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[0:30] Lauren Van Hemert: This is the Beltline to Broadway podcast. I'm Lauren Van Hemert, your host, and on this episode, I'm chatting with Melvin Gray Jr. Growing up, Melvin Gray Jr. didn't set out to moonwalk across America. He wanted to become a doctor. The dream was medicine, not musicals. So how does an aspiring doctor make the leap to the stage and step into the iconic glove as the Michael Jackson alternate in the national tour of MJ the Musical? Melvin's journey is a powerful reminder that when you stay open and trust the process, the stars might align and lead you exactly where you're meant to be. Here's our conversation.

[1:32] Melvin Gray Jr.: When I got to Peace College in Raleigh, North Carolina, I had started off with the Glee Club that was there. So I didn't start off in theater right away, but I liked singing and didn't know that there was anything further I could go with it. But I was like, I like to sing, so I'm just going to join the choir. And a couple of people that heard me sing and they were like, oh, you should definitely be a part of Glee Club. And I auditioned and I got in. The theater professors at my college kind of got wind that there's this guy who's a great singer. He might be a good actor. I had never acted in anything like that before. And they were like, you should give it a go. You should try and see if it's something that you're interested in.

And they were doing The Mystery of Edwin Drood. And I auditioned and I got in and I just fell in love. I mean, immediately got hit by the bug and I just ran. I ran with it. And so that's when I ended up switching my beginning of sophomore year, I believe it was. It was either the beginning of sophomore or it was the second semester sophomore year of college that I went to the people who help you decide your classes and your majors. And I was like, hey, I think I want to switch my major from bio to theater. The rest is history.

[3:09] Lauren Van Hemert: How does being adept in science, how does being able to tap into that logical side of your brain inform your career as an artist? Does it help compartmentalize choreography, memorizing lines?

[3:19] Melvin Gray Jr.: Yeah, I was going to say, because there are just so many moving parts to science itself that you have to have your brain in all these different places and paying attention to the smallest of details. I believe that it definitely helped influence my career, my journey in theater of like, you just have to know exactly where you're going to be. You know, you're getting notes thrown at you nonstop and you kind of have to implement them right then and there. So I think just having that multiple things happening in your brain all at once definitely like kind of set me up for success to go on in a career that is not even close, is on the other end of the spectrum. But somehow it went hand in hand and kind of helped my brain, like you said, put everything in a certain way and work it in my favor, you know.

[4:26] Lauren Van Hemert: Talk about working on brilliant shows like Smokey Joe's and the Scottsboro Boys at Theater Raleigh, both brilliant productions. And even how working in North Carolina theater helps lay the foundation and prepare you for this national stage.

[4:45] Melvin Gray Jr.: You know, those stages, I am so grateful for our regional theaters and really kind of take me under their wing. And, you know, I love Lauren Kennedy Brady. I mean, when I first started working for her, the first time I auditioned for her, I was 19. Yeah, around that time where I was just starting to figure out like, okay, yeah, this is what I want to do. And I remember auditioning for her and I was so nervous because I didn't know how, you know, big a deal Lauren was. And I was just, you know, this, you know, 19-year-old kid coming in into this new world of like, I like to sing and dance, you know, and not really knowing a lot. And just knowing that, which I think was a great starting spot for me because I didn't have all these crazy things going on in my head.

I'm like, oh my gosh, I have to be perfect for this. I just came in raw being like, this is what I have to offer. And here you go. Enjoy. And I think Lauren saw that and Eric Woodall as well. You know, you got somebody here that has raw talent. Yes, unpolished. But I think we can create something. I think we can help mold it, mold them into something, bring out this, that raw talent, bring it out even more and really, really shape it. And so, you know, I'm like I said, I'm just so grateful because if I hadn't had, you know, the opportunity to work with them and them give me the jobs and, you know, help me learn and grow as a performer and a person, you know, I wouldn't be doing this. I wouldn't be in this position right now.

You know, it's always nice when I am home and I go back to Theatre Raleigh and I see Lauren, I see Eric and I see all those people that I started off with and they're just like, you, wow, hello. You're like leading Broadway shows now. You're traveling the world. You're meeting all these people. You're, you know, you're doing the thing that we want to see our people become, you know, and it's I'm just so like I said, I'm just so forever grateful for having them kind of be the starting point for me and to just help me grow and eventually play Michael Jackson, you know, not anything too crazy.

