Best Of: Broadway legend André De Shields / Apache Chef Nephi Craig

**Terry Gross** (0:01)
From WHOY in Philadelphia, I'm Terry Gross with Fresh Air Weekend.
Today, André De Shields, at the age of 80, he's back on Broadway in CATS The Jellicle Ball. He won a Tony for his performance in Hadestown and co-stars in the new film of the revival. He made his Broadway debut in the title role of the 1975 original Broadway production of The Wiz. De Shields describes himself as Afro queer, a long-time HIV survivor and unreformed hippie. He's always gone his own way in how he thinks, speaks, dresses and moves.

**André De Shields** (0:38)
I don't rush anywhere.
I walk slowly. My reputation is that André De Shields doesn't walk, he floats.

**Terry Gross** (0:46)
Later, Apache chef Nephi Craig explains how cooking and teaching about indigenous foods saved his life. And John Powers reviews Will Ferrell's new series, The Hawk.
That's coming up on Fresh Air Weekend.
This is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Terry Gross. When André De Shields name is mentioned, it's often preceded by the words Broadway Legend or The Great. He won a Tony for his performance in the musical Hadestown in 2019, and the show won seven other Tonys including Best Musical. Stars of the original Broadway cast reunited for a revival of the show last year in London. That production was filmed and is now showing in select theaters. Right now, De Shields is one of the stars of CATS, The Jellicle Ball, which won three Tonys last month. It uses the same songs as CATS, but with different beats, and is set in the queer underground ballroom culture of the 80s. That show is closing August 8th. De Shields is especially remarkable considering he's 80 and has been HIV positive since 1991
He grew up in Baltimore in what he describes as the innermost part of Baltimore's inner city, and figured getting an education would be key to getting out. He earned his BA in English Literature at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and an MA in African American Studies from NYU. He started his career in experimental theater in Chicago. When his theater group performed in New York, he decided to stay. He soon got cast as The Wizard in the 1975 original Broadway cast of The Wiz, which was produced a few years before the movie. He was nominated for a Tony for his performance in the show Ain't Misbehavin, which was built around music associated with Fats Waller. And he won an Emmy when it was produced for a 1982 NBC broadcast. He was nominated for another Tony for his performance in The Full Monty.
He's performed in a wide range of dramas, including King Lear, Waiting for Godot, and Death of a Salesman. Let's start with André De Shields singing the opening number of Hadestown in which he sets up the story and introduces the characters. The show tells a version of the Greek myths about Hades, Hermes, Orpheus, and Eurydice. De Shields plays Hermes, the god who escorts the souls of the dead to the underworld, which is ruled by Hades. Here's De Shields from the original Broadway cast recording.
Fresh Air, congratulations on all the things that you're doing now. I just think it's great. Did you ever believe that despite having being diagnosed with HIV in 1991, and believing that you had it considerably before that, but you just didn't have the diagnosis, that you'd not only live to see age 80, but that you'd be in a new film version of a musical you'd won a Tony for, and at the same time you'd be on Broadway as one of the stars of CATS, The Jellicle Ball?

**André De Shields** (4:44)
Well, the answer to that question is yes.

**Terry Gross** (4:48)
And my answer to that is no.

**André De Shields** (4:53)
I believed from my very first conscious thought that my destiny would rise up and meet me. So when my mother shared with me that her lifelong dream had been to be a chorus girl, and that was the term she used, she didn't say dancer, she said chorus girl.
And my father shared with me that he had always wanted to be a singer. He had a beautiful tenor voice, but the closest he got to that dream coming true was to sing in the church choir. Those two bits of knowledge only reaffirmed what I had been dreaming about since the day I was born. I wanted to sing, I wanted to dance.

**Terry Gross** (5:49)
HIV when you had it in 91, it was a death sentence.
You had two partners who died of AIDS, and friends as well, cast members who you work with. So you really thought you were going to be on Broadway at the age of 80?