The singer talks all things The Wiz, how he prepared for his first Broadway role, and his goals for the future.
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00:00What's it like working with an all-black cast?
00:02It is everything.
00:03You don't have to explain the isms, the struggles.
00:07We get to like, you know, just do as we do.
00:10What's good, everybody?
00:11It's your boy, Avery Wilson,
00:12and I'm here with Essence getting ready
00:13for the yellow carpet for The Wiz opening on Broadway.
00:16Let's go!
00:17What am I most excited about being
00:25in my first Broadway show?
00:27Being The Wiz on Broadway.
00:31I guess I'm excited about being part of history, legacy.
00:34You know, there's so many people that have came before me
00:37and so many amazing, talented men
00:38that have played in this role of the scarecrow.
00:41Now when people look up The Wiz from this point on,
00:43it'll be Avery Wilson and Hinton Battle
00:46and Michael Jackson and Elijah Kelly.
00:49Just amazing names to be in company with.
00:51So I think that's the most exciting part
00:53is that I get to do that and be a part of history
00:56and really make my stamp.
00:57But then, I think as well,
00:59to be able to stand in a spot
01:01where I don't have to hide myself in any way.
01:04I get to act, I get to dance, I get to sing,
01:06I get to literally play and make choices that I want
01:10and show people who I am outside of just a voice
01:13because there is so much more to me than just that.
01:15How do I want my scarecrow character to be perceived?
01:19As he is.
01:21He's not the smartest person in the group,
01:25but he's also not, I guess,
01:28the weirdest, dumbest person either.
01:30He's loving, he's kind, he's very,
01:35I don't know, he's very progressive, honestly.
01:37You would think someone that is getting cursed
01:39to not have a brain or to not have thoughts
01:40wouldn't be as progressive,
01:41but I do, at points in the show,
01:43hold the whole hero group, which is us four, together.
01:47And sometimes I make some decisions or choices
01:50that aren't really favorable in the moments,
01:53but they never stop loving me,
01:54so it allows me to still stay in the confidence,
01:57though I don't have certain things.
02:05I absolutely warm up.
02:07I have a mat in this room, a yoga mat,
02:10that I do headstands
02:12because I just like my whole body to be warm.
02:14I do some yoga.
02:16I don't know, we talk a lot backstage to get us prepared.
02:20It keeps us honest and it keeps the family,
02:24you know, vibe here.
02:25But I do a lot of things that I think make me
02:27just feel at peace and calm and happy
02:30to go on stage to play the role.
02:32How do I fully channel my character on stage?
02:36You know what?
02:37I think I just, art imitates life.
02:39I don't forget my story,
02:41which is, you know, adjacent, I think, to this character.
02:45So I pray when I'm on the pole before the trees open up
02:50and I make sure that I just am very thankful
02:52and very grateful for this moment.
02:53And I really inject my true, honest experience of life
02:58into this moment, you know,
03:00to think about the moments
03:01that I didn't feel like I was winning,
03:03or I did feel like I was trapped,
03:04or, you know, the moments, the great moments too,
03:06where I felt like people in my life that cared about me
03:09came and saved me.
03:10What things did I do to prepare for the Scarecrow role?
03:13I watched a lot of footage.
03:16I watched Hint and Battle and Michael Jackson specifically,
03:19because I think the beauty of being a part of a show
03:24that you are necessarily bringing back as a revival
03:27is that you get to freely create as you want.
03:30You get to shape it so that the people that come behind you
03:33have something to look at,
03:34like I had in Hint and in Michael Jackson.
03:38So yeah, I watched a lot of footage.
03:39I watched the movie 10 times over.
03:43And then after a certain point,
03:44after I watched the stage show and then I watched the movie,
03:47I just stopped watching them
03:48because I had to also respect where things came from,
03:51but then also give myself room to inject myself.
03:54I relate to my character so much.
03:56The Scarecrow is truly someone who,
03:59in the group of us, of the heroes,
04:01the lion, the Tin Man, and Dorothy,
04:04he doesn't have a brain in that way,
04:06but he's not not smart, you know?
04:08He believes in his smartness,
04:09but it's hard for some people to see.
04:12And that's only because he's been trapped in an environment
04:14where people have created this space for him not to believe.
04:18For him not to think that he can.
04:20I do have a backstory in this production.
04:24I was a scientist before,
04:25and I feel like I'm not a scientist,
04:26but I do scientific things,
04:28whether it be music or not.
04:30But yeah, I connect to him
04:32because he got out of the environment
04:33that was holding him back.
04:35And for so long in my music career prior to this,
04:38and just in life period,
04:39I felt like I allowed a lot of people in my environments
04:42to trap me or to create that prism in my mind
04:46to think that I couldn't or I can't.
04:48So to be here and to live this over and over and over again
04:51every night is really just a testament to me,
04:53to let me know that there is possibilities
04:55on the other side of what people deem you
04:57or what they allow you to have, for sure.
04:59Woo, what's it like working with all black cast?
05:02It is everything.
05:03You don't have to explain the isms, the struggles.
05:08We get to just do as we do.
05:11We are the curators of everything.
05:14All genres of music, all cultures, all styles.
05:19Like I said, we talk at each other,
05:21we talk about each other, we talk to each other,
05:24we lift each other up.
05:25We just have fun.
05:27And I think it's great when you're in a space
05:28where there are people that can identify
05:31with your bottom line.
05:32How am I staying focused for my Broadway moment?
05:44You know what?
05:45I'm just staying in a real space of gratitude.
05:48That I'm here and that not even a year ago
05:51I wasn't even thinking about Broadway
05:53or thinking that I was able to do so in my mind.
05:56It's a challenge, you know, doing eight shows in six days.
06:00It is, because people say, you know, eight shows in a week.
06:02It's like, no, in six days, take a day off,
06:04literally out of that.
06:05You get one day off on Monday.
06:08And it's a grind.
06:09It's kind of like the Olympics, you know?
06:10It's like you train and you train
06:11and then you get into the space where it's like
06:13you have to just show up every day.
06:15I don't get to fake the funk.
06:16I don't get to lip sync.
06:18I mean, even if I'm sick, if I'm not sick enough,
06:21I'm not gonna call out.
06:22You know, it becomes this push every single day.
06:25And I'm so grateful for that.
06:26So I think the preparation of all that
06:28kind of gets me in the space every day to just go for it.
06:32What's it like going from performing solo
06:35to going to perform with a cast?
06:37It's actually a lot of fun.
06:39I don't have to put the whole story on my back,
06:42which I am an important part in this story,
06:45but it's not all about me.
06:46So I get to play off all the different energies
06:48in my cast, oh my God, they're so amazing.
06:50Nichelle Lewis, Kyle Freeman, Phillip Johnson-Richardson.
06:55Just, they are, honestly they're my friends in real life,
06:59but on stage they become my family in another way
07:03because of our characters that we have to play.
07:05And we find that in each other newly every night.
07:08So I'm just grateful to have people around me
07:11that I believe in and that believe in me.
07:14What other Broadway shows would I like to be cast in?
07:15If Dreamgirls ever came back,
07:17I would love to be cast in Dreamgirls.
07:18You know what, I don't really wanna put a cap on me,
07:22but Dreamgirls is the answer.
07:23But I don't wanna put a cap on me.
07:24I want to express myself in many different ways.
07:26You know what, let me speak this into existence.
07:29Hercules, when it comes, I wanna be Hercules.
07:32And I think it's coming in like a year from now,
07:34so we'll see.