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[0:00] James Monroe Iglehart: Hello, this is James Monroe Iglehart and you're listening to And The Tony Goes To...

[0:22] Ilana Levine: Have you ever dreamed of winning a Tony Award? Did you ever practice your Tony acceptance speech in the bathroom mirror? Did you grow up watching the Tony Awards every year? Do you have a collection of Tony Award shows on VHS tape that you refuse to throw out? Well then this is the podcast for you. Every week I interview your favorite Tony Award winners and together we go down memory lane as my guests share intimate and never before shared details about their Tony experience. By the end of every episode you're going to feel like you just won a Tony. Welcome to And The Tony Goes To... I'm your host Ilana Levine. Welcome today's Tony winner James Monroe Iglehart.

[1:03] James Monroe Iglehart: Okay all right um I gotta thank God because I just have to because I prayed for this when I was 17 years old. I have to thank my wonderful wife. She is my foundation. She is my everything. All right now that I've done that let me see mom and dad and my brother Jason. Cool now on to business. I want to thank Disney. I love you. I've wanted to work for you since I was 10 years old. I want to thank Thomas Schumacher. I want to thank Casey Nichola. I want to thank the late great Howard Ashman for envisioning the genie like this. I want to thank Alan Menken. I want to thank Liz Kaplan for saving my voice when everybody was getting sick. I also um I want to thank uh Robin Tribuzzi for teaching me how to tap dance. Celestine Raineyhouse for keeping me in college and I know that this is supposed to be the most dignified um you know award show of the season but I have to do this. This is a praise shout. Hey!

[2:02] Ilana Levine: James, this is a praise shout. Yeah. Yes. What's going through your mind right now as you just listen to your magnificent Tony Award acceptance speech?

[2:12] James Monroe Iglehart: Uh two things. One uh the sheer excitement and um the absolute blessing that I received uh from the lord above for that moment and all the people I forgot to thank. I listen to that speech and I always crack up because there's one name there's two names that should have been in that speech and um there's a reason why they weren't and that's a whole story but I'll tell you the two people. They are Adam Jacobs who played Aladdin, my partner in crime. I love that guy and also Chad Beglin who is the book writer of Aladdin the musical on Broadway and I forgot to mention them because I didn't write a speech and the story goes my wife told me hey you're being nominated for these things you probably should write a speech and usually I do what she says but my ego said you listen this is a Disney show nobody from Disney ever wins it's only Lion King they won and every nope they never nominate anybody the fact that I got nominated is lucky I'm happy to be there but I'm not going to write a speech because it's pointless I'm not going to win so I didn't write a speech and when I won the drama desk award Adam was in the audience so I saw Adam and I thanked Adam and I saw Chad because they were there at the Tony's I didn't see them and I was just going off the top of my head and when I walked away like afraid of I was like you thanked everybody but Chad I was like oh my god so I immediately ran to Chad he was like oh no I got it he teased me he enjoyed the fact that he got to tease me for like six months uh-huh uh but I thanked him on every interview I ever did and he still loved the fact I didn't do it on TV.

[3:50] Ilana Levine: So that means when you heard your name called out as the winner that was an unexpected moment for you?

[3:56] James Monroe Iglehart: Yes um I was this was totally a moment of being just honored to be there I was so glad to be there and my whole Tony night which I have spoken about um on some occasions my whole Tony night wasn't the way I had planned it I was so happy to be nominated because I thought I finally got to sit in the audience of Radio City Music Hall and watch the Tony's right and instead I had to work most of it and then I had once I won I had to go do interviews so by the time I got back two hours of the three-hour show was gone so nothing I literally wanted to go as a fan and my wife watched it and she hates award shows and she had to sit there the entire three hours she was like where have you been I was like I had to do interviews across the street with Tony I met Bryan Cranston she was like I've been sitting here I'm like I love you so tell me what went through your brain if you can recall when your name is called.