[7:29] Melvin Gray Jr.: I need to talk about baseball for a second. Baseball is one of the special skills listed on your resume, which I love because our local North Carolina audiences saw you on stage during the out-of-town tryout of Bull Durham at Theatre Raleigh. Speaking of Theatre Raleigh, you were working with the great Nick Walker along with Mark Bruni and Joshua Burgas and, of course, Ron Shelton. Talk about working on this show, reworking this musical and truly getting it ready for what I believe and what a lot of people believe is going to be Broadway.

[8:16] Melvin Gray Jr.: I mean, that experience, I loved every second of that experience because I grew up, you know, going to the Durham Bulls when I was a kid. That was something when I was playing baseball as a kid. My dad coached me and my siblings and I remember going to the games and, you know, just loving every second of it and, you know, of course, loving the fireworks at the very end. Like it was just something that I adored and I still adore. But then growing up and being a part of the show and kind of being the starting point of creating something new because they had done, you know, a trial years before in Atlanta and then they, you know, talked about it coming back in 2020 but then the pandemic happened and that, you know, kind of set them back.

So it was really, really cool to be a part of the opportunity when we did it in 2024. Just getting the opportunity to create and work with Ron Shelton was great. I mean, I was working with folks that I didn't even realize initially were a part of the project. Like I didn't realize Mark Bruni was going to be a part of it. I, you know, it's something that I try to go in to my auditions and yes, be aware of who's working on the project but not let that consume me. I think that's something that a lot of actors do that they hear who's in the room and that freaks them out and then they end up, you know, blowing their chances. And so for me, even if I know, you know, Mark Bruni's going to be in the room, okay.

Got it. Cool. I will, I'll still give what I need to give. I'll still do my job and hope that I am the missing, or I am the puzzle piece that he is missing to this entire thing. But getting to work with Mark and Josh and Ron, I was like, what is, how did I even get to be a part of something like this? And to be able to get it on its feet to the point where it got to paper mill and now eventually most likely going to go to Broadway. I believe it as well. It's going to go. To say that I was a part of that in North Carolina, in Durham, literally right down the road from the Durham Bowl Stadium, like that is something that I will take with me. Obviously I have my fingers crossed that, you know, they'll bring me on to Broadway.

But if not, the fact that I was able to kind of create a character and be a part of it and work with some of the most talented people, it's something that I will be grateful for that. And I'll probably say that a lot during this of being grateful, because that's something that I constantly am reminding myself of just like being so humble and being grateful for the opportunities that I've been presented with so far in my career. And I've been, it's been a whirlwind, but, and I've worked extremely hard to get to this point. But the word that always comes up is just grateful.

[11:38] Lauren Van Hemert: I know you have an interest in writing and developing your own work and Theatre Raleigh has become such a hub for developing new work and musicals, including Blue Ridge Sky with Georgia Stitt and Hunter Foster, which had a stage screening at Theatre Raleigh. How did working on pieces like Bull Durham, which were being redeveloped and pieces

[12:04] Melvin Gray Jr.: Like Blue Ridge Sky, which is kind of early in its development. How does that inform you being an artist and developing your own material and original work? I think not being afraid to just put something out there definitely helps influence it because it's got to start from somewhere, right? It's just got to go. And I think as artists, we're very insecure about our works, our babies. We are very protective and we don't want anyone to be like, oh, this is not right. We start getting in our heads about all these things of what we think people are going to say. We project. And I think doing stuff like Bull Durham and Blue Ridge Sky of just trusting in your work and your process and just being like, no, I know what I'm doing.

I'm not perfect, but I know what I'm doing. I know how to make this work in my favor and not being afraid of, you know, getting critiques for it. That's no matter how good something is, somebody will always not like it or have something to say, you know? And so for me developing my own work, I specifically love screenplays. And I wrote a script in 2024. It was March of 2024 when I started writing. And I had just done my first movie. I just played a lead in a movie filmed in Atlanta. And I came back from that. And it just was like, I have to do something film wise. I have to do something. And I had written, you know, film scripts beforehand. But this one after being on set and really having that exposure, I was like, I think I kind of have an idea of how I want to do this.

