In the world of gods and men, Nathan Lee Graham stands proud. The LGBTQ performer has been celebrated for his authenticity on screen and stage for years, most recently as Hermes in “Hadestown.”
Graham joined the award-winning musical’s North American tour last month, not long after its 2024 extension. It launched last year to critical acclaim after becoming Broadway’s most-honored show in the 2018-19 season.
“Hadestown” was nominated for 14 awards at the 73rd Tony Awards, the most for any production. It won eight, including Best Musical and Best Original Score.
Veteran actor André De Shields, a mentor of Graham’s who originated his current role, also won Outstanding Featured Actor. His performance as Hermes – the audience’s guide through the story – is immortalized on the show’s Original Broadway Cast Recording, which won the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album in 2020.
“Welcome to ‘Hadestown,’ where a song can change your fate,” the musical is described. It’s billed as “a love story for today… and always” about ancient Greek literature.
“It intertwines two mythic tales — that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and his wife Persephone — as it invites you on an unforgettable journey to the underworld and back,” its synopsis continues. “Performed by a vibrant ensemble of actors, singers and dancers, ‘Hadestown’ invites you to imagine how the world could be.”
Graham has done that for his entire career, advocating for LGBTQ representation in and outside of his industry. It led the Human Rights Campaign to honor him with the organization’s Visibility Award in 2019:
“I think we should be represented just like everyone else because we exist,” Graham explains. “We exist in every medium, every echelon of society, every city, every port, every town, all around the world, and we always have. We are real human beings with full, well-rounded lives … It never made any sense to me why we wouldn’t be recognized.”
That’s why Graham has sought LGBTQ roles throughout his career, which began in the late ‘70s with “The Wiz.” It’s where he met De Shields, whom he calls “a dear friend, colleague and mentor.”
Graham would go on to originate Broadway roles in “The Wild Party” and the musical adaptation of “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.” On film, he’s shared scenes with Reese Witherspoon in “Sweet Home Alabama” and kept up with comedians Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell in the “Zoolander” series.
His work is also seen on television. He’s traded barbs with Lisa Kudrow on HBO’s “The Comeback” and taken on Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders’ Patsy and Edina on “Absolutely Fabulous.” Graham is thankful for every experience.
“Whether the character was an antagonist or protagonist, I felt it was important to be visible and recognized,” he says. “So yes, in the beginning of my career I played the best friend to the female lead, but I am the best friend to a lot of females. It didn’t bother me in the slightest as long as the role was well written, fully thrashed out and represented in a positive way.
“That’s not so say the character has to be positive,” he adds. “The character can be a villain, but we’ve got to be in it. We should be in every TV show, every film, every stage play that is ever written.”
“Hadestown” marks Graham’s first tour in years, an experience he calls extraordinary. Watermark spoke with the actor ahead of its three stops in Florida, which he’ll guide through Tampa’s Straz Center for the Performing Arts Nov. 29 – Dec. 4 and Orlando’s Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts Dec. 13 – 18.
WATERMARK: What drew you to performance?
Nathan Lee Graham: Well first of all, I’m as old as the hills so that is a very long and sordid story. My parents and my grandparents noticed that I enjoyed performing and that I had an affinity for it at school and at church, so it was just something that they thought, “well, let’s put him in every sort of training program, and every sort of early childhood development thing for performing arts, because he seems to enjoy this.” I come from a family full of teachers and preachers, so everyone’s had an oral argument, if you will, and I was used to people being in front of other people, making speeches and telling stories.
What comes more naturally for you, stage or screen?
I must say that at this point in my career, they both come naturally. There’s a slight switch in the mind when you are going from one medium to the other and it depends on the project. I have more of a European aesthetic to work, which is, if a project is good, if it’s well written, I’m going to do it if it’s right for me.
European actors don’t worry about if it’s film, if it’s TV or if it’s stage, they just really care about the work. I’m hoping that more Americans get into that, because that’s really what it’s about.
That’s why my career has been so diversified and thank God for that. I don’t have to rely on just one medium. As far as what’s easier, well, listen, eight shows a week is damn hard, but it depends on what you’re doing in the show … it just depends on the role and the project.
What led you to “Hadestown” and how do you describe it?
We went through the normal process. It wasn’t strenuous at all because it was a role that I was right for, and it was wonderful to get it.
Now, as far as the show is concerned – I hate to be so basic – but it’s just really exciting.