[4:56] James Monroe Iglehart: I they said James Monroe Iglehart and my brain turned to mush really and um I was trying to figure out oh my gosh I won I then I look up and I realized because from the rehearsal you only you only have 90 seconds to talk and so I look up the time and I you know get excited and then I just start going and I start remembering the people I knew I wanted to thank that I had always said I was going to thank I always said I was going to thank Liz Kaplan because she did help with my voice I was always going to thank Robin Tribuzzi because she did teach me how to tap I was always going to thank a Celestine Rainey House who was my mentor in college and I knew I had to thank God I knew I had to thank mom dad and I knew I had to thank my brother Jason or he would shoot me and I saw Tommy and I looked out there and I saw Thomas Schumacher and then I looked up and I saw Casey and I saw Alan Menken and I remembered you know the whole thing about um uh Howard Ashman and then my brain went blank because I looked at the time and it's like 10 seconds left and I thought to myself at that moment um I said there's a moment that uh Christians talk about you know believers talk about where you get so enthralled and so so happy and filled with blessing and love that you have nothing else you can't do speaking won't work you either have to sing or dance and dancing is what happened so that's what went through my brain um I didn't even I didn't even really kiss my wife I mean I kissed her when they announced you know nominees are but I didn't kiss her before I walked on stage because she was so shocked but I looked when I looked back at her she had her hands over her mouth she was like oh my god and we just went and so it was all like so fast which was so funny because it reminds me of uh this moment in the actor's studio when my favorite person in the world one of the five I have at Mount Rushmore of five not four of comedians and Robin Williams said that they asked him the same question what was it like when you won the Oscar and he said it was like everything went in slow motion and fast motion at the same time he was like and all of a sudden it was over and that's kind of how I felt I was like I just won I have no speech just make it up and then I left and walked off stage and I was like oh my god and then they're like you didn't shit you didn't thank Chad and I was like oh god my life is over.

[7:11] Ilana Levine: Isn't it amazing at the greatest moment of your life the critic?

[7:23] James Monroe Iglehart: The crazy thing was walking off stage like I had met Zachary Levi a couple of times uh I met him on first date when he did the show I met him um I think doing some uh doing some con or something I met him and he uh was the one who gave who you know announced that the award goes to James Monroe Iglehart and so I see him backstage and he was like dude you know that was so cool that you know you gave glory to to the lord that's really cool because I'm a believer too and I was like whoa cool and then of course flash forward he and I are working together on the tv show Tangled the animated series because he's Flynn Rider and I now play his best friend Lance Strongwell but it was crazy because I met him and I just all these different stars were like hey congratulations James congratulations and I and at first I was like oh my god they know who I am and I was like well of course they do my name was just mentioned they literally was just looking at the television and they that black guy's James I should say hello thank congratulations James incredible it was it was nuts.

[8:20] Ilana Levine: So uh for anyone on the planet who doesn't know this you won for a show called Aladdin yes the role was the genie yes it was and I wonder if you could talk about how the the role that really changed your career in many ways because for the rest of your life you could decide to be an accountant tomorrow it would be welcome accountant and Tony award winner James Monroe like that's it that's you are you've been knighted um tell me how the the role and the show came to you and and and then came to us those who got to enjoy you in it.

[8:55] James Monroe Iglehart: Well um I am a huge uh I'll make it quick I am a huge you do need to make it quick by the way I've waited for this moment for a long time we all have so don't rush thank you um I am a huge Disney nerd this is not uh most people who know me know this I love Disney I've loved them loved the the company and the and the material and projects they put out since I was a little kid in single digits when my father took me to see uh Jungle Book for the first time in the drive-in and that was it I was hooked you know from you know Disneyland to Disney World Disney Channel I've you know loved it and always wanted to be a part of it always trying to figure out a way to do it and I was one of those actors who you know one of those African-American actors who did their best try to get in the Lion King and it never worked I auditioned in four different cities uh New York Chicago LA and I forgot where that oh San Francisco and never got in so mad still mad actually I'm okay now but I was I was really upset that I couldn't do the show and then I was doing this great show called Memphis which is the thing that you know really let people know who I was when I was on Broadway Memphis won the Tony in 2010 and so I was a part of a Tony award-winning show and it was great and I'm at home and I look on broadway.com and it says that they are doing a pilot production of Aladdin in Seattle Washington at the Fifth Avenue where I have done uh two different shows I mean no where where I've done where I've done uh Memphis we you know we uh out of town tryout was in um at the Fifth Avenue in Seattle and so I called up all of my friends and you know I looked at my wife and I screamed she's like what I was like Aladdin and what people don't know is Don and I we we're from California and we would go to Disneyland weekly like on the weekends we on Friday we're like I'm bored let's go to Disneyland we would drive you know six hours to go to Disneyland from the Bay Area and every time we went we would go to um California Adventure and go see the Aladdin Spectacular which is a uh basically a 40 minute 45 minute version of Aladdin and they were having auditions one time and my friend auditioned and they weren't auditioning brothers you know black dudes for the genie but they were auditioning brothers for Jafar and I didn't want to play Jafar so my wife said would you ever audition for this and I was like no I want to play genie so I had kind of put that out in the air you know years ago um when I was 17 my mom took me my my birthday my graduation present from high school was going to see Aladdin in 1992 when it came out and I looked at her after this.

