I'm Thought Number -- What'd you just call me?
You are -- Well, Thought Number 13.
Yes. The white thought.
The white thought. Yes, yes.
I'm still hoping for my audition
when they audition for this show.
Hold out.
♪♪
Garen: The lives of Broadway performers are busy.
They only have a few short hours
between their matinee and evening performances,
and they're giving us an inside look,
from grabbing a bite to unwinding,
plus a backstage tour.
Have you ever wanted to see what we do
in the time sandwiched between performances?
Follow along and find out.
This is "Broadway Sandwich."
♪♪
Today, we're at a show that has won all the major awards --
the Tony, Pulitzer, Obie, Drama Desk,
Outer Critics Circle.
It's a show about a Black queer writer
writing a musical about a Black queer writer
writing a musical about a Black queer writer...
Hey, now I get the title -- "A Strange Loop"!
♪ Big, Black, and queer-ass American Broadway ♪
Garen: The cast members in the show let us into
the main character's mind and portray his thoughts.
The show is funny, emotional, and non-traditional.
The show's creator, Michael R. Jackson,
wrote the book, music, and lyrics to the show,
which has taken Broadway by storm.
But it didn't happen overnight.
The journey to Broadway for this show took 20 years.
Our guest today is L Morgan Lee,
who just made history as the first openly trans person
ever to be nominated for a Tony Award.
And she did it for her Broadway debut.
She plays multiple characters
that embody the main character's inner thoughts.
Garen: L Morgan! How are you? Aah!
Hello. Good to see you.
Good to see you.
So, how was your first show?
A lot.
It is a lot. It's a lot.
It's a lot of amazing. I have to tell you,
I love this show. Thank you.
You are fabulous in it. Thank you.
So, what are we doing in the time sandwich between?
Well, we need to grab something to eat,
so I figured we would stop by the deli next to our theater.
I go every day, and it's really good. Convenient.
I need to look for a couch. Some call it a sofa.
Little sofa shopping. Why not?
And then I'll come back to the theater
and show you around a little bit.
Sounds like a nice, little loop.
Oh, God. Yes. Yes, a loop.
Shall we? It's just the beginning of the day.
Oh, my God! Come on, L Morgan.
♪♪
Where did this all start?
How did you get into the theater?
I mean, the first memory is certainly
my teachers in nursery school
dolled me up with, like, lipstick and my clothing.
And I did "Karma Chameleon" by Boy George.
And my mom was like,
"What in the world did you -- What did you do to my child?"
♪♪
This is a dream come true for me.
♪♪
You're the first person with trans experience
to be nominated for a Tony Award, right?
So people are going to go to that right away,
because it's such an amazing milestone
and it's really important.
And there are barriers being broken.
Sure. And young folks
are seeing themselves represented in a different way.
My biggest mission is literally for, like, some kid like me
to be able to, like, find me in the mix of things.
The idea that some kid could see what you're doing
and, like, it somehow help them define themselves
or help them to feel seen
or help them to feel like they're not alone,
those are the things that, like, make all the stuff that we experience worth it.
On your own path
to self-discovery and self-affirmation,
when did that happen?
Where along your journey did, you know, that start for you,
in a different way?
I certainly always had feelings
that certain things did not align.
I definitely have a memory of being like six years old
and, like, being in my bedroom and, like, looking up at the sky
in the middle of the night, crying and thinking, like,
"If I woke up and I was a girl, everything would be perfect.
Everything would be better."
I will say, today, since then, waking up as a girl,
it ain't all perfect or better or easy.
But -- But... [ Laughs ]
But it's really important to me that...
that trans people know...
that you don't ever have to be anything other than yourself.
That's really important to me, because I think that
we keep seeing so many -- All that we are shown on TV,
all that we are shown in so many articles
and in so many interviews
is this sort of -- this obsession with before and afters
and this sort of obsession with how far this human needed to go
in order to feel affirmed.
And I don't want us to feel like we have to go that far,
because there's nothing wrong with us.