I took a chance and just put myself out there and wrote something and saw a vision and just was like, you know what? I've never done anything like this before. I'm going to do it. It's scary, but I'm going to do it. And how else am I going to learn? And so that's what I did. And I put it out and we filmed it. And we plan to release it sometime this year. It's gone through the film festival circuit, and it got selected for three film festivals last year, which was amazing for that to be my first film that I've ever written and co-produced. But it was the matter of just not letting the voices stop me from doing something I've always wanted to do. Being a part of new projects gave me the confidence for my own projects to be not scared and just take a chance and just go with it.

[15:16] Lauren Van Hemert: You were on the national tour of Ain't Too Proud. We got to talk about grandma for a second. Talk about your grandmother's love of music and how that contributed to your music education and your love of Motown.

[15:47] Melvin Gray Jr.: My grandmother was one of my biggest inspirations. Yeah, she was the first to kind of expose me to all those well-known Black artists that helped shape the industry. And she grew up singing in the church, and then my mom and her brothers also grew up singing in the church. And so music has kind of always been a part of us. For her to expose me to those things, just kind of not all at once, just kind of dropping little bits in there when she would come over to our house, I wasn't thinking of it as anything. I just was like, yeah, I like music. This is cool. This is fun. She was one of the first people that I sung for. She was one of the first people to ever hear my voice. And she was the first person to tell me that I had something, that I had a beautiful voice.

And as I got older and kind of learned and in tuned my ear, I was like, okay, she wasn't lying. She passed away, unfortunately, last May. And she got the chance to see me in Ain't Too Proud. And that was for her, she told me, you know, one of the greatest things she's ever experienced. But she was just astounded. She couldn't believe that, you know, at one point, I didn't know how to sing. I just only knew like a little bit to playing, you know, a lead in a first national Broadway tour. She was at a loss for words. And I just, it just, it made me so happy for me to see her and to see me in that light as well. And knowing that if it hadn't been for her, I wouldn't have gone this route. I wouldn't have even been interested in the arts, you know.

So having her there to expose me just, it really kind of set the bones and the foundation for me to have the confidence to do this. And you know, I know she's still with me. Like I, if I'm not having a good day, and you know, I'm doing the show, I'm like, Grandma, I need you here with me right now just to get me through this thing. I know you're here watching. And you know, I unfortunately, she never got to see me do MJ. And I know if she had seen me do this one, I don't even know what her response would be. I have no idea. But yeah, I just, I love my grandma. And I'm so, I'm so thankful for her.

[18:47] Lauren Van Hemert: What did you learn touring with Ain't Too Proud that helped prepare you for touring with MJ?

[18:55] Melvin Gray Jr.: When you're out there, when you're out here, you want to be a part of everything. You want to hang out with everybody. You want to create these memories. You want to have a good time. But in actuality, like, you do kind of need time for like solidarity, you need time to just kind of recoup so that you have the energy to actually do the job, you know. So I think that's kind of the biggest thing I've personally learned is like, it's okay. You know, if you need to take some time and, you know, when I was doing Ain't Too Proud, like I said, I was a swing and I was also a dance captain. So a lot of my time was spent in rehearsals and I was teaching, you know, the show to folks when we would have new people come in.

And luckily I, you know, I split the job with our female swing. And so, you know, you had two dance captains, but a lot of time, you know, if I wasn't running the rehearsal, I was still in the room taking notes, you know, working on something else while she was kind of doing the main running. And then, you know, we'd switch the next day. So it was a constant, constant go, go, go. But for something with MJ like this, you know, playing the full blown lead, it's a different story. I think this time around being on tour, because MJ is such a bigger call of me emotionally, physically, vocally, it is literally the hardest thing I have ever done in my career so far. It takes a lot of me and a lot of the time, you know, I'm in my hotel room, I am recouping, I am watching TV and I'm steaming my vocal cords at the same time, or I'm warming up or I'm cooling down or I'm stretching or I'm rolling out my body like I, it is a full blown job outside of the job. And so learning that discipline from the first tour really, really kind of has set me up for some successes here doing MJ for sure.