[14:26] James Monroe Iglehart: One of the things that makes me confident is I never know who's in the room. Like, I don't know who's a star until someone tells me. I thought the person in the room was just the casting director and like another casting director. I didn't realize it was actually Casey Nicholaw. I had never met him. So I was just out there just doing stuff and then left the room feeling good, like, well, you know, if they like me, they like me. And I get back to work. And Michael McGraw, who had worked with Casey before on Spamalot, he goes, dude, that was Casey. I was like, huh? He was like, you did all that crap in front of Casey? He's like, you got balls. He goes, you'll probably get a callback. Sure enough, I get a callback.

Casey sees me. He says, listen, man, just do everything you did for me when you get in there. And I got in there and it was a room full of people. It was all of the Disney bigwigs, all of the Seattle bigwigs. And it was just a room full of people like I'd never seen that many people in a room for an audition. Sure enough, same reader, same musician. And I've written some new jokes and I just went again. The reader was lost. And but the people were laughing. I did my cartwheel. I did. I jumped, I slid across the floor on my knees, all kinds of crap. And then I left the room and I went on to go get my contacts, which were ready over at, you know, Glitzcrafter. Yeah, that's what it's a grand something.

And it went over there to get my contact. In New York, it could be coincidental. No, it was Grand Central, Grand Central, Grand Central Madison, by the way. And I went to get my contacts. And all of a sudden I get a call when I'm on the corner on my way to Memphis. And my agent said, hey, you got it. You got the role. And that was just the pilot production. You got the role of Jeannie. And I stood on the corner, just cried because I have always wanted to play this character. He is my two favorite Disney characters are Jeannie and Goofy. And to get to play this character. And I knew there was a shot. You know, right now is just, you know, I knew there was a shot. I was going to go to Broadway.

Disney was saying it was just a pilot production. They weren't saying anything, as they always do. You know, they don't want to get you too excited because what if it didn't work? You know, but I was so thrilled to be a part of this. Flash forward, we do the show, the pilot production. Disney likes it. They still have some things you have to do. It still needs fixing. And then Bob Iger decides that he wants to see it. Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney. So we end up all getting together, I think, a couple of months later to do a 30 minute presentation of just certain songs for Bob Iger by himself. Oh, that's right. The former head of Disney Films, not Alan Horn, who's done now. I don't know who that guy was.

I just know this guy was fired because they made Mars needs moms. So he was he had to go. Don't know if it's really his fault, but I know he's the fall guy. Don't know his name. But he was he was there and Bob Iger was there and Thomas Schumacher and a couple of other people. And that was it. And we had to perform. And the fun part about this part of the story is a year later, I was at singing at the Disney business something. It was like a board meetings, whatever. And Bob Iger gets up and said, Do you mind if I introduce you? I said, No. And he said, you know, he told the story because I saw this this little eight minute, this 30 minute presentation. And I leaned over and told the people, well, you have a genie.

