The luminously talented Micki Grant has passed away at the age of 80
(Photo: The New York Times)
Known for her inextinguishable drive, Ms. Grant, who passed away this week at the age of 80, was the first Black person to be hired as a commercial jingle composer, the first Black person to have a non-silent role in a commercial, and the first Black person to receive a contract role on daytime television. She was the first woman to write the book, lyrics, and score for a musical, and the first woman to win a Grammy award for a Broadway cast recording.
Born in Chicago in 1941 to a highly skilled saleswoman and a musically gifted barbershop owner, she was originally named Minnie, which she changed at a young age to avoid comparisons to Minnie Mouse (Ms. Grant was particularly petite, which also led to the nickname “Mini”). At 12 she published a book of poetry entitled A String of Pearls, foreshadowing a remarkable literary talent in addition to her formidable skill as an actress.
In 1966 Ms. Grant was cast on NBC’s Another World, becoming the first Black performer to hold a contract role on daytime television. She played the role of attorney Peggy Nolan for 7 years and later appeared on Guiding Light, The Edge of Night, Law and Order, and All My Children.
In 1972, Ms. Grant wrote and starred in the seminal musical, Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope, a musical revue that examined the African American experience through numerous musical styles. The musical was nominated for four Tony Awards, and Ms. Grant was the first woman in history to be nominated for Best Score and Best Book of a Musical without a male collaborator, and the first woman to create all three of the main disciplines (composition, lyric writing, and book writing) for a nominated musical.
Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope was directed by Vinnette Justine Carroll, the first Black woman to direct on Broadway. Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Book of a Musical went to Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s A Little Night Music, with Bob Fosse taking home the fourth award for Best Direction. However, the musical took home the Grammy Award for Best Score from an Original Cast Album, the first piece penned by a woman to be awarded - a feat which would not be replicated for nearly 50 years until Anaïs Mitchell won for Hadestown in 2020 (coincidentally, Ms. Mitchell also wrote the book, music, and lyrics for Hadestown). Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, and the Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Lyricist and Outstanding Performance, both of which were given to Grant in recognition of her masterful work onstage and off.
Grant and Carroll later collaborated on another musical, Your Arms Too Short to Box with God (which garnered another Grammy nomination), and I'm Laughing but I Ain't Tickled. At one point, Grant had two musicals running simultaneously on Broadway, Your Arms Too Short to Box with God and It’s So Nice to Be Civilized. Ms. Grant was one of the powerhouse composers to write for the musical Working, based on Studs Terkel’s book “Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do”, which has gone down as one of the most successful multi-collaborator musicals in the history of Broadway.
In the months before her death, Ms. Grant expressed a wish to write a novel, perform in a blockbuster film, and write a musical based on the life of Harriet Tubman.
Said Ms. Grant in an interview with StageBuddy late last year -
“If you can see it, if you can visualize it, if you can imagine it in your mind, in your thoughts, and if it’s real to you…then it’s already partly accomplished… Even those things that are standing in your way, if there’s some way you can see around them, then they can be moved. But my point is, you have to dream first, you have to have the big dream, you have to want it. Nothing just drops in our lap, we have to go for it. We have to dream it and make the dream real. I always saw myself doing what I wanted to do before I did it. So dream it first and realize it doesn’t have to remain a dream--it can be a dream come true.”