[21:06] Melvin Gray Jr.: There is no artist, no performer, I think, bigger than Michael Jackson. And listen, those of you who follow me, you know, I am not a fan of the jukebox. This jukebox musical is different. I don't know why, but it just is. And I think part of that is because Christopher Wilden and Lynn Nottage have worked so diligently to get to the soul and the humanity of Michael Jackson and his creative process. So talk about digging into this material and getting into Michael Jackson's spirit.

[21:58] Melvin Gray Jr.: You know, I, the team out here is a really, really great team. I, coming into this, I was terrified, absolutely terrified. I remember watching the show on Broadway and at the time, Matt Martinez, who is now the full time MJ, he was still the kind of standby alternate when I saw him. And I just remember thinking, I got to intermission, I was like, I will never be able to do this. I cannot believe these people want me to do this. I, how do they, they've only seen me sing a couple of songs and do a couple of scenes. They, how am I supposed to be able to do this? And after I booked it, which I didn't think I booked it because I just, I had it in my head. I was like, I'm not what they're looking for right now.

When I did book it, I was like, I guess I am. And so I immediately started watching videos and it kind of also just started popping up on its own. That's the weird thing about the internet is that it just, stuff just pops up. And so a lot of his videos, interviews, concerts, all that stuff, I was kind of just getting bombarded by all of this content, all this material. And I got the chance, my first week officially being a part of the show, I worked with Rich and Tone Talawega, who are the kind of reference points for Michael's well-known movements, the kick, the moonwalk, the stomps he does. They worked with Michael, they worked very closely with him, they were on tour with him, they choreographed for him. So Michael means a lot to them.

[24:10] Melvin Gray Jr.: And so that was my first week. And, you know, we call it MJ Boot Camp because, you know, Michael picked them up off the streets. They were dancers, they were brothers, dancers on the street, and Michael saw them and took them and was like, I'm gonna, we're gonna make something. And so now they are the guys, they are the guys that you want to work with. And I worked with them and they, they are not, they don't sugarcoat things when it comes to Michael and his movements. Because they have to be because Michael is so specific and people look for something. They look for that, that specificity of Michael, and they know exactly what it is. And they are not shy about being like, nope, that's wrong.

It needs to be like this. This is what Michael did. This is how Michael looked. This was the intention he put behind it. And so for that to be my first week, I immediately was like, oh, no, what have I gotten myself into? But you know, as time went on, it started to fall into my body more and it started to get easier. And now being with the tour almost a year now, it's so engraved in me that I don't have to think about it. But taking on Michael is not an easy feat. It is, like I said, it is the hardest thing I've ever done. But it's funny because Lynn and Christopher have done a beautiful job making the story just flow seamlessly and just make every moment in the show engaging and, you know, having those moments where, you know, you see all three of the versions of Michael when he was in Jackson 5, when he went solo, to the Victory Tour, all the way to the 1992 version, the Dangerous Tour version that I play, you know, they just make it flow.

It's chef's kiss. It is musical theater, jukebox, like it is so amazing. And maybe, you know, maybe I'm a little biased because it's been my heart and soul for the past year. But I feel like every single time I do this show, I'm learning something different. I'm finding new moments. I mean, just today, you know, I had the show at 1:30. And, you know, even in the middle of the show, I still have those moments where I'm just finding new things and finding new ways of how Michael would have reacted and telling his truth and just telling his story. That's the fun part about playing Michael is that, you know, though he's a complex person, he's a real life person. You know, he graced the earth at one point.

And to be able to, you know, embody the essence of Michael Jackson and just ooze all over the stage and just be him is something that, you know, dreams are made of. It makes no sense to me sometimes. I really have to sit and be like, wow, I'm Michael Jackson right now. It's insane. It's insane.

[28:03] Melvin Gray Jr.: One of my favorite moments in the show is in the second act where Michael Jackson is talking about the dancers and choreographers who inspired him, including the great Bob Fosse. Talk about your dance inspiration and specifically how Michael and his sisters taught you to dance. I mean, we used to have their DVDs and I would sit and just watch them nonstop. One of the first performances I actually remember, I think it was the 1995 VMA Awards, and he did this whole compilation. I just rewatched it not too long ago where it was him doing Dangerous and then a little bit of Smooth Criminal and Billie Jean and Slash came out and they did all of that. I remember watching that and just being in awe and watching him, watching Janet, because my mom also had the Velvet Rope tour on DVD and we would sit and watch that when I watched that one so many times.