You just don't have a show yet. And I had no idea. So he after we did that presentation, they greenlit the show and they went to work and then we went to Toronto and worked it out. And we came back to New York. And the funny thing is, everybody in New York that I talked to said, yo, man, I hear your show is not that good, man. I heard it's not going to work, not going to work. And we worked our butts off in New York to get that thing the way it was supposed to be. And when we opened and the audience stood up in the middle of Friend Like Me. It was one of those moments where it was a rocky moment. It was that feeling strong. I was like, yeah, we showed you. We showed you because our whole goal, the whole cast of Aladdin, the crew, everybody was to show New York City that one, we had a great show to Disney was not some fly by night little kids thing.

Yes, families like the show. But Broadway is Broadway. And if you do a great Broadway show, it's for everybody. And Aladdin did that. And I loved every second of that hard journey. And we rewrote lines. And Chad was Chad Beglin was nice enough to let me write lines. He would say, hey, what do you think about this? Do you think Jeannie would say this? I'm like, yes. Or can I say this? And he would erase the line and put in my line. And we had a ball building this thing together. You know, Casey, myself, Chad, it was cause a lot. I mean, Alan Menken, Thomas Schumacher. We had a great time building this thing. Adam Jacobs, Courtney Reed, Jonathan Freeman, who's the original voice of Jafar, who is Jafar still to this day.

Just the all the whole cast built. And I have to give credit to Brian Gonzalez and also Dondero Rivera, who played Babcock and also Iago, because we would sit around just the three of us having lunch or me and Brian, just the two of us having lunch, just writing stupid lines and trying them out to rehearsal. So, OK, let's let's try this. It's like it's not in the script. Yeah, we're just going to try it anyway. And we were toast about that. If they laughed, we knew we did good. And if we would hear from the back, Casey going, boo, basically meaning it just bombed like our lines, like freedom, always free to do that. We were free to create the show. And then when it froze, it froze. And even then, we still had moments to to play.

They let us have these certain moments where we could play with the audience. So they built this moment at the end of Friend Like Me and also at the end of the show when I'm free, where I am. I got free reign to say things and do things and have some fun with the audience to let it let people know that they're seeing something for the first time, for the last time. And I was one of the best moments of my entire life.

[20:37] Ilana Levine: Well, I want to ask you about another moment, because when you win the Tony, when you are the genie, when you are you and when it's a Disney show, you are asked to perform, you know, on a million talk shows and sort of constantly help market the show. But one of the things I got to see was you performing at the White House yes, for Michelle Obama and some young friends. And I wonder if you could talk about that was so moving to me. Tell us what that experience was, how it came about and what it was like for you.

[21:11] James Monroe Iglehart: We had got the call that Michelle Obama was doing this thing about young kids writing their own healthy cookbooks. And as a as a goal, as a as a reward, the Aladdin cast was going to go to perform. And they wrote this truncated version of Aladdin. And it was we rehearsed it and got it together. And we were so excited. And the the trip there was the adventure because we were supposed to have this big bus that was supposed to come and get us the Aladdin puppy bus. Yeah, well, something happened where the bus driver never showed up. So we're all at the theater. Just imagine the show ends. We're supposed to drive at 10 o'clock to get to Washington, which we should get there by like, you know, one o'clock in a moment.

We should be fine. Sleep, chill, relax, you know, maybe even maybe even, you know, 12. And they're like, relax, you know, go to the hot tub, everything. Girl, this thing didn't show up at all. Found out that the driver, we still don't know where he went. Like he took the bus and never came back. So they had to find like a train. They had to find like, did we get do we get do we go on a train? What do we do? They end up finding like two little like like Uber buses. And we rode all night long. We didn't get there till seven a.m. And the thing we had to basically we had enough time to go into our hotel rooms, change the shower, change clothes, shave and get changed because we get back into the bus and go.

Oh, it was crazy. Then we get to the White House and we start our we do our rehearsal and then we start our performance and look down. And there's Michelle Obama. They tell me before we go on stage, they say, oh, by the way, Michelle probably won't come up to speak. You guys will do your performance and then you guys will bow and walk off stage. Will we get a chance to meet Barack Obama? Probably not. So, OK, just stay in.

