Interview: CLAYBOURNE ELDER at Segerstrom Center For The Arts

Claybourne Elder wants to make the world a better place. 

The “Sunday in the Park with George” and HBO’s “The Gilded Age” actor (who is doing a cabaret performance at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts Samueli Theater February 20-22) created a nonprofit ticket giveaway program to encourage a pay-it-forward movement within the arts community.

His nonprofit, City of Strangers, which he runs with his husband (playwright Eric Rosen) gives away Broadway tickets to people who can’t afford them.

“I couldn't afford tickets to a Broadway show after I'd been in a Broadway show,” Elder told BroadwayWorld. “I fundamentally believe that kindness can change the world. And I do think that these little things like this can change a person's life and change a person's day."

It all started with a random act of kindness in 2007, when a stranger gave Claybourne $200 to buy tickets to see Sweeney Todd on Broadway. It was a gesture that set off a domino effect of kindness. 

Since its founding in 2021, the nonprofit has distributed more than 3,000 tickets and sparked similar acts of kindness. 

Claybourne sat down with BroadwayWorld to explain: 

I know you’ve told this story a million times, but in case people don’t know, tell me how your nonprofit, City of Strangers, got started.

So when I was in college, I’d come to New York to visit. I didn’t have very much money, and I just wanted to see some shows—it was what I loved the most. I would see shows using just standing-room-only, or rush tickets. And after one show, a man came up to me and a friend as we were walking out of the theater and said, “Hey, are you guys from out of town?" We were like, “Yes.”

And he was like, “I could see you up in the standing-room-only section, and it looked like you guys were having way more fun than the people in the expensive seats. Here’s $200.” 

He handed me $200 in cash and said, “Just go buy yourself a ticket to Sweeney Todd tomorrow, it’ll change your life.”

Wow. What did you say? 

Yeah. I didn’t really know what to do. I had been a little sheltered Mormon kid from Utah who thought New York City was the big bad city for so long. And this random, crazy kindness out of nowhere was so strange to me—unexpected in that place. I asked him to take a picture with me because it was kind of the only thing I could think of to do.

And you bought the ticket? 

At that point in my life, there were a lot of things that I could have spent $200 on, but I did it: My friend and I went and bought ourselves tickets to Sweeney Todd and I loved it. It just was beautiful and strange and bizarre and unlike anything I'd ever seen. 

Did it “change your life,” like the man said it would? 

You know, it's hyperbolic to say, but it did. I took it as a sign. I was like, ‘Why don't you change your life?’ And that's really when I decided to move to New York. Because of the man's kindness.

Then, cut to a couple of years ago, I was doing Company on Broadway . . . I had gotten COVID and missed 10 days of performances. I was so disappointed. . . But when it was time to go back, I called up my husband and I was like, ‘You know what, I'm going to give away a couple of tickets to my first night back.’ It was, you know, in the spirit of that man who had given me the money all those years ago. I'm going to buy full-price tickets and just give them away.

Did you just post the tickets on your social media? 

I posted the photo I had taken with that guy and I explained the story and said, ‘If you can't afford a ticket to a Broadway show, write your name down here, and I'm going to pick a person and give them two tickets.”

I got tons and tons of entries. And then somebody reached out and said, ‘Hey, can I send you some money on Venmo?  And about seven more people did that, completely unprompted. I ended up giving away 16 tickets that first night.

But people had shared my Venmo and kept sending me money. And it was clear that, ‘Wow, this is a thing.’

How did you turn that into an actual nonprofit? 

At a point, I was like, ‘This is really freaking me out. These people are giving me this money and trusting me to do this, and who am I to give away tickets? Who am I to choose who's worthy to get tickets?’ And my husband said, ‘Yeah, but if you don't do it, then nobody will get tickets.’ 

So we kept going, and then one day Patti LePone's lawyer heard about it and stepped in and wrote me saying, ‘Hey, I will do all of the work for free to make you an official non-profit.' We became an official 501c3 as of 2021, and we’ve given over 3,000 tickets to shows.

Do you send people their tickets or give them to them personally? 

I meet them outside the theater, and then I also have a cast member from the show—whatever show it is—meet us afterward, and we all take a picture together if they want to. 

Wow, you meet them outside the theater—even when it's not your show they’re seeing? 

Honestly, I wish that the people who gave me the money could do that part because there is nothing that feels better than handing someone two tickets and seeing them be like, ‘Wait, is this really free?’ It's an amazing feeling.

Is it just Broadway show tickets you give away? 

We’ve had off-Broadway shows who have reached out to us saying, “We want to give you free tickets, and will you fill the house for us?’ And we tell them no; that's just not what we really do. We're trying to give access to the most exciting shows possible that people can't get tickets to because they can't afford it.

I love that, because it’s true; Broadway shows are so expensive!

They are. And while [show producers] believe in this idea and they really love it, they also say, ‘But we like dollars,’ and I get that too.  That’s why it's important to me that we pay for the tickets. They are given away, but they're not free; they're paid for by a stranger.

Who is this giveaway meant for? 

This is meant for people who can't afford Broadway shows. It is not age-based. It's not for just college students—that's also really important to me. If you are 65, and you really want this, I want to send you to a Broadway show. And we've definitely given away tickets to people like that. 

How do you know that these are people who really can’t afford it? 

I'm trusting them. There’s a box you check to say yes, you are you a person who feels they can't afford this ticket, or no.  I'm not going to track you down. I'm not going to make you do an interview to prove it. I will say I also meet most every single person who comes, and so far, I feel as though we've never been taken advantage of.  

Where can people go to put their names in? 

You have to follow us on Instagram. You have to follow our stories. When we give away tickets, there is a link posted to enter for that specific performance.  

And the winner is picked at random? 

Yes. Totally random. 

So basically, this whole nonprofit happened because of a “Pay it forward” moment for you? 

Yeah, in the spirit of what happened to me, and we just ask people to maybe pay it forward if they feel so inclined. We do say if this encourages you to do something nice for somebody else, go ahead and do it.  

Do you know if people are doing that? Paying it forward? 

In the first year of organizing, on Random Act of Kindness Day, I sent an email out to everyone who had won tickets and said. ‘You don’t owe us anything, but this day is Random Act of Kindness Day. If you feel like doing something, I would love for you to take a picture or document it in some way and post about it. 

We got a whole bunch of posts from people and pictures of people helping and doing things like cleaning up their neighborhood or buying the person behind them in line a coffee. Stuff like that. 

So did you ever find the guy who had given you that $200? 

Yes!  I didn't even get to the best part of the story. So, back to when I was in Company and I posted that picture of me and the guy. Later that day, Doug Sills, who works on The Gilded Age with me, sent me a text and said, ‘Hey, I saw that post you made, it's so sweet, and that's really wonderful what you're going to do.” And, ‘I know that guy!’

So he connected us on FaceTime . . . And we have become friends. Because it just feels too random not to mean something to us both. And actually, he’s going to be at the show this weekend. I’m incredibly nervous but excited. 

Tell me about the show. 

The show that I'm doing is a lot about this. It's sort of about me, you know, being a Mormon kid from Utah, being gay, and coming out and finding kindness in the place that I thought was the most evil.

It's a cross between a stand-up special and a cabaret. There's more talking than in a usual cabaret show, and there's more singing than in a stand-up show. I'm not playing a character. I'm just talking thematically about things

How have people responded to that? 

Originally, I had just a little tour of the show planned. But it kind of went out into the world in a way that a lot of people responded to it. And now two years later, I still have the show booked through the summer. It is a piece of storytelling more than just a night of hearing me sing.

OK…But what sorts of songs will you be singing? 

I’ll sing ‘Moments in the Woods’ from Into The Woods; I sing ‘I Want to Dance With Somebody,” the Whitney Houston song. I sing lullabies that I sing to my son; I sing ‘Finishing the Hat’ from Sunday in the Park with George. 

I think that more than anything, what I wanted to do when I wrote it was that I didn’t want it to be just me telling you about my life or me singing the best songs from my career. 

It was like, ‘What do I want to say to people? And what are some things I'm scared to say?’ That was really what I asked myself when I started writing it—stories where I was like, ‘I feel weird telling this because it's personal.’ That's sort of where it all came from.

Claybourne Elder will be performing at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts Samueli Theater Feb. 20-22. Tickets are available here. For more information about the City of Strangers, go to its Instagram page. 

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