From “Glee” and Cruise Ships to Historic Tony Winners: Meet Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee
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J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell made history during the 76th Tony Awards on Sunday when they became the first two openly nonbinary actors to win the coveted Broadway award in two of the acting categories.
Ghee won the Tony for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for their performance in Some Like it Hot, while Newell took home the award for Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical for their role in Shucked. It was the first Tony nomination for both performers.
“Thank you for seeing me, Broadway,” Newell said at the ceremony. “To anyone that thinks they can’t do it, I’m going to look you dead in your face [and say] that you can do anything you put your mind to.”
At a time when several states are pursuing legislation affecting medical care, bathroom access, and sports participation for transgender people, the victories of Ghee and Newell are seen as an important landmark moment for the LGBTQ community.
“For every trans, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming human who ever was told you couldn’t be, you couldn’t be seen, this is for you,” Ghee said during their acceptance speech. Read on to learn more about the barrier-breaking lives and careers of both performers.
Who is Alex Newell?
Prior to their Tony win, Newell was best known for their role as Unique Adams on the Fox musical series Glee. They also starred as Asaka in the Broadway revival of Once on This Island in 2017.
Newell was 6 when their father died of cancer, leaving their single working mother to raise Newell in Massachusetts. Without ever having taken formal voice lessons, Newell was among about 34,000 people who submitted an audition tape for The Glee Project, a reality television series in which contestants competed for a role on the hit musical comedy series.
Newell made it onto the show and finished as a runner-up, but the Glee producers were so impressed that they were cast in a two-episode part as Wade “Unique” Adams, the show’s first transgender character. Newell portrayed Wade as a shy teen who comes out of her shell through an outspoken and confident alter ego named Unique.
Newell was widely praised for their portrayal of one of network television’s first transgender characters. After conservative critics like Bill O’Reilly condemned the character, Newell responded: “When people don’t understand something, their first reaction is to hate it. But [the LGBT community] isn’t going away. We’re a part of everyday life, and people need to be educated.”
Following Glee, Newell launched a successful career as an actor and singer, touring with fellow Glee castmate Adam Lambert and releasing original songs, including the well-received single “This Ain’t Over.” They made their Broadway debut as a god named Asaka in the 2017 revival of Once on This Island, a musical set in the French Antilles.
In 2020, Newell began co-starring in the NBC musical series Zoe’s Extraordinary Playlist. Two years later, they originated the role of Lulu in Shucked, a musical about a couple in a rural Midwestern town forced to postpone their wedding when the corn crop goes bad. Supporting character Lulu is a local whiskey distiller.
Variety called Newell’s character the show’s “undeniable breakout,” and The New York Times said she “bring[s] down the house” with her showstopping song “Independently Owned,” which the newspaper described as a “feminist anthem.”
Who is J. Harrison Ghee?
Ghee was no stranger to Broadway before their Tony-winning turn in Some Like it Hot, having originated the role of Andre Mayem in Mrs. Doubtfire and winning praise as Lola in Kinky Boots.
“There are pictures of me at age 3 with a mike in hand, singing,” Ghee said. “It’s what I’ve always done. Music is my safe place. It’s where I can express myself. It’s where I can live, and thrive, and inspire, and encourage, and do so many things. Music is my life.”
Raised in North Carolina by a Southern Baptist pastor father, Ghee was bullied in school for their effeminate mannerisms. Ghee attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City. After first learning about drag clothing by watching RuPaul on VH1, they first tried drag themselves after playing a female wrestler in college.
Ghee first started performing professionally at the Tokyo Disney Resort and on cruise ships, continuing to perform in drag and develop their drag persona, Crystal Demure. When they landed the part of drag queen Lulu in Kinky Boots, the producers had no idea they were already a professional drag queen in real life.
“I feel invincible when I’m in drag,” Ghee said. “It’s helped me break out of my shell and live honestly. It’s helped me to live out loud.”
Ghee performed in the national tour of Kinky Boots after its Broadway run and portrayed Velma Kelly in a St. Louis staging of the Bob Fosse musical Chicago in 2021. The next year, Ghee joined the original Broadway cast of Some Like it Hot, a musical adaptation of the 1959 film of the same name, about two jazz musicians who flee the mob by disguising themselves in drag.
Ghee originated the part of Jerry/Daphne, who was played by Jack Lemmon in the film. The New York Times praised the performance, saying Ghee “carefully traces Jerry’s transformation into Daphne, and then the merging of the two identities into a third that takes us into territory that’s far more complex than jokey drag.”
Reflecting on the Tony Wins
Ahead of the Tony Awards ceremony, Ghee said their historic Tony nomination, along with Newell’s, demonstrated that “if a human is doing great work, it should be all about honoring that work,” according to Vogue.
“This definitely feels like it moves the needle forward, not only in our industry of entertainment, but in the world at large,” they said. “Especially with all the legislation going on against the LGBTQIA+ community and against drag queens and trans and nonbinary people, I don’t take it lightly that I have the opportunity to do this role and to be a voice during this time.”
However, the Tony Awards have been criticized for defining its acting categories by gendered terms of “Actor” and “Actress.” Justin David Sullivan, who identifies as trans nonbinary, declined to be considered for a Tony Award for their performance in the musical & Juliet in protest of the gendered categories.
“I am a nonbinary human, and I am playing a nonbinary principal role in a Broadway musical, which we really don’t see a lot of that,” Sullivan said. “So, I think for them to ask whether I would rather be seen more as, you know, male or female, I just felt like I couldn’t rightfully make that call.”
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