[24:52] James Monroe Iglehart: And that we were blessed enough to be a part of this. And it was awesome. You know, I can still see those kids' faces. I can still see the parents' faces. I can still see them at first not wanting to sing with us. And then after a while, warming up and just getting into it and just like throwing caution to the wind and just... By the time we got to "Friend Like Me," they were in it. They were just loving it. And it was fabulous. I'll never forget that moment. And that was my second time at the White House. First time that I got to actually walk in. The first time I was like a tourist and I was like, wow, look around. And this time I was like, I'm a performer here. I got to meet a president that... I mean, they all go down in history, but one of those presidents that will go down in history as one of the best ones forever, which was really cool.

And Michelle was just the epitome of grace, the epitome of coolness. And she's quite intimidating. Her energy is serious, girl. Michelle is no joke. Michelle got energy like the presidents do. Some First Ladies, you're like, oh, it's the First Lady. You meet Michelle, you're like, damn, hi. Hello. Yes. Let me straighten up so I look good somehow. So it was a great experience.

[25:54] Ilana Levine: Yeah. I mean, you weren't touring the White House. You were their guest. You were the guest of Michelle and Barack Obama. Like, that's it. That's what happened.

[26:06] James Monroe Iglehart: Well, it's an incredible, incredible thing. I mean, when you think about it now, it's been a few years. I'm not sure if when the shutdown happened, were you still in Hamilton?

[26:14] James Monroe Iglehart: Yes. Yes, I was. I was. Actually, yeah, we started, what was it? I think March 12th was the shutdown. They had told us a week ago, they were like, OK, we're going to be closed down for a bit. And that's what we thought. And then when they made the major shutdown, we were like, oh, snap, this is for real.

[26:31] Ilana Levine: Yeah. So from Jeannie to Lafayette, you know, what a ride. What a ride. And I guess I wonder if you could just talk a little bit, like, what does Aladdin mean to you?

[26:43] James Monroe Iglehart: It's hard to put into words, but I will say that I'm a big fan of close-up magic. I'm a big fan of magic. I love it since I was a kid. And there's a saying, I'm paraphrasing, that some of the VIPs and tour guides and some of the other tour guides in Disney parks say, you know, if we can make a little magic during the day, then we've done our job because Disney's magic. And I will say that it was a magical time for me from the moment they said you have the role to the day I left. It was a magical ride. I wish I would have spent more time enjoying it because I was like doing it. But when I look back, I have the best memories of being on stage in Aladdin. I got to just live out that dream, see all those smiles every night.

I got to sing that song, which is one of my favorite songs. When those trumpets hit, it's one of the greatest feelings ever. And to be able to sing that song and then look out and see little round brown kids that look like me, look up at me and go, wait, we can do that? I had little girls walk up to me and go, hey, they were going to do Aladdin at school, but the boys told me I couldn't be a genie because genie was a boy. And I remember telling her, hey, genie's a mythical creature. Genie can be a girl, a guy, a fish, anything. You could be genie. And most of the people that I've met that have played genie in their high schools or their junior highs have been girls of all shades. I met a little girl who was a little Indian girl.

I went to see the show and she played the genie. And it's just the fact that people saw the show and me doing it made them, it seemed, made them think that they could do it. Or when I would see people who weren't, you know, bro, when you're an actor and a male, when you're an actor, male or female, there's a certain shape or certain look you're supposed to be. I am not either of those two things. And so to get to be able to do this role, looking the way I look, now don't get me wrong. I think I'm a sexy brother, but to look the way I look in my shape, other folks of that shape would see me and go, hey, I can do that. Or college professors would tell students, hey, there's this guy named Jason Reinhardt.

You should see him. He reminds me of you. You should, this means, you know, you could do this. The show was magical on so many levels, on just a performance level, on a personal level, on a spiritual level. I would get calm when I would get into the tube, ready to come up as Genie, because I knew everything was going to be all right. Because if I messed up, I could just make it up because that's, Genie can break the fourth wall and say anything. It's like, I want to say it's hard to put into words, but I guess not. Because it was, it was, I'll, I'll think I'll have to create something on my own for me to have an experience like that.