And I -- If you needed to do these things
to feel affirmed? Amazing, beautiful.
Like, do it.
But you were great, day one.
And I think that it's really important that we see
that day one was beautiful,
this is what a trans person looks like.
We do live on this binary of right/wrong, yes/no,
male/female, all of those things.
And that's never the case.
Life is complex and complicated and beautiful.
To me, transition was always learning to love
and embrace the fullness of who you are.
Hey. And if that is the thing,
we are all transitioning constantly.
We should be. Yeah. Since people are -- I hope we are.
I hope we are always learning to love
and embrace the fullness of who we are a little bit more.
Yeah.
♪♪
The Tony Awards.
Tony nomination -- You get a ton of attention,
and you living your authentic self
and being outspoken and telling your story
have been really impactful for a lot of people. Mm-hmm.
So, what has that experience been like for you?
People have this way of saying words like "trailblazer"
and "ceiling breakers" and all these kinds of things,
but I'm literally, like, just L Morgan
trying to put one foot in front of the other. Yeah.
Because for me, look, I don't have a couch.
So, like, I'm... [ Laughs ]
We're taking a stand, we're fixing that.
I know. We're gonna fix that here. Yes.
Was it always a dream to be nominated for a Tony?
Yes, it was always the dream.
I certainly did not...
I can't say I didn't see it coming,
because I'm a person that's like,
I believe that dreams can come true. Yeah, clearly.
So I hoped that it would happen at some point.
I did not foresee it so soon, though,
in terms of, like, this is my Broadway debut.
Right. I didn't know that was going to happen like that.
My life changed that quickly.
Though, one thing I did think was,
"If I don't get to go up there,
whatever this moment is has to be --
like, if I don't win, for instance,
this is the moment." The moment.
And the one thing I had to say was, "Hi, Mom."
Like, "Thanks, Mom."
So...that was it.
That's so beautiful. [ Chuckles ]
Yeah. And then my mom afterwards --
like, people were calling her, being like,
"Oh, my God. She said, 'Hi, Mom.' Did you see her?"
And she was like, "You said, 'Hi, Mom,' to me,
and I started crying."
That was the one thought I had, that I --
the one thing I had to say in that moment.
So I'm glad I got to.
Hi, Mom. Hi, Mom. [ Chuckles ]
♪♪
Well, here we are at CB2.
Maybe they have a Tony-nominee discount.
[ Laughs ] That would be nice. Yeah.
This caught my eye right away.
Yeah, this is pretty fabulous.
It's not a couch, but it's something
that one might want to get.
It's very polar bear, wig hammock.
[ Laughs ] Wig hammock. Wig hammock.
I mean, this does look like hair, actually. You know what I mean?
So, okay, Tony nominated.
Glamorous life from the outside.
You must have the most fabulous sofa for you to relax on
after your really difficult job.
How long have you been without a sofa?
Oh, since January.
So, what have you been sitting on since then?
So, there's this whole story about Patti Murin and our cast.
Uh-huh. Patti Murin of "Frozen" fame.
Patti Murin of "Frozen" fame. Yes, yes, yes.
Patti stole a yoga mat from one of our rehearsals.
We don't know if this is actually true,
but we are saying it's true, and it stuck.
So Patti Murin, yoga thief, is what I'm hearing.
Yes, yes. And there's been a whole sort of, like,
social media back-and-forth with Patti,
who also participated in this with, like, a really cool video
of her with all these yoga mats
that she's stolen from all the shows.
Oh, great.
So I received in the mail a yoga mat
that said Love Patti on it.
My sofa has been a yoga mat.
Oh. [ Sighs ]
Okay, a dramatic fall.
Oh, it's super comfortable. Oh, this is great.
Yeah, I love it.
We can look at squatches.
Squatches. Squatches.
You heard it here first. It's a squatch.
Squatches. I like this one, though.
♪♪
I feel like my couches have always been versions of these.
Same one, that. Yeah.