And, you know, I just had a thought, memory just resurfaced for me. I remember being in elementary school and my principal, Mr. Putney, he was like, Melvin, I heard you can do the moonwalk. This was in front of my entire class. We were in the hallway and he was like, somebody told me that you could do a moonwalk. And me being a small kid, not having any fear, of course, you know, I, yeah, I can do it. It just moonwalked up and down the hallway. Like, I remember that. And knowing that Mike was with me even then, you know, it's really truly something special when something comes full circle like that. And you have those reflection moments as an adult and just being like, wow, this thing really always has been with me. And maybe it was, it was always meant to be. It just took a little while to get there. This, this was always written in the stars for me.

[30:27] Melvin Gray Jr.: Do you have a favorite moment in the show? There are two moments that stick out to me. The first actually is Stranger in Moscow, you know, that part of the show. It's kind of the first time that we see the aside of Michael, that maybe everything isn't okay. Maybe, maybe there's something else going on. You know, he's, he's human. You know, when he walks, the first time we see him at the top of the show is very, you know, stoic. And he's the MJ, when he walks in the room, you kind of lose your breath, you know, you're like, oh my god, it's him. But this is kind of the first time where we see the impact of his dad kind of take a toll on him for a second. And so singing that song and really letting the emotion kind of drive that moment is, I love a good hard shift in a story.

And right there is kind of the first time that we see it was like, whoa, something, something's going on here, you know. And I love that moment. And I love singing that song. Like that is one of my favorite songs to sing in the show. Like, it's just powerful. It starts off very, you know, intimate, and you're not really sure where it's gonna go. And, you know, Stranger in Moscow also, it's not one of his well known songs. Like people have heard of it. But I think it's one of those ones where it's, it doesn't get enough credit. And I'm glad it's in the show because it deserves, it deserves that. So definitely that moment. And then the other moment is in act two, and is actually Human Nature. Now Human Nature definitely is one of my top, top MJ songs of all time.

And I love it because it's kind of the, that is definitely the first time that we actually see into his mind of how he perceives the world and how he goes about his creative process and how it's truly his happy place. It's where he goes to create magic. And everything is this utopia. It's, it's what the world, how he wants to see the world. And I just love that. I love that moment. People love that song. And so for them to kind of see a, a story being put to it, they, I love it, they love it. And it's just a, it's a really beautiful moment.

[33:25] Melvin Gray Jr.: What has Michael Jackson taught you about being an artist and the creative process? That no matter how hard things get, don't be afraid to create. There will always be people in the world that are going to look at you a certain way and have their opinions. But I think the thing that Michael has taught me is just always lead with love. Always lead with light. Be a vessel of light. There's enough bad in the world. The main thing he's taught me, especially in these times, is that if I can be some sort of vessel and let somebody just kind of forget what's going on on the outside for just two and a half hours, then I need to do that. That's, that is what my calling is right now in my journey, is that be the light that people want to see.

Be the joy, you know, be the ease. Every MJ will tell you, you know, there are moments we feel like we can feel Michael with us on the stage. Like he's, he's there. I feel like I used to feel all the time when I was first starting up, like, I don't know if I can do this when I was having doubts, you know, just having those moments. Of Michael kind of being there and just being like, you got this. And, you know, when I'm really, really just really in it, and you just kind of feel something take over, you feel Michael just kind of, you know, lay hands on you and just go. And you, he takes over. He takes over. And it's the craziest thing in the world. And you just know that it's like, okay, Mike's got my back. I'm going to tell the story.

[35:41] Lauren Van Hemert: You can see Melvin on the national tour of MJ the Musical. Visit tour.mjthemusical.com for a complete schedule of upcoming cities and dates. If you like what you've heard on this episode, please consider subscribing to the podcast. Follow us on social media at Beltline to Broadway or visit us online at beltlinetobroadway.org. Until next time, I'll see you at the theater.