[29:41] Ilana Levine: Yeah. Well, I am, I feel like one of the lucky humans who got to see you in it. I feel really grateful to live on the same planet as you. Your artistry, your activism, your generous heart, it just is so deeply felt by anyone who gets to be around you in any way, shape or form. So, A, this is just all an excuse to say thank you for being who you are and bringing your gifts to the universe. Before I let you go, this is sort of a very easy, fun way to end the episode. If I am just going to throw out a couple of questions to you about Tony Night, and then we're done. James.

[30:21] James Monroe Iglehart: Yes.

[30:22] Ilana Levine: Who did you bring to the Tonys?

[30:26] James Monroe Iglehart: I brought my beautiful wife, Dawn, and I brought my wonderful agent, Ben Sands. I thought it was fun. He, he, I said, please be, be a good date for my wife when I'm away. Cause you know, she, she, she might get bored.

[30:44] Ilana Levine: That is a good agent. What did you wear?

[30:48] James Monroe Iglehart: I wore, I love sparkles. I am a huge fan of Prince and Michael Jackson. So I, anything sparkly I wanted to wear. So I, my dresser at Aladdin, it was great. She was able to take a bunch of Swarovski crystals and put them all over my suit, as well as all over my shoes. So it was fantastic. I was very sparkly. I was very happy. So I wore a black suit and these dark blue crystals. So when the light hit, it was like a dark blue shining back at folks.

[31:22] Ilana Levine: Oh, I'm so glad you won so that we got to see them sparkle on camera. And where is your beloved Tony right now?

[31:32] James Monroe Iglehart: Ah, yes. So I have a, a giant, you know, system, you know, where my TV sits and all that kind of stuff. And there's this big like bookshelf, uh, that my TV sits in now above that is the Tony. Now, um, I put the Tony up there wrapped around the Tony is the Grammy nominated medallion. Cause our album was nominated for Grammy, but right next to the Tony is a Swarovski crystal. I probably said that wrong. Swarovski crystal covered genie I bought from Disney world. And here's the thing I saw it when I got cast, when I wasn't cast in the show, when I was just wishing to be the genie, when I had auditioned, didn't find out yet, I looked at it and said, someday I'm going to buy that. I go back after I'm cast in the show and I go someday I'm gonna buy that.

I don't deserve it yet. After I won the Tony, we went back to Disney world and I go, I don't deserve it yet. My wife said, you can get it. I'm like, no, no, no, I don't deserve it yet. Cause it's very expensive. When I decided to leave the show, I felt I had done everything as an actor that I could do for this character. It was time for someone else to pick up the mantle as genie. And I remember walking past that same crystal shop in Disney world on main street. And I told my wife, I think I deserve that now because I've done everything I can for the genie for six years. I've done everything that for this character and for the show that I could do. And I walked in, I felt a piece about it. I put all that money down on it.

I had it shipped home and the way it is, it's the genie. Like he has this presenting like position. So I put the Tony right next to it. So it looks as if the genie is presenting the Tony. So whenever I feel down or whenever I feel like, you know, cause actors are always depressed. We're like, Oh my God, how come they got that? Not me. Even though we're probably already working, we're working while we're seeing it, which is so stupid. Uh, but we all do it. And I, if ever I feel like that, I look up and I see that crystal covered genie and I see it pointing at the Tony and I go, you know what? My life is not that bad. Actually, my life is pretty damn good. So whenever I start complaining, I look up and go, Hey boy, relax. Look at what you've gotten to do. Look how blessed you truly are. And I get back to myself and get back to work.

[33:36] Ilana Levine: Thank you for being on. And the Tony goes to you. Magical, beautiful human. Thank you.

[33:46] Ilana Levine: And the Tony goes to is produced by Alan Seales for the Broadway Podcast Network. The music and lyrics for the theme song were written by Georgia. Theme song orchestration by Alexander Sage. Episodes are edited by Derek Gunther. Thank you to Parody Bill for the graphics. And please don't forget to go to the iTunes show page and rate and review the show. Thanks for listening.

[34:14] ♪ Musical number: "Excerpt from the Tony awards" — used with permission of Tony awards productions ♪