Which is why I need to...
No, we're going to amp up the color. ...need to change it up.
Yeah. This is a great color.
I would rather it be a bit deeper.
I like this. Mm-hmm.
That's a good color palette for me.
Nice.
Okay, So what do you think?
What did we -- what did we learn today?
So we have some contenders, definitely.
Okay, we have some contenders
I will definitely be coming back.
My only thing is, I really want to make sure
we've tried every sofa in this place.
Okay. Mostly because I smell a montage coming.
[ Chuckles ] You know what I mean?
Let's do it.
♪♪
This is our 60 Second Sandwich, L Morgan Lee.
I'm gonna put 60 seconds on the clock.
Answer as many questions as you can in time given.
Okay. Sound good?
Let's go. You ready? Go.
What's your favorite candy?
Snickers. You love it.
The Raconteur -- "What is your biggest
piece of wisdom that your journey
with 'Loop' has taught you?
P.S., you're freaking amazing."
That's a nice compliment. Oh, thank you.
Biggest thing is to be honest,
no matter if it's complicated, just be honest.
Honesty. What's the worst job you ever had?
The worst job is folding clothes at Gap.
Oh, that sounds... One month.
...like an experience.
Weirdest thing a fan has ever said to you.
Where do you live?
That is kind of awkward.
Nicole Raymond -- "What's your favorite melody in the show?"
My favorite melody in the show.
[ Vocalizing ]
Um,I'm not that one.
That's a nice one.
In my song... [ Vocalizing ]
Just sort of over and over again.
Love it. Favorite non theater?
La, la, la, la, photography.
Do you have any pre-show rituals?
I listen to "Six."
Yes, love that. Time's up.
Way to go. That was amazing.
There was a ding. Shall we?
That was in my bag. Yes.
You want to check your phone.
[ Laughs ]
So, what's it like seeing it from this perspective?
This is weird. It is different.
And there's that part of me that's like will I --
will I feel it the same tonight after having sat out here now.
What of L Morgan Lee is in your character in the show?
Can you relate to the character you play?
Interesting.
The one that I relate to the most out of all of them
is my base character, so not specifically
when I'm taking on the whole extra,
but just the base thought that you see,
like in the opening and sort of throughout the show,
who is the supervisor of sexual ambivalence,
It is me just sort of bumped up a couple notches
and made to be a little bit more leaning into her sensuality.
♪♪
First time I fell in love with you,
before I got to know you a little bit better,
was that iconic L Morgan Lee chaîné offstage
in the beginning of the show.
Oh, God. Could you teach me that?
What do you think? Yes.
This is a supervisor in sexual ambivalence moment.
Okay. She's letting him know
that she's guarding his body and his mind
so that nothing will be allowed in unless he gives the word.
And so it is word, turn, turn and then off.
Word, turn, turn...
And then off. ...and then off.
I mean, yours is a whole lot more graceful than mine is.
No way. Not possible. That was amazing.
♪♪
This is my lovely hair that's about to go onto my head.
♪♪
There's a camera walking by. Hi.
There's a camera about to walk by.
Oh, let me put some makeup on.
You're good. You're good.
So nice to see you. You're amazing in the show.
So cozy. This my room.
Fantastic.
So you guys all have matching robes?
We... [ Laughs ] The whole cast?
Yeah. So there was a moment in the show
where they were looking at the mom's robe
being sort of these variations of animal prints,
and they decided not to use it.
They were like, "Well, everybody just take
the robes and you can have them in your dressing rooms."
My birthday was recently.
My mom sent me these balloons,
which she was very excited about.
Very sweet, and I love them.
So, everyone, I think I need to get to my show prep,
before you tear dressing room apart.
Apart completely.
So you all have to go.
I could just stay be your cheerleader.
No, I think you should go. Yeah, it's time.
It's been amazing spending time together. Get out, yeah. Uh-huh.
Bye. Yup, it's time for me to do the strange loop.
Bye. L Morgan Lee.
♪♪