Brandon Victor Dixon On His Tony Nomination For “Shuffle Along”

Brandon Victor Dixon On His Tony Nomination For “Shuffle Along”Posted by Wilson Morales

June 6, 2016

As the Tony Awards are set to air on June 12, it will be an historic moments the world will get to see the most amount of Black actors nominated in the acting field. At a time when there was a lack of diversity shown at this year’s Oscars, the Tonys are quite the opposite. With Hamilton leading the pack with 16 nominations, followed by Shuffle Along, or, the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, there are other shows like The Color Purple and Eclipsed that are bringing some of its actors as nominees.

One of the nominees is Brandon Victor Dixon for Shuffle Along. Dixon is a theater vet and has been to the dance once before, but that was over a decade ago when he was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance as Harpo in The Color Purple (2005). Since then, he appeared in other productions such as Hayward Patterson in The Scottsboro Boys and Berry Gordy Jr. in Motown: The Musical. This year, he’s nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical for his role as Eubie Blake in Shuffle Along. That show features as all-star black cast of Tony winners and past nominees, with Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Billy Porter included in the cast.

Blackfilm.com had an opportunity to speak with Brandon on his role and his Tony nomination.

How excited are you for the nomination?

Brandon Victor Dixon: I’m very excited. I last got nominated about ten years ago when I was in the Color Purple, so you know. The Color Purple is back on Broadway and I am as well and the folks there are happy to have the nomination as well.

The fact that you said ten years just tells you it’s not easy to get back to the dance.

Brandon Victor Dixon: No, I never thought it would take me this long and you know, the nomination always feels good, right? By the time your friends like Colman Domingo start trying to clown and you talking about looking at dusty ass Tony nominations you got. You know, you’ve got to come with something.

Can you talk about the role you’re playing in “Shuffle Along”?

Brandon Victor Dixon: I play the role of Eubie Blake and Eubie Blake was one of the writers of “Shuffle Along.” He wrote the score, the music to “Shuffle Along.” Eubie Blake is an extraordinarily important, kind of innovator and founder of really jazz piano, the stride style and ragtime in the United States. Really one of the main innovators of those styles of music and Eubie was one of the few creators of the show “Shuffle Along.” He was one of the few African American creators of the entertainment and music genres from that period who were able to achieve a lasting potential level of success. Eubie found a real big circuit when he was seventy and, toured the world, played on Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin at the time and people really got to know that his music just didn’t roll into what he contributed. It got to really show him being appreciating the thought that he served.

Was this a role that they came after you or you went after it?

Brandon Victor Dixon: They called me and I went in. I auditioned and I did it for George Wolfe who was our extraordinary director and a brilliant, brilliant artist. When they called me in and they told me about it I knew that I wanted it so I learned the scale I learned the piano part for it. I came in and I put it down.

This particular show has an all star of cast members who have been Tony winners, Tony nominated people, black in particular. How exciting is that, in a way, this is the first all-star black Broadway production?

Brandon Victor Dixon: It’s exciting because black or white, this is pretty much the most extraordinary collection of stars as in artists, that have been gathered for a show. There’s almost no show that you can look to that will boast the level of talent of Audra McDonald, of Brian Stokes Mitchell, of Billy Porter, Joshua Henry, myself, and our cast, channeling all of the work of Savion Glover and all the knowledge, the input that George C. Wolfe had. You won’t find a more extraordinary gathering, collection of people, white or black. That’s one of the things that makes it so extraordinary, so rare, so special.

How was working along with the cast through the rehearsal process until now? How long did it take to get the chemistry going so that way when we see it onstage, it’s perfect?

Brandon Victor Dixon: Considering the life that it takes most shows to get to our point, it was fairly short. Over the course of about two years, George and Savion did a couple of workshops with the cast core and then Adrian Warren, my fellow Tony award nominee, she came and joined that. They did a lot of developmental work with them and then I joined in September. That’s when we had the core of the principal together, so really then September will be four weeks. We did four weeks in November and then we started rehearsals in January. Not a long period of time relative to the amount of time it takes most Broadway shows to develop, but certainly it was an intense period. What we managed to create in that period of time, the level of ambition that this show has required is quite high, what we managed to accomplish, what George and Savion and Scott Rudin have managed to put together is beyond a special achievement.

Compared to the other shows you’ve done, is this more or less work for you?

Brandon Victor Dixon: This is a different kind of work, but also it is less to a certain degree because it’s shared among such a strong core of people. Shows like “Motown”, I, in the role of Berry Gordy was a lead role. He’s Berry that entire show, so that requires a certain level of energy and that is different than what “Shuffle Along” requires. You have the structure of it has a less supportive feed throughout. Things like, With The Scottsboro Boys, it’s shorter but it’s a very intense hour and a half. This one reminds us of it, but it’s fantastic to be up there with that collection of people.

It was just announced recently that Broadway had a big year in terms of box office grosses. Some people have said that goes to diversity that’s been on Broadway. That’s good especially when you think about this year and all the talk regarding diversity. I think this is the most amount of actors of color, nominated for Tony’s this year.

Brandon Victor Dixon: I believe that is correct and the only reason that that is happening is because the stories that are being told are being told by a diverse lexicon of actors and actresses. It’s not like there’s been some sudden explosion of talent. People of the different ethnicities have always been extraordinarily talented, it’s just that the individuals who are willing to put money behind those kinds of stories, those kinds of story tellers, are more like the derivative. That’s one thing on Broadway and in television and film, it’s not a new phenomenon.

I think the individuals, the naysayers have finally been forced to succumb because anybody who is going to try and claim that you can’t make a hit or you can’t sell a product, particularly an entertainment product with stars that are non-white is just ignoring the facts and that’s an entire absurdity. There’s some sort of historical research giving, even during more trying and limited racial segregated times, black people were the prime innovators in entertainment in each and every genre. You might have made us come to the back, but you were sitting waiting in that seat. You paid your money, you wanted to see us. We set the standard, we always have, and it’s lovely that we are taking these opportunities now to tell these stories and tell human stories that people are embracing.

With ten nominations, obviously the second most for this year, what do you tell people if they don’t know about the show why should you tell them to go see “Shuffle Along?”

Brandon Victor Dixon: Because it will change their life. I say that with no superfluous, I’m not being superfluous and with no even amount of hubris. Our show is an extraordinarily rare gem created by masters. I am honored to be a part of it and it’s extraordinarily exhiliratingly entertaining and on top of it you learn about individuals that will be crucial to your understanding of yourself and what you do it for.