WATCH: Get Ready With Avery Wilson For His Broadway Debut

essencemagazine

The singer talks all things The Wiz, how he prepared for his first Broadway role, and his goals for the future.

Transcript

00:00What's it like working with an all-black cast?

00:02It is everything.

00:03You don't have to explain the isms, the struggles.

00:07We get to like, you know, just do as we do.

00:10What's good, everybody?

00:11It's your boy, Avery Wilson,

00:12and I'm here with Essence getting ready

00:13for the yellow carpet for The Wiz opening on Broadway.

00:16Let's go!

00:17What am I most excited about being

00:25in my first Broadway show?

00:27Being The Wiz on Broadway.

00:31I guess I'm excited about being part of history, legacy.

00:34You know, there's so many people that have came before me

00:37and so many amazing, talented men

00:38that have played in this role of the scarecrow.

00:41Now when people look up The Wiz from this point on,

00:43it'll be Avery Wilson and Hinton Battle

00:46and Michael Jackson and Elijah Kelly.

00:49Just amazing names to be in company with.

00:51So I think that's the most exciting part

00:53is that I get to do that and be a part of history

00:56and really make my stamp.

00:57But then, I think as well,

00:59to be able to stand in a spot

01:01where I don't have to hide myself in any way.

01:04I get to act, I get to dance, I get to sing,

01:06I get to literally play and make choices that I want

01:10and show people who I am outside of just a voice

01:13because there is so much more to me than just that.

01:15How do I want my scarecrow character to be perceived?

01:19As he is.

01:21He's not the smartest person in the group,

01:25but he's also not, I guess,

01:28the weirdest, dumbest person either.

01:30He's loving, he's kind, he's very,

01:35I don't know, he's very progressive, honestly.

01:37You would think someone that is getting cursed

01:39to not have a brain or to not have thoughts

01:40wouldn't be as progressive,

01:41but I do, at points in the show,

01:43hold the whole hero group, which is us four, together.

01:47And sometimes I make some decisions or choices

01:50that aren't really favorable in the moments,

01:53but they never stop loving me,

01:54so it allows me to still stay in the confidence,

01:57though I don't have certain things.

02:05I absolutely warm up.

02:07I have a mat in this room, a yoga mat,

02:10that I do headstands

02:12because I just like my whole body to be warm.

02:14I do some yoga.

02:16I don't know, we talk a lot backstage to get us prepared.

02:20It keeps us honest and it keeps the family,

02:24you know, vibe here.

02:25But I do a lot of things that I think make me

02:27just feel at peace and calm and happy

02:30to go on stage to play the role.

02:32How do I fully channel my character on stage?

02:36You know what?

02:37I think I just, art imitates life.

02:39I don't forget my story,

02:41which is, you know, adjacent, I think, to this character.

02:45So I pray when I'm on the pole before the trees open up

02:50and I make sure that I just am very thankful

02:52and very grateful for this moment.

02:53And I really inject my true, honest experience of life

02:58into this moment, you know,

03:00to think about the moments

03:01that I didn't feel like I was winning,

03:03or I did feel like I was trapped,

03:04or, you know, the moments, the great moments too,

03:06where I felt like people in my life that cared about me

03:09came and saved me.

03:10What things did I do to prepare for the Scarecrow role?

03:13I watched a lot of footage.

03:16I watched Hint and Battle and Michael Jackson specifically,

03:19because I think the beauty of being a part of a show

03:24that you are necessarily bringing back as a revival

03:27is that you get to freely create as you want.

03:30You get to shape it so that the people that come behind you

03:33have something to look at,

03:34like I had in Hint and in Michael Jackson.

03:38So yeah, I watched a lot of footage.

03:39I watched the movie 10 times over.

03:43And then after a certain point,

03:44after I watched the stage show and then I watched the movie,

03:47I just stopped watching them

03:48because I had to also respect where things came from,

03:51but then also give myself room to inject myself.

03:54I relate to my character so much.

03:56The Scarecrow is truly someone who,

03:59in the group of us, of the heroes,

04:01the lion, the Tin Man, and Dorothy,

04:04he doesn't have a brain in that way,

04:06but he's not not smart, you know?

04:08He believes in his smartness,

04:09but it's hard for some people to see.

04:12And that's only because he's been trapped in an environment

04:14where people have created this space for him not to believe.

04:18For him not to think that he can.

04:20I do have a backstory in this production.

04:24I was a scientist before,

04:25and I feel like I'm not a scientist,

04:26but I do scientific things,

04:28whether it be music or not.

04:30But yeah, I connect to him

04:32because he got out of the environment

04:33that was holding him back.

04:35And for so long in my music career prior to this,

04:38and just in life period,

04:39I felt like I allowed a lot of people in my environments

04:42to trap me or to create that prism in my mind

04:46to think that I couldn't or I can't.

04:48So to be here and to live this over and over and over again

04:51every night is really just a testament to me,

04:53to let me know that there is possibilities

04:55on the other side of what people deem you

04:57or what they allow you to have, for sure.

04:59Woo, what's it like working with all black cast?

05:02It is everything.

05:03You don't have to explain the isms, the struggles.

05:08We get to just do as we do.

05:11We are the curators of everything.

05:14All genres of music, all cultures, all styles.

05:19Like I said, we talk at each other,

05:21we talk about each other, we talk to each other,

05:24we lift each other up.

05:25We just have fun.

05:27And I think it's great when you're in a space

05:28where there are people that can identify

05:31with your bottom line.

05:32How am I staying focused for my Broadway moment?

05:44You know what?

05:45I'm just staying in a real space of gratitude.

05:48That I'm here and that not even a year ago

05:51I wasn't even thinking about Broadway

05:53or thinking that I was able to do so in my mind.

05:56It's a challenge, you know, doing eight shows in six days.

06:00It is, because people say, you know, eight shows in a week.

06:02It's like, no, in six days, take a day off,

06:04literally out of that.

06:05You get one day off on Monday.

06:08And it's a grind.

06:09It's kind of like the Olympics, you know?

06:10It's like you train and you train

06:11and then you get into the space where it's like

06:13you have to just show up every day.

06:15I don't get to fake the funk.

06:16I don't get to lip sync.

06:18I mean, even if I'm sick, if I'm not sick enough,

06:21I'm not gonna call out.

06:22You know, it becomes this push every single day.

06:25And I'm so grateful for that.

06:26So I think the preparation of all that

06:28kind of gets me in the space every day to just go for it.

06:32What's it like going from performing solo

06:35to going to perform with a cast?

06:37It's actually a lot of fun.

06:39I don't have to put the whole story on my back,

06:42which I am an important part in this story,

06:45but it's not all about me.

06:46So I get to play off all the different energies

06:48in my cast, oh my God, they're so amazing.

06:50Nichelle Lewis, Kyle Freeman, Phillip Johnson-Richardson.

06:55Just, they are, honestly they're my friends in real life,

06:59but on stage they become my family in another way

07:03because of our characters that we have to play.

07:05And we find that in each other newly every night.

07:08So I'm just grateful to have people around me

07:11that I believe in and that believe in me.

07:14What other Broadway shows would I like to be cast in?

07:15If Dreamgirls ever came back,

07:17I would love to be cast in Dreamgirls.

07:18You know what, I don't really wanna put a cap on me,

07:22but Dreamgirls is the answer.

07:23But I don't wanna put a cap on me.

07:24I want to express myself in many different ways.

07:26You know what, let me speak this into existence.

07:29Hercules, when it comes, I wanna be Hercules.

07:32And I think it's coming in like a year from now,

07:34so we'll see.

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