Crystal Lucas-Perry on Her Double Broadway Debut

Date: December 8, 2022

With back-to-back roles in 1776 and Ain’t No Mo’, the character actor is showing off her versatility

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It’s a testament to Lucas-Perry’s talent and versatility that she’s been able to pivot so quickly—and convincingly—from the lead role in a nearly three-hour musical to a whirlwind ensemble comedy in which she and her castmates tackle numerous parts. “I am literally jumping from character to character—I’m taking on six different people, and I’m trying to just make sure that they are uniquely dynamic and nuanced,” she says. “Though they may share the same skin tone, not one of them has the same mind, the same given circumstances or the same life experience. I’ve never been able to be so free in a project. I got to throw things up on the wall, fail and fly and fumble and just go in.”

“I always want to be back in the room with Stevie and Jordan,” she says. “Wherever I lay my hat artistically is kind of similar to where I lay my hat personally. The people around me become my family.”

The loosely connected vignettes of Ain’t No Mo’ dissect several aspects of the contemporary Black experience in alternately hilarious and chilling fashion. The characters Lucas-Perry channels in the play, which also include an elderly church organist and a reality show star, have little in common beyond Blackness. “I was more myself in 1776 than I am in this show,” she insists. “In Ain’t No Mo’, I am literally a vessel, trying to make sure that I am breathing the life of those characters, whereas 1776 was about bringing me into that space, a place where I would never have been.”

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TDF MEMBERS: At press time, discount tickets were available for Ain’t No Mo’ and 1776. Go here to browse all theatre, dance and music offers.

Regina Robbins is a writer, director, native New Yorker and Jeopardy! champion. She has worked with several NYC-based theatre companies and is currently a Core Company Member with Everyday Inferno Theatre.