Conrad Ricamora on authenticity and the fluidity of identity

As a mixed Asian theater artist, Conrad Ricamora is a long time role model of mine. I saw him perform for the first time in 2019 at The Public Theater in David Henry Hