This is the extended version of the interview.
Matt Bearden: On behalf of David Magazine, thank you so much for making time for this interview. I’m excited to meet you and learn how you bring yourself to the role of Lulu. Where did you grow up? Where did your singing begin?
Miki Abraham: I was raised in Paducah, Kentucky. I grew up singing country music and doing musical theater. I had to make a choice between whether I was going to pursue musical theater or vocal country music. When I was 19, I played Alex in The Glee Project in 2011. I was like the country singer on the show. The fact that Shucked was my Broadway debut and it’s a country musical theater show feels like some wild stuff. I’ve lived in New York for almost 10 years. I’m married to another actor, Alex Joseph Grayson, who is in Outsiders right now on Broadway. And then I have a little shih tzu named Jennifer Lewis. Oh! When I was younger, I used to clog like tap dancing and went to clogging conventions
MB: Clogging?! That’s amazing. I’ve never met a clogger before. In a way, that demystifies and shows a dimension of you none of us would expect, that you have a personality—a really kooky one! Did you find Shucked or did Shucked find you?
MA: We found each other. My whole journey with Shucked is maybe one of my favorite stories. Six years ago, my husband and I met on tour with Once on this Island. I was helping him with an audition for an untitled musical. We had no idea what it was or what it was about. We didn’t even know it was a country musical. Years passed, and in 2021, I got my first audition for this show. Still didn’t have a name. I sang the opening number, “Corn.” I ended up booking another show that took me out of the running. I remember being like, “If [Shucked] is supposed to happen for me, it’ll happen for me.” I declined the final callback, went and did a show in Florida. Six months later, I got another audition for a show called Shucked, and I looked at it, realized it was the untitled show I originally auditioned for! June of 2022, I ended up going through the callback process and booking an off-stage swing role where I covered four ensemble characters and understudied Lulu. At the time, Lily Cooper was originally playing Lulu, and then she left and Alex Noel joined. We did the pre-Broadway run in Salt Lake City, Utah, then transferred to Broadway. We opened April 4th, and without any rehearsal at all, I debuted Lulu on April 6th. So, it’s just been this wild thing of making sense that I should be in this show. Shucked has been with me for a long time. We found each other.
MB: It kind of speaks to the trust the process idea.
MA: Absolutely. It is a trusting the process thing. I moved to New York right after I graduated from college. I lived there for a little over 10 years. I was working, but the goal was Broadway, right? And that didn’t happen for me until I was 31. It makes so much sense because I wouldn’t have wanted it to happen with any other show. I understudied Alex on Broadway–they were the first non-binary person to win a Tony for this role on Broadway. It just feels right to follow their steps in playing Lulu.
MB: Trust the process! Okay, who is Lulu to Miki?
MA: Lulu kind of encapsulates every matriarch that exists in my family. I was raised by Southern women. I’m biracial: my father is black and my mother’s white. And so I have the two ends of the spectrum of Southern: eastern Kentucky mountain Southern and the Mississippi black Southern. Whenever first I created this character, my parents said, they saw my grandmothers. Friends have said they see mannerisms that are like my mom. There’s a mixture of this femininity and masculinity that exists in Lulu that I think is just one of my favorite things about playing the role. She takes up space in such a specific way, too.
MB: What have you learned while playing Lulu after all this time?
MA: Lulu is teaching me a lot about queerness and my gender identity. Our creative team accidentally created a queer non-binary character in the musical theater canon. Alex Newell is non-binary, and then I took over the role on the tour, and I’m not binary. In London, the Vall who is playing Lulu right now in the production they’re going to do at Regent’s Park is a queer individual. It’s just so beautiful. It’s the whole idea of love is love is love. I’ve learned that Lulu, in this strong, feminine-masculine role is to take up as much space as possible and make space even when there’s not space, has taught me a lot about me. It’s okay to show up have like tons of makeup on and be super hyper-fem, which is what I do every night in this show. It allows for a lot of space for growth and exploration. I’m having like the best time.
MB: You said this character has helped you figure out who you are as a non-binary person. How do you work with that space every single day? It’s like a code-switching moment? Is that right?
MA: There was a moment of having to look in the mirror and be like, “Okay, this is the way that I’m going to look.” Eight times a week I’m gonna look in a mirror more than I ever do. I’m gonna see this this girly pop character and I’m gonna be perceived by thousands of people looking this way. And I had to have a moment with myself where I was understanding this is how this is going to be. I had to figure out how to make this work for me, y’know? I think one of the biggest things is that I’ve just switched my brain to be like, oh, I’m in girl drag. I must put myself in the space of this is a character that I am portraying, and this is not me, I am putting on this persona. Because of that, it’s given me more freedom and creativity in the way that I dress in my regular life now. Not that gender is about, like, how you dress, because it’s so much more than that, but it’s also an outward expression of what you’re comfortable with.
