UPDATE: 6/11/23 — Alex Newell is officially the first nonbinary performer to win a Tony Award. “I should not be up here as a queer, nonbinary, fat, black, little baby from Massachusetts,” the performer said during their acceptance speech. “And to anyone that thinks that they can’t do it, I’m going to look you dead in your face and tell you that you can do anything you put your mind to.”
Original story: No shucks given! Alex Newell is making history with their 2023 Tony Award nomination.
The 30-year-old Broadway star portrays Lulu in the new musical comedy Shucked, which opened in New York City in April following its 2022 run in Salt Lake City. When nominations for the 76th annual Tony Awards were announced on Tuesday, May 2, Newell became the first gender nonconforming performer to earn a nod in the Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical category.
“It’s a hot topic, isn’t it?” they teased during an interview with Variety published one week before the announcement, reflecting on how they chose which category to be recognized in. “I went based off the English language. The standard has always been a male is an actor and a female as an actress. And I don’t like that. Because when I say I’m an actor, I mean that is my profession, the craft that I studied, the craft that I’m doing. Everyone who does acting is an actor. That is genderless.”
Newell noted that they “appreciate” the separation between actor and actress in order to give more performers “an actual fighting chance” at taking home a trophy. “If we can create that, we can create more lanes for other people who don’t want to stick to those two categories,” they added. “I think me choosing actor, I hope, will be a spark to use that word as it was meant to the art of acting.”
While the singer called other nonbinary stars “admirable” for withdrawing from awards consideration as a form of protest — as Yellowjackets‘ Liv Hewson recently did — they also urged the industry to make a change. “It should be a wake-up call. Change is inevitable and it will happen, but we need to move a little faster,” they said.
Shucked isn’t Newell’s first Broadway venture — but they’ve never been up for a Tony before. “My entire first time on Broadway was, ‘You were snubbed,’” they told Playbill in March, referring to the 2017 revival of Once on This Island, which received nods in all major categories except best actor. “I went everywhere, and that’s what I was [hearing]. Not, ‘Hello, Alex how are you.’ It was always, ‘Oh, how awful.’ The rationality that was given to me was, ‘Well, we didn’t know what category to put you in. You’re just so different.’ Was that supposed to make me feel better or worse?”
Following Tuesday’s nominations announcement, Newell celebrated their major milestone. “I went to the Met Gala at 8PM and 13 hours later I was Tony Nominated!!!! I’m unwell!” they gushed via Instagram. “Getting to wear @csiriano was iconic!!! With @alexander_armand on hair and @kellybellevue on makeup I couldn’t have asked for a better team!!! @jennyandersonphoto you know how to capture the mothershucking moment!!!!”
As Shucked‘s Lulu — a headstrong whisky distiller — Newell brings the house down each night with their show-stopping performance of “Independently Owned,” often earning a standing ovation halfway through the first act.
“I don’t notice it sometimes. … A couple nights ago, there was someone in the dead center, right behind the conductor who was queening out and screaming ‘Yes, Alex, you better work! You better sing!’” they recalled to Variety. “It was louder than me, and I had a microphone. It was hard because it was a very funny moment.”
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Scroll down to learn more about Newell ahead of the 2023 Tonys in June:
Meredith Nardino
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