Performing

Nikki M James Talks About Tony Award-Nominated Role in Broadway Musical

NEW YORK, USA – She is extremely young and refreshing in the world of Broadway Musicals and teamed with a trio of cutting-edge producers, the young Nikki M. James may be the holder of this year's Tony Award.

The Book of Mormon is a religious satire musical produced by the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone and famous composer and lyricist, Robert Lopez.

The musical is being regarded as the biggest hit on Broadway in over a decade and with its Haitian-American actress, Nikki M. James, the musical is nominated for 14 Tony Awards.

James grew up idolizing Patti LuPone a two-time Tony Award winner who she is nominated with in the same category — best featured actress in a musical. But James says, she is not shy about wanting to top her former role model.

"She has two," says James, with a laugh. "She can share the wealth."

Playing the Role of Nabalungi

Born in Summit, New Jersey, Nikki made notice that her role required an African accent, and she thanks her Haitian mother for making it a little easier.

“It’s really funny, I’m not doing a very good African accent. I’m doing sort of my own version of what I think it might sound like. Which is sort of what we’re going for, it’s not a specific place and time. We’re not doing this sort of cinéma vérité, we’re doing musical theater. But my mother is Haitian and so I have to say that I’m sure a little bit of Nabalungi’s accent is completely inspired and colored by mom’s own mispronunciation of words growing up. She’s not African, but I still have that in my life. I have a good ear for it.”

In the mode of South Park the musical is very controversial, touching on religion and race issues.

“I had a really good feeling about this show. I believed in it. The first time I heard even a little bit, I knew if we could make it we would make a huge splash. Did I know that it was going to be this big? I don’t think anybody would have even asked a genie for this. This is a magical experience. I think the message is that people, when bounded together for a good cause, can make change in the world. And that your silly religion is helpful in a lot of ways, but it’s still silly.”

James compares the show to Rent or Cabaret, that were regarded as taboo and pushed the envelope. "I think that's the exciting thing about being an artist in any sort of medium — to challenge everybody's boundaries."

"It feels really special to be finally sort of welcomed as a member to a really elite club," says James, who is enjoying her first Tony nomination in her third appearance on Broadway. "It makes me feel light in my shoes. I've been floating."

James says she loves every minute of being in "The Book of Mormon," and working with the masterminds Trey Parker and Matt Stone and composer Robert Lopez who also did Avenue Q .

The musical follows the travails of two Mormon missionaries sent to Uganda to try to convert locals, and James plays a potential love interest, getting to sing everything from the torch song "Sal Tlay Ka Siti" to the sexy "Baptize Me."

"When that girl smiles, she lights up a stage. Her energy is just infectious," says Casey Nicholaw, a legendary choreographer and co-director. "When people are that smart they help everything be better. She helps the show be better. She makes the material be better."

The Next Generation in American Musicals

James, who will turn 30 in June, got involved in the show in 2008 when it was just a one-act sketch that the creators were testing. "I remember thinking, `If they can pull this off, this is going to change the face of the American musical,'" she says.

James may be young but she's been dreaming of this day for a long time. She got her first headshot at age 12 and her Equity Card in 1995 at age 14. Asked if she's driven, James doesn't hesitate: "Singularly focused, absolutely."

She graduated from New York University with a degree in drama and made her Broadway debut in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," appeared in "All Shook Up" and received critical acclaim at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in 2008 as Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet," and Cleopatra opposite Christopher Plummer in "Caesar and Cleopatra."

James grew up in New Jersey not far from Manhattan and was a bookish girl who adored theater. One day she informed her mother she wanted to be an actress. "What a weird kid I was," she says. "I really was a weird, strange child."

She spent $75 of her baby-sitting money for headshots (she now deems them "terrible") and landed an agent, then booked commercials in between school and made it her career, much to the astonishment of her parents, who initially thought acting was just a passing fad. James never wavered.

"I never, ever believed that I couldn't accomplish it as a young kid. It didn't occur to me that I was going to audition for jobs that I wouldn't get," she says. "I didn't know that it was difficult. And thank goodness, because it is hard. But I keep that little girl around with me a lot because she's much more brave than I am."

At the Tonys, James will be joined by her mom. "My mom is my hero," she says. Her other big champion, her dad, died while she was in high school, though James says she feels his presence every day and sings in his honor every night.

The Tony nominations even came out on the 12th anniversary of his passing.

"I can't rule out the fact that he had something to say up there for me," she says. "I think that naive arrogance that I had as a 12-year-old is a testament to my parents always telling me that I was the best at everything I did. So my dad gets to travel with me every day. He's like an angel on my shoulder. I'm sure he'll be there."

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Source: Associated Press , The Improper