MB: It reminds me of that scene from Burlesque, where Samuel Tucci talks to Gwen Stefani, and she’s saying, “My thong is a mile up my ass and my eyelashes could pick up the stiff wind.” And Tucci says, “it’s fun being a girl, isn’t it?”
MA: It’s very much that. My company is just so wonderful and so supportive and so great, and even when it comes down to pronouns. They know that sometimes I’m existing in a space where I’m a little bit uncomfortable with the way that I look. And everyone is so, so supportive and loving. The other day, we bought walkie talkies for all the principals. Someone said, “Oh, I got walkie talkies, but I got an extra pink one. But don’t worry—I ordered a black one because I’m not gonna give you a pink one.” It helps me show up in the space because there’s a community behind me that’s like, “We see you.”
MB: You have a family around you, and it seems also that Lulu comes from your identity and your experiences with, of course, the way Lulu’s written, but also the people you are surrounded by that help you nurture that character. For those of us who may not occupy those spaces, who may only see the binary in the show’s portrayal, or those of us who may not identify as non-binary, how can they find themselves in this musical that’s country oriented? It creates an interesting contradiction or a puzzle of queerness.
MB: Something that is that is interesting to know about the whole thing is that this whole show was created by queer people. The show creators, Shane McAnally and Brandy Clark, are gay. The writer, Robert Horn, is gay. It is gay through and through. It’s important for you to know that it was written for us by us for the queer people. What queer people can find in this company and in this show is that Cob County is just a place where everybody is just who they are. There’s different body types and gender expressions and all kinds of different diversity in this company on tour. it’s the most diverse company I’ve ever seen or been involved in, and it’s really just like people are playing people. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of Schitt’s Creek. I mean, this is the town that we live in, where we all love each other, and we’re family. Let it serve as a safe space for two and a half hours for queer people to come and just laugh and know that it’s a safe space to laugh. There’s a lot of us up there on stage, and there’s a lot of us singing the songs that were written by us. We’ve got you.
MB: By the way, we have a Cobb County in Georgia.
MA: Right!Andrew Durand, who originated one of the roles in Shucked, is from Marietta, Georgia
MB: I’d like to do a quick-fire round of questions, okay? Your motto, “The most important story you will ever tell is the one you tell yourself about yourself.” Where did that come from?
MA: Yeah. It came from my big brain! It’s just positive self talk, you know? You can’t tell yourself you can’t do something and then expect to go outside and do it and have other people validate you. It just like doesn’t work that way.
MB: How many times have you played Lulu?
MA: 275 times. On the road and on Broadway. Combined 275 times.
MB: What’s your favorite food?
MA: Pizza. Pizza or potatoes.
MB: What’s your go to drink?
MA: I was going to say Hendrix gin and tonic.
MB: What is your dream role? I know you just said a lot of praise for Lulu, but what would be your dream role?
MA: I would love to play Jenna from Waitress. First of all, Sarah Bareilles music. Are you kidding? Let me sing it forever. It is definitely because of Sucked that I want to play all these roles that exist in this idea that maybe she’s from where I’m from. There’s something very healing about performing characters that are from Middle America, from the Midwest that are going through things. I just feel such a connection to Jenna, because it almost feels like if my life would have made the butterfly effect, my life would have gone one opposite way. I could have never left the Midwest. I could have never left Kentucky. I could have been in any sort of situation. Who knows? And so I think that those stories just really captivate me, and I was just really, I would love to play that role.
MB: Who’s your favorite artist?
MA: Ooh, Bon Iver, hands down my favorite musical artist. They just came out with their most recent album, Sable Sable, and I’m obsessed with it. I listen to it every day.
MB: What is your favorite city you’ve ever been in?
MA: Eugene, Oregon.
MB: You’re gonna need to explain that one.
MA: I think there is a part of me, in an alternate universe, that lives in Oregon and has a farm and sits in the yard and drinking mushroom coffee. There’s a version of me that is doing that. Yeah. I went to Eugene or years ago on tour with Beautiful, and I was like, it is beautiful here! I feel there’s something here that’s like pulling me. And it could just be that mixture between the south and also not quite the south.
MB: Thank you so much for taking time and talk to me about this wonderful role and getting to know you as a person and your journey and your favorites. I’m so excited to see the show and hear all these corn puns.
Shucked premieres at the Fabulous Fox Theater on May 20th – May 25th. Get tickets at foxtheatre.org today!