Jon-Michael Reese discusses A Strange Loop & the importance of "Doing You"!
Jon-Michael Reese
By. Kevin Ray Johnson (Staff Writer for OnStage Blog)
I would like you to meet Jon-Michael Reese. Jon is currently making his Broadway debut in the groundbreaking Pulitzer Prize-winning musical A Strange Loop(which recently received 11 Tony Award Nominations including Best Musical) where he understudies Thought 4,5,6. Some of his favorite credits include James Baldwin in Jimmy and Lorraine (Pillsbury House Theatre); This Bitter Earth(Penumbra Theatre); Nikola Tesla Drops the Beat (ATF); and My Heart Is the Drum (Village Theatre, Gregory Award: Outstanding Actor). He has also performed for well-respected companies such as Westport Playhouse, Drury Lane Theatre, and the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. A Strange Loop is a piece and Art that inspires me as a writer and performer and it is truly what the entire theatre industry needs. Filled with an amazing cast that all compliment the piece flawlessly. There is no one that respects understudies, standbys, and swings more than me and I am beyond honored that Jon-Michael took the time in what is probably a very busy time in his life!
How old were you when you knew you wanted to go into the performing arts?
There was never one moment, it feels like it was a natural escalation from the church plays I did as a kid to high school theater to college to New York. But I will say that early in high school, I stumbled upon the making of Ragtime documentary on PBS. It was my first-time seeing Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell, and that day was the first time I felt it might be possible that I could have a career.
Are there any mentors who helped you become the Great Performer you are today?
Audra McDonald. (I do NOT know her, lol.) I’ve been blessed with a great many teachers in my (ever continuing!) education— some in the theatre, some not — who have seen something in me as a thinking and feeling human, that has made me feel that I am on the right track.
Congratulations on A Strange Loop.What a fresh, groundbreaking, and amazing show. How has your time been in it?
Thank you! It has been and continues to be a beautifully strange loop. I did a two-week workshop of the show back in 2018, was deeply grateful for and at peace with my time on the Loop, and then this February, seemingly out of the blue, I got an audition for this Broadway production, and a month and a half later I made my Broadway Debut in A Strange Loop.
It daily blows my mind that this show exists, that this story is being told, and that I get to be a part of it!
Are there any shows, stories, or memories in your career that sticks out and will always be near and dear to your heart?
Man of La Mancha! I played Don Quixote in my final show senior year of high school and felt I understand what the Impossible Dream meant as I headed off to college to pursue a career in theatre. Over a decade later, I got to play the Padre, who sings (in a song I thought I hated) about what it means to have faith in an impossible thing. It was a full-circle moment where I could see and utilize how much I’d experienced and learned.
What advice would you give any aspiring artist who wants a career in the performing arts?
You have to do you. People do, in fact, want you to succeed, and the best way you can do that is by bringing what you want to bring and not what you think “they” want you to bring. It may not pay off immediately, but if you stick to it and keep present with yourself, it will attract the people who want to work with you!
A Strange Loop is currently playing on Broadway at The Lyceum Theatre. For more information please visit -https://strangeloopmusical.com; and to learn more about Jon-Michael make sure you visit his official website at -https://jon-michael.com