Broadway Across America’s “Tootsie The Musical” at the Overture Center Through June 17: Born to Be Funny on Stage
Above: Jeff Slater (Jared David Michael Grant) giving advice to his friend Michael Dorsey, advice he probably wouldn’t follow himself.
Below right: Jared David Michel Grant
By Jonathan Gramling
As we conduct our phone interview, one gets the sense that there is a lot of humor just below the surface with Jared David Michael Grant, who plays Jeff Slater in “Tootsie The Musical,” Broadway Across America’s production now appearing at the Overture Center. It feels like he keeps it under control because this is a straight-up interview about his career and Tootsie. But we still get some chuckles in during the course of the interview.
Grant was primed for comedy watching movies as a kid.
“I love the Mel Brooks comedy style,” Grant said. “I was inspired by all of his movies as a child because they are some of the best comedy I have ever seen. Young Frankenstein was one of the movies I would watch on repeat. I also used to watch Leslie Nielson. He was one of my favorite comedy actors. There were the Airplane movies and Dracula: Dead and Loving It, another Mel Brooks movie. Hopefully my career takes me more into comedic musicals.”
Grant knew that he belonged on stage at a very early age.
“I think I realized that when my parents decided to put me in different activities as a child,” Grant said. “My aunt tells the story of when I was playing in a soccer game — I was probably 5-6 years old — and I just stopped in the middle of the field and started doing Michael Jackson dance moves. The other kids were probably like, ‘Why is he doing that?’ I’m not sure what their reaction was. All I know is the game was still going on around me. They probably just ignored me.”
And yet, he was set to be an actor, a musical one at that.
“Since then, it was like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re not a sports kid,’” Grant said with a chuckle. “’You want to be in Fame.’ By then, I was already singing in church doing different plays they would do at the church. And then I went to a performing arts middle school/high school, School of the Arts in Rochester, New York where I started off as a voice major, but then ended up becoming an acting major. That led me to go to Columbia College-Chicago as a musical theater performance major. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to delve myself into the arts more and more then, since the beginning. Two of the theaters that I’ve worked in Chicago were Paramount and Porchlight. I did not do any Second City classes. I do think I was as funny as the people whom I knew were taking those classes. I stayed out of that. They would have free courses and stuff like that. I would take some free courses occasionally.”
While many actors will say that they worked on their craft during the COVID-19 pandemic, Grant matter-of-factly says that he just hung out.
“During the pandemic, I was super unproductive,” Grant admitted. “I played lots of video games. I made banana bread recipes like everyone else. I tried to catch up on all of the TV shows and movies that I have been behind on. I would say that I did a lot of homework watching TV and movies. I would love to do TV and film acting.”
And it was like a dream come true for Grant to be on stage after the pandemic.
“Being on stage is nice, especially coming out of the pandemic,” Grant said. “It was really a blessing to be back on the stage. For a while there, I didn’t know if I was ever going to be on the stage again. It made me realize how lucky and blessed that I have been to be on stages for so many years. It’s really nice, especially with me doing a comedy show. It’s very nice just to hear people laugh and lose their mind in the audience.”
Many people will recall Dustin Hoffman in the film Tootsie in the early 1980s, about a man who dresses like a woman to get a part in a soap opera, but then falls in love with one of the actresses. Tootsie The Musical generally follows the same plot.
“Tootsie The Musical is still basically the same situation with the Michael Dorsey character being the difficult actor and not knowing how to work with people and him getting a job in the art field in dressing up as a woman,” Grant said. “That’s the same. What’s different is that instead of him auditioning for a soap opera, he’s actually auditioning for a musical on Broadway. That’s how we are able to incorporate more song and dance into this production. I would say that is the big difference. It’s like a musical within a musical.”
They have also had to look at the storyline anew, especially with the political environment that the U.S. is in right now.
“We were lucky enough to have the writer Robert Horn in the room with us to really work through those situations that we didn’t want to poke fun at, so we’re not laughing at Michael not knowing how to put on a bra or some off-the-wall scene,” Grant said. “It’s more laughing at the situation around him and how he is going to react to these things that are going on around him. Every city honestly has a different reaction to the show. It’s always interesting to see what they react to and what they laugh at versus what we are used to.”
Grant’s character Jeff Slater is a comedic relief valves in the play. Ge’s a confidant of the main character Michael Dorsey.
“He is the best friend to Michael Dorsey’s character,” Grant said. “He is an unsuccessful writer who is not very motivated. He hasn’t been inspired in a while. He is the Jiminy Cricket to Michael Dorsey. He has great words of wisdom, but he doesn’t take any of the advice he gives to Michael to heart. He’s a little hypocritical, but he isn’t too hypocritical. My character isn’t out here dressing up as a woman to get a job. Some things are a stretch for him and other things, he’s like, ‘Okay.’”
Grant feeds off the audience when giving his performance.
“The reaction of the audience is very helpful,” Grant said. “There are a couple of scenes where my reactions are based off of how the audience is feeling. If I am picking up on their energy, I try to turn that onto the stage and it usually works out. It’s very fun. Everyone in my family has come to see me. Some of my family members have a contest and I believe my sister is winning. She’s seen the show at least six times. I’ve had some aunts and uncles who have seen it four times and my parents have seen it 6-7 times as well. We’ve been going for two years now. They have frequently made stops to see the show. My sister, during our bows, is just screaming my name. And I know the people around her are like, ‘What the heck is going on?’ But she is one of my biggest fans, so she is going to be the loudest person for sure.”
While there may be some messages lurking there somewhere, Grant reminds us that above all else, Tootsie is a comedic musical meant to entertain.
“If you need to just get away from the world and have a good belly-laugh, I would say, ‘Come see Tootsie,’” Grant said. “It’s full of laughter. If you love theater, it’s giving you other themes of musicals in Tootsie as well. Come ready to laugh. Visit the restroom before you take your seat so that you don’t wet yourself from laughing so hard.”
Jared David Michael Grant has come a long ways from doing a Michael Jackson dance on the soccer field when he was five. But he hasn’t lost that youthful ability to just let out a laugh and carry everyone else into a joyful moment. Let him carry you away in Tootsie.
