Interview: Cheyenne Jackson Performs SIGNS OF LIFE at The Hobby Center

BROADWAY WORLD writer Brett Cullum got a chance to chat with the luminous and legendary Cheyenne Jackson. He is coming to Houston to perform a cabaret show on October 26th at the Hobby Center called Signs of Life. Cheyenne started off in regional theater in Seattle but moved to New York and took that town by storm. He played in everything you can imagine. ALTAR BOYZ, ALL SHOOK UP, and INTO THE WOODS. Cheyenne has also taken over television, starring in at least three seasons of Ryan Murphy's AMERICAN HORROR STORY. And he was on GLEE and 30 ROCK! He gave a moving performance in the film UNITED 93, which depicted the last journey of passengers in one of the planes on 9/11. He has sold out Carnegie Hall twice.  

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Brett Cullum: You hit my radar when you starred as Sonny Malone in the musical XANADU, ironically, a role that ruined poor Michael Beck's career when that film came out, but it seemed like it made you a star. So tell me, how did you end up in Xanadu the musical? 

Cheyenne Jackson: XANADU came to me early on. It was actually Jane Krakowski and me who did all of the readings and stuff, and it was so funny. Douglas Carter Bean wrote this crazy book, and I thought it was fabulous. Jane couldn't end up doing it because her show 30 ROCK was just a pilot at the time, and she had to leave to do that. 

I decided I kind of didn't want to do it without her, so I also let the project go because the whole show was contingent on that chemistry. And then it went away, and they started it again with Kerry Butler and James Carpinello, and he broke his leg.

They asked me to come in again, and I went and saw it, and Kerry Butler was so freaking genius and so different than Jane. I just jumped in. Unfortunately, James couldn't continue. And yeah, the rest is history. One of the highlights of my Broadway career. For sure, just pure joy, pure joy.

Brett Cullum: Absolutely, and that's what I think of when I think of XANADU is just pure joy. But I must ask you, are you still roller skating? Is that still part of your regimen?

Cheyenne Jackson: I'm sure I could, but I haven't. I did ice skate with my family last January when they came to New York with me when I was doing ONCE UPON A MATTRESS. And so we ice skated! So yeah, I think I can! Sure.

Brett Cullum: Well, you've done stage, film, and television. I mean, you've done everything. I mean, it's like name a performing arts medium. You've probably done it. Is there one that you enjoy the most? Is there one that you just say, “This is it?” 

Cheyenne Jackson: Man. It's so hard it truly is what whatever I'm doing, I really just try to have that be the only thing I'm focusing on. But I guess if I were to have to pick where I feel the most free, it's probably doing what I'm doing now, which is long-form, narrative cabaret like this show SIGNS OF LIFE that I'm doing right now in New York at 54 BELOW. And then, in a few weeks I'll be doing in Texas. It's autobiographical. It's anecdotal. I go really deep. I take the piss out of myself the whole time. I definitely believe that in order to connect with an audience, you have to go first, and that creates this great back-and-forth feeling of trust. And it's not just (no shade to people that do this) me standing up there saying, “Then I did this show, and in that show, I sang this song," and I wanted it to be deeper, more meaningful. So, I think that's probably where I feel the most connected when I do that.

Brett Cullum: Well, it's interesting because this series at the HOBBY CENTER has brought many Broadway stars in, and they have taken that approach of talking about their life and interpreting songs. Recently, we had Patti LuPone. Which, of course, how can you pass up Patti LuPone? Alan Cumming and Renee Elise Goldsberry both did a show as well. So it’s always awesome to be so intimate with artists. 

How do you pick songs for this? I mean, what goes into creating this cabaret?  

Cheyenne Jackson: Yeah, I mean, it's some things you kind of just can't get away with not doing so. There are definitely a few songs in there that I kind of always have to do because if I don't afterward, people are like, How come you didn't sing blah blah or blah blah? And so, you know, there are songs that you're known for.

