'Yes! Yes!' — Fayetteville families celebrate J. Harrison Ghee, NaTasha Williams at Tonys

When E.E. Smith High School graduate J. Harrison Ghee won on Sunday Broadway’s Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical, his older brother celebrated in Fayetteville.

“Yes! Yes!” James Ghee shouted, raising his hands over his head along with his daughter, 7½-year-old London.

“Oh! Dude!” he said as he watched J. Harrison Ghee go to the stage of the United Palace theater in New York to collect the award for their performance in “Some Like It Hot.”

“Yes!” he said again.

James’ fiancee, Tiffany Owensby, clasped her hands to her chest and grinned.

Earlier in the evening in the Baywood area east of Fayetteville, friends and family of Cumberland County native and Cape Fear High School graduate NaTasha Yvette Williams were cheering for her appearance at the Tony Awards even though she did not take home a trophy. Williams was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical.

In another North Carolina-Tony Awards connection, the stage play “Fat Ham” by Gaston County native James Ijames did not win any Tonys despite being nominated in five categories, including Best Play.

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J. Harrison Ghee thanks their mom

Williams and J. Harrison Ghee are cast mates in “Some Like It Hot,” a musical based on the classic movie. Although both grew up in the Fayetteville area and performed on stage here, the performers have previously said they did not meet until they were cast in this show.

“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 somebody else's journey. So thank you for teaching me how to live, how to love, how to give,” Ghee said during their acceptance speech. Ghee’s mother, Rae Ghee, was in the audience.

“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, holding up the trophy.

On Sunday, Ghee and Alex Newell were the first openly nonbinary actors in history to win Tonys for acting, which are the top awards for stage performances on Broadway. Newell was named best-featured actor in a musical for “Shucked.”

Last year, nonbinary composer and writer Toby Marlow won a Tony as co-creator of the musical “Six.”

Life advice from Ghee and Williams: "Know that anything is possible" and be persistent.

James Ghee said his brother was driven to succeed in performance since they were young.

“He’s just been great at everything,” James Ghee said. “He did ‘The Wiz’ when he was at E.E. Smith. And he was the Tin Man. And so he started tap dancing.

“I said, ‘Mom.’ I said, ‘When — when did Joe take tap-dancing lessons?’” Ghee said.

“She was like, ‘He didn’t.’”

Since then, James Ghee said, J. Harrison Ghee has had tap lessons and tap dances in “Some Like It Hot.”

NaTasha Williams' dad hosts a Tony Awards watch party

Across the Cape Fear River from Fayetteville, around 30 to 35 gathered for a Tony Awards watch party at the home of NaTasha Williams’ father, David Williams.

“Ever since I was little, she’s been in stuff — plays and everything. So this is really the culmination or the biggest event she’s been in, so we’re very proud of her,” said her brother, Priamos V. Williams.

Even though NaTasha didn’t win, “she got a good experience,” David Williams said. “This is not the end, and hopefully this will be just a start for some other experience that she has that gives her the same opportunity to win a Tony.”

When the cast of “Some Like It Hot” took the stage to perform a song and dance from their show, the revelers focused on the televisions in the Williams home and clapped and cheered.

Longtime friend and high school classmate Carolyn Armstrong had seen “Some Like It Hot” in April.

“Her performance really stunned, because I’ve seen her before. But this show here, NaTasha really shined,” she said.

Ten-year-old Carrington Tucker, a member of Williams’ extended family, takes heart in Williams’ career.

“I believe in her. She did her very best. And there’s always next time,” Carrington said.

Senior North Carolina reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville's J. Harrison Ghee wins best musical actor at Tony Awards