In this era of calculated personal branding and TikTok careerism, it's delightful to meet an honest-to-goodness ingénue. Tavis Kordell
Then again, it's only in a time of online virality and open gender fluidity that one could meet an ingénue quite like Tavis (pronounced tAY-vis) Kordell, 23, who first came to national attention on "America's Got Talent" and is now playing the nonbinary lead role of Jerry/Daphne in the first national tour of "Some Like It Hot." The hit Broadway musical will play the Orpheum Theatre from Jan. 7 to 26.
Very loosely adapted from the 1959 movie starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe, the stage version of "Some Like It Hot" has queer songwriters, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman ("Hairspray") and book writers, Matthew Lopez ("The Inheritance," the screenplay of "Red, White, and Royal Blue") and Amber Ruffin ("Late Night with Seth Myers").
All of them were Tony-nominated, and J. Harrison Ghee, who originated Kordell's role, took home the 2023 Tony for Best Leading Actor.
Kordell, who like his character, identifies as non-binary, grew up in Raeford, North Carolina (pop. 4,559), the child of a pastor and church choir director.
"Everyone on my mother's side of the family either sings or plays an instrument, so music was kind of in my genetics. I remember singing from when I was five," said Kordell in a recent phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter from a tour stop in Orlando, Florida.
But the notion of pursuing music as a profession didn't occur to him as a child. At the vo-tech high school program he attended, Kordell's studies focused on Animal Science, which he hoped would lead to a career as a veterinary assistant.
"I've always had a love for animals," "Growing up I begged for a dog, which I never got. But I did have a bunny rabbit named Bun-Bun. I miss being around animals, and I've considered bringing one on the road with me. But I'm still figuring out how to take care of myself, let alone another animal."
Curtain up
It was a fictional feline that spurred Kordell's shift of career plan.
During the summer between his freshman and sophomore years, he traveled to New York for a high school marching band competition.
"This is crazy," he recalled, "We got to perform at Carnegie Hall! And we got to see a Broadway show. They selected 'The Lion King' for us. It was the first musical I ever saw. And I remember feeling like, 'Wow! This is lovely.'
"At first, because I was coming from a marching band background, I was paying the most attention to what was going on in the orchestra, hearing the different nuances coming from the piccolo or the different horns. But then I began to pay attention to what happens on stage, and I found it fascinating. I was just so captivated by the performances. I feel like it ignited a fire in me."
"In my junior year, I heard they were having auditions for a musical called 'Footloose' at school. It saw that it would conflict with band, so I figured I wouldn't audition. But last minute, my math teacher told me she thought I should, so I auditioned and got cast as Ren [The role originated on screen by Kevin Bacon]."
"It was a great experience, but I really didn't think of pursuing it further. Animal science seemed like a more sustainable path for me. Then my theater teacher, Miss Medina Demeter, told me that you could major in musical theater at college and encouraged me to audition."
Bloom time
It was during Kordell's years at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he graduated just last spring, that he feels he came into his own, not only as a performer but as a member of the queer community.
"I felt freer," he said. "Not only did I wear whatever I want, I made a lot of my own clothes. I created this denim kilt-like maxi skirt kind of vibe thing.
"I really loved playing with different elements when it came to levels of femininity and masculinity and androgyny once I got to college. That was when I really bloomed."
"It definitely has been hard, because growing up in the religious background, I've been taught against who I am. But I when I began to acknowledge and accept who I am, and walk in who I was meant to be, that's when I received all the blessings and the things that I've aspired to life."
Thinking back on his smalltown childhood, Kordell said, "I didn't feel unhappy, it's just like you have little things at the back of your head. You do things to keep peace and just not cause any friction."
"That's how I got along. I knew how I needed to conduct myself in the space where I was growing up. I would say I had a happy childhood within those parameters."
It wasn't until this past April, as he was about to finish college, that Kordell came out to his parents.
"Of course it was hard for them to hear at first, coming from their Christian background. But they've reassured me that they love me no matter what and they support me 100%."
Going viral
During his sophomore year at Greensboro, Kordell befriended fellow students, Christoff Julian Kennedy, a jazz studies major, and Christoff Hairston, whose focus was vocal music.
After discussing their mutual affection for performers including Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin over lunch one day, they sang an impromptu version of "Name It, Claim It," in the college cafeteria.
"We recorded it on our phones and when we played it back, we were like, 'Wow, we sound good together!' We posted it on Instagram on a whim. The next day it was blowing up.
"A producer from 'America's Got Talent' reached out to us, asking us to audition. We were like, 'We barely know each other. We're not a real group.' But in that moment, we became one."
Calling themselves 1aChord, the trio went on to become semi-finalists in the show's sixteenth season. Kordell's soaring vocals on songs including "Fix You" by Coldplay and "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M. brought him to the attention of theatrical agents who began booking him auditions.
Shortly after graduating last May, Kordell began rehearsals for his first major professional job, leading the national tour of "Some Like It Hot."
Following his own lead
Kordell, who is single and has had "an occasional guy and stuff, but not any real relationships" has briefly resided in eleven different cities since the tour opened in Schnectady, New York in September.
"I got to eat buffalo wings in Buffalo," he noted, "That was pretty cool."
It's an unusual introduction to post-college adulthood.
"It's definitely been a journey," he said. "I'm learning a lot about myself and what it takes to sustain my livelihood. Living out of a hotel room can be a lot, especially when you're in a space for only one week. I have to make sure that I plan grocery shopping and meals, so I don't waste food."
"I'm absolutely enjoying it though," said Kordell, who has made good friends among the traveling cast and crew. "I get up in the mornings around 10 or 11 and just see what I feel like doing.
"I love pho, which is a kind of Vietnamese soup, so maybe I'll see if there's someplace I can get pho for lunch. Maybe I can find a thrift shop nearby, I love thrifting. I like to keep things fluid.
"As someone who doesn't conform to what was expected of me, I'm just so happy to be telling this story across the United States."
And when the tour ends next year?
"I want to be in New York and make my Broadway debut, whether it be a new work or a revival or a show that's been running for a while. I would love to play Simba in 'The Lion King.' That's a role I believe I could step right into."
'Some Like It Hot,' Jan. 7-26. $55.50-$239.50. Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market St. www.broadwaysf.com
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