Two Broadway stars have become the first openly nonbinary performers to win Tony awards at this year’s Manhattan ceremony.
Actor J Harrison Ghee walked away with the lead actor in a musical award last night, while Alex Newell won the prize for featured actor in a musical.
Ghee, 33, from Fayetteville in North Carolina, won the prestigious award for their performance as a gender-questioning musician in the Casey Nicholaw musical Some Like It Hot.
“For every trans, nonbinary, gender non-conforming human who ever was told you couldn’t be seen, this is for you,” said Ghee in their acceptance speech.
Newell, who won their best featured actor prize for their role as Lulu in Jack O’Brien’s musical Shucked, thanked the world of Broadway theatre for “seeing” them as they accepted their statuette.
“To my entire building and cast and crew of Shucked, you are my rock, I love you all. Thank you for seeing me Broadway,” they said, adding that they “should not be up here” as a black and nonbinary actor.
They are best known for playing transgender teenager Unique Adams on the musical comedy series Glee after coming runner-up on the reality spin-off series The Glee Project
Both Ghee and Newell also thanked their mothers in their acceptance speeches.
“Mommy I love you, thank you for believing in me, thank you for loving me unconditionally, thank you for teaching me what strength is,” said Newell.
“My mother raised me to understand that my gifts that God gave me were not about me, to use them to be effective in the world, to help someone else’s journey. So thank you for teaching me how to live, how to love, how to give,” Ghee said.
While the Tony awards still use gendered performance categories, both Newell and Ghee agreed to be considered under the category of actor rather than actress.
A third nonbinary actor, Justin David Sullivan, who starred in the musical & Juliet, chose not to be considered for a prize instead of competing in a gendered category.
— justin david sullivan (@justindvdsullvn) February 2, 2023
In a pre-award interview with MSNBC, Ghee said: “One of the things that’s helped me in making the decision for myself is the understanding that I will always show up in the fullness of who I am, no matter where someone else compartmentalises me.
“We put labels and limits on people to make sense of them for ourselves,” they said, adding that they “don’t expect other people to get” their identity all the time.
“When I chose this category I literally went to what the word meant,” said Newell of their decision to be considered within the traditionally male category.
“You don’t say I’m going to see my doctor-ess, you don’t say I’m going to get a plumber-ess,” they explained.
“You say, I’m a plumber, I’m a doctor, and I said I’m an actor, so that’s what I chose for that.”