But as far as the other ones, I dig deep and think about songs that really mean something to me now or meant something to me growing up and at seminal points in my life. And I've never really been one to put myself in a box musically. So my influences are folk and jazz, big band, rock and roll, and opera; you know, I've never trained professionally. I learned to sing on my own just by listening to music and mimicking and seeing what works. 

It's really opened up the Pantheon of music for me! I kind of feel like I could do anything. Maybe I'm a little delusional, but that's the mindset. 

Brett Cullum: Well, I remember when you came out with the album RENNAISANCE, your solo recording, and many of it was covers. I was floored by your take on Joni Mitchell's “A Case of You.” It was just incredible. What are your influences? Obviously, Joni is probably one.

Cheyenne Jackson: Yeah, for sure. And in that particular arrangement, Diana Krall [influenced me]. That's a version of her arrangement. Her vocal arrangement. So I have to give credit to her definitely. I mean, my influences growing up? I went through a phase of everything was jazz! And it had to be old-school jazz! When I was about twelve or thirteen, I went to a yard sale. I found this CD. It was actually a tape. Billie Holiday, Lena Horn, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald. I'd never heard of any of them, and I just poured over it and studied the nuances of their voices. And so I would say, those are my first four influences, and then as a teenager, it really got more into George Michael.

George Michael was my vocal idol. And just the way that even just a phrase of his voice, a whisper of it, can evoke such an emotion. So yeah, those are probably my biggest influences.

Brett Cullum: You know. One thing I admire about you as an actor is that whatever you play, no matter how wild or supernatural, there is a sense of Cheyenne in there. Some actors, when they do a project, kind of disappear into the character, but I always feel like you're always present. So, how do you approach characters and acting? What's the secret of Cheyenne Jackson's acting approach?

Cheyenne Jackson: You know what? Every part you bring yourself, because you are you. All I know how to do is, if I see myself in a character, and if, even if it's really a dark character or something that I don't even like to think about, I put myself in that position, and I act as if I pretend that I am in that situation, and I believe that it is real.

Sometimes, I wish I was more of a chameleon. Sometimes, I watch Sarah Paulson, or some of my peers, who just do the wigs and prosthetics, and I admire it so much. But that's just not me. 

And so what works for me is really connecting to the material. Finding the humanity of the person, not judging the person and then just breathing them to life. So yeah, in a nutshell. That's kind of how it goes.

Brett Cullum: I love that you are out and proud. Your career has never been when you were in the closet, and that seems new to me. I grew up in an era when gay men hid, I mean, we talked about George Michael. He hid his identity from the general populace for as long as he could. 

But you are a part of this (for lack of a better term) “Brat Pack” of LGBTQIA+ folks who are unapologetically out. We're looking at Matt Bomer, Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Neil Patrick Harris, and Sarah Paulson. And, of course, “the supreme” of this coven, Ryan Murphy. What do you think gave all of you the power to be out and unapologetic about it at this point? 

Cheyenne Jackson: You know all those guys and gal you mentioned. They're all buddies of mine, and we all have had our own journey and have come out at different points in our careers for whatever reasons we needed to. For me? I needed to come out right off the bat because I just never wanted to hide.

I spent so much of my youth in a little town in Northern Idaho that was very Christian and Republican. It was also racist. Sorry, but it's true, and I felt so repressed for so long that once I got out of there, I came out at 19.

There was no way I was going to put myself in any kind of box, and I was also trying to imagine how that would even work. You just kind of use vague pronouns when describing who you're with and it feels funny. So when I got to New York at 27 and started working, and then got, you know, my big break in ALL SHOOK UP the Elvis show. The New York Times did a big piece on me, and I remember some people around me at the time were kind of saying like, don't say gay, you know, because I was playing this hypersexual, very masculine. You know all that on stage and I thought, I'm not even gonna entertain, that I am not. I am who I am. I am what I am, and so I have found that just from the jump being out from the beginning, it just freed me. It freed me. 

