. I was so inspired by this play that I went to the author and said, can I please have the option? At that time, I didn't know what I was even asking for. I just knew that I wanted to try to get the play produced on Broadway or in New York. I just wanted it to have an audience as opposed to just the audience that was sitting in this room in a Winston-Salem hotel. So I came back to New York, David Stone, who is my producing mentor, and then became my partner, I pitched it to him. Then I produced a little reading of it in New York and he knew that I had an eye on producing, but I didn't quite know really what it means to be a Broadway commercial producer.

Fast forward to the pandemic, and we're all sitting around and not doing anything. And I thought, "You know what? I've really gotta learn more about this producing thing." So I started working, I helped found Black Theater United, and David Stone came to me and said, "LaChanze, you are a natural producer. I wanna teach you the business." So, once a week I would go up to his home and we would sit outside during Covid and he would teach me what it means to be an independent producer. I call it Stone University. When I graduated from Stone University, he said, "There are two productions that I'm doing in the spring and I want to know if you're interested in aligning with them. The two that I decided to join were Topdog and Kimberly. And that's how I pretty much got started.

Your next Broadway producing gig is the new musical adaptation of The Outsiders. How did become involved with that and what can we expect? 

We had a reading not too long ago that was just everyone in the room was bawling. It's an American story that has such a history from reading the book. Most kids have to read it in high school or middle school or wherever you have to read it. And then the movie came out. And then that was a huge hit. But more importantly, this is just a slice of America. And I just think that it's important to, again, tell a story that is not a story that's been traditionally told in theater. We're talking about two rival communities that are both white, you know? Typically when you think about rival communities, you think about, like West Side Story, or you know, Black against white. It's always like two different factions. What drew me to wanting to produce this as a musical was the fact that it wasn't necessarily about race. It was about class and it was about that coming of age time. And I think that that's so important because I'm so fed up with stories that deal with race. You'll probably rarely see my name attached to a story that is based in racial conflict. I think we have enough of that going on in the news and in the world.

I think theatre deserves a space where we can just discuss the human condition and have it reflect us individually. The Outsiders does that for me. Even though it's set in a certain time period, it is a period that so many of us know because it's so basic. It's written so cleverly from each character's point of view. And so many young men and women identify with these characters. So I just thought it would be great to be a part of a production that is centered in coming of age in love, in loss, in relationships, in brotherhood and sisterhood. I know I keep using this as a phrase, but it's important to me that it is inclusive and speaks to the human condition. And that's what that show does for me.

LaChanze has been seen on Broadway as Celie in The Color Purple (Tony Award), Ti Moune in Once On This Island (Tony Award nomination), Trouble In Mind (Tony Award nomination), Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (Tony Award nomination), A Christmas Carol, If/Then, The Wiz, Company, Ragtime, and Dreamgirls and Off-Broadway in The Secret Life of Bees, The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, The Vagina Monologues, and Cabin in the Sky at New York City Center Encores!

Her television credits include “Handel’s Messiah Rocks: A Joyful Noise” (Emmy Award), “East New York”, “The Blacklist”, HBO’s “The Night Of”, “Law & Order: SVU”, “The Good Fight”, “Sex And The City”. On film, she has been seen in The Help, Melinda, and Disney’s Hercules among other titles.

She will direct Alice Childress’ Wine in the Wilderness at Classic Stage Company in 2024. She is the President of Black Theatre United, a community dedicated to awareness, accountability, and advocacy.