“Hadestown” is a Greek, mythical thriller, because you become so invested in all the characters’ journeys and you really want to know what’s going to happen. It’s all about these human themes: love, trust, betrayal, power, desire. “Hadestown,” this wonderful musical, punches up these things in such a unique way that you can’t stop watching it.
Why is that?
It’s visually stunning to watch. In some moments, it’s absolutely intimate and almost personal, like you’re the only person in the theater and it’s just for you. And then other times, it’s dominating and washes over you. Even if you already know the story of Orpheus and Eurydice and Persephone and Hades – and Hermes, being the messenger between the two worlds, the one up above and the one down below – it’s still so exciting to see what’s going to happen and how we’re going to tell this this mythical story. I love a thriller. I love something that’s full of suspense. It’s exciting.
How did you approach Hermes?
Well, to be quite honest with you, I loved everything that André De Shields did with the role and “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is my opinion about everything. What you do is you go in, you have the same content, but it’s how you interpret the content that makes it special. So it’s not unlike Shakespeare. The plays are all the same, but how you interpret playing Hamlet or King Lear is left up to you. That’s theatre magic.
I’m a part of the very exclusive club now, the Hermes club. I know all of the people that have played Hermes, and it’s very exciting to be a part of this club, because we all do it differently. It’s like Mama Rose in “Gypsy.” It’s a great role, but Ethel Merman is going to do it differently than Dame Angela Lansbury; than Bette Midler or Bernadette Peters or Patty LuPone. But it’s all Mama Rose.
How do you describe the character?
He’s this wonderful guide for the audience, but he’s also a part of the story and so sometimes he’s affected by it too. Unknowingly, unwittingly affected, and that’s what makes it exciting for me to play the role and to guide these people and be the storyteller, much more than a narrator. A narrator seems so, I don’t know, basic. He’s part of the story, so he’s a storyteller that weaves in and out and is also perhaps even a moral compass for the story.
What’s touring been like so far, especially coming out of the height of the pandemic?
It’s a challenge in that you can’t do all of the things that you used to be able to do. We are tested every other day. We can’t really interact with the audience afterwards, like one is used to doing; saying hello, taking photos, signing autographs on their playbills. So that’s a bit of a challenge, but at the same time it also makes me focus on what I’m doing even more.
It’s exciting for me to be on tour, I haven’t been on tour since “The Golden Girls” went off the air it seems. Or “The Golden Palace” was on; either one, it was the late 90s, let’s put it that way, because I’ve been doing so much film and TV in between.
So it’s also new for me – not only did I come out of the pandemic, but I came out of the pandemic and now I’m going across the country, and I have this irrational fear of leaving New York City. (Laughs.) But because of that I’ve forced myself on tour and it’s been nothing but wonderful.
What’s it been like working with the cast and crew?
The company itself is phenomenal. The creative team behind “Hadestown” is extraordinary. Everyone from the original Broadway cast and all of the years of the development of this piece are still involved in every single possible way, so all of the creatives of the Tony Award-winning musical put me into the show; put me and the other new principles into this tour.
There is no daylight between what happens with the creative team on Broadway and what happens on tour, and that’s why the show itself is so intact and in great, great shape. What the audiences are getting across North America is the best show that “Hadestown” could possibly be.
Why do you think “Hadestown” can resonate with LGBTQ audiences?
Because LGBTQ+ people fall in love. They have desires, they have wants and needs. They go through trials and tribulations. They have doubts. They go through all of the emotions that are happening in “Hadestown.” If your life is not a journey in the LGBTQ+ community, I don’t know what is.
So for you to go through a journey – and for you to see it all the way through, for there to be some sort of light at the end of the tunnel, for you to have learned something and to grow – that’s every reason why the LGBTQ+ community should see the show and be a part of it in every way.
It’s also gorgeous. It’s gorgeous to look at, gorgeous to be a part of, it’s gorgeous and legendary is what I would say. Gorgeous and legendary characters that can be sometimes larger than life, but at their base they’re very real and very sincere. And that’s what the LGBTQ+ community is to me.
“Hadestown” plays at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa Nov. 29 – Dec. 4 and Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando Dec. 13 – 18. Learn more and buy tickets at StrazCenter.org and DrPhillipsCenter.org.
Read more about “Hadestown” and its full tour at Hadestown.com and keep up with Nathan Lee Graham at NathanLeeGraham.com.