Did I miss out on things because of that early on? Maybe? I don't know. I mean, I have no proof, and it doesn't really matter because I've lived an authentic and open life. And the next generation coming up? I hear from them all the time like, “Oh, my gosh, you! You did this, and that made me feel like I could do that.” And so it's getting younger and younger and younger, and the shame is starting to dissipate a bit. 

Brett Cullum: Well, the other thing. You're a father, and you and your husband have… I think they're eight years old now, twins.

Cheyenne Jackson: Next week they will be eight.

Brett Cullum: Oh, my gosh! So, what has that been like? Is that hard when you're in this business? And you have kids and a husband. And you know all of that on the side.

Cheyenne Jackson: It's the best! It is very hard, but that's what we wanted. That's all I ever wanted was to be a dad. I wanted a loud house with dogs and kids, energy, chaos, love, and messiness. And you know people ask me, you know, some of my friends that don't have kids. Especially other gay couples, they'll say, “We're thinking about having kids, but we don't really know.” And I always say, then don't. Unless you are 1 million percent sure that this is what you want to do, don't do it. Because your life will never be the same forever until the day you die, it is a sacrifice, and it is one that I give wholeheartedly. I love it so much. It hurts how much you love your children, and it's hard to be away.

It's hard to be away for jobs, but it's it's kind of part of the deal. They're used to it now. The longest I've ever been away is three weeks, and it was really, really, really difficult. I was shooting a movie in Hungary. I think once, maybe for three and a half weeks in Canada. But you know.

Daddy's an artist, and he's bopping around, and that's that's what his job is. But yeah, it's my husband. I have to give him credit because he's hyper-organized. He can do a million things at once, and he, you know, keeps the ball rolling.

Brett Cullum: Do the kids know? Are they aware of who you are?

Cheyenne Jackson: Yes, just recently. Because of this movie, I did, called THE DESCENDANTS. Recently, because their friends at school have seen it, they talk about it. And now, yeah, it's really cute. Like, we went to Disneyland recently, and kids always recognize characters, and they would run up and see me. And you know, “It's Hades!” and the kids think it's very cool. You know, they have a lot of friends whose parents are on TV, great writers, or whatever. So to them, it's it's just, I'm just dad, you know.

Brett Cullum: We appreciate you taking time off from them and coming to Houston on October 26th at the Hobby Center. The show is called SIGNS OF LIFE, and it is an intimate cabaret show with Cheyenne Jackson, or you may know him as Hades or Sonny Malone, depending on your age. It's going to be exciting. Get to hear a little bit about more about you and your musical tastes. We get to “celebrate your face,” as you might say in one of your songs. So thank you so much, and I appreciate it. And we'll see you on the 26th! 

Cheyenne Jackson: Alright, sounds good.

Cheyenne Jackson: Signs of Life | October 26, 2024 | Zilkha Hall at the Hobby Center 

Get to know the Grammy®-nominated, multi-talented stage, television, and film actor, singer, and songwriter, Cheyenne Jackson, in this intimate concert evening. A versatile and celebrated performer, Cheyenne was most recently seen in “Call Me Kat” as well as the “Saved By The Bell” revival, “American Horror Story: Apocalypse,” and Disney’s “Descendants 3.” On the small screen, Cheyenne starred in the critically acclaimed HBO biopic of Liberace, “Behind the Candelabra,” and appeared in “American Woman,” “Full Circle,” “Glee,” and “30 Rock.” On Broadway, Cheyenne made his debut understudying both male leads in the Tony Award®-winning musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. He originated the role of Matthew in the off-Broadway musical Altar Boyz and took on his first leading role in All Shook Up. Additional Broadway credits include Xanadu, Damn Yankees, Finian’s Rainbow, The Performers, and Into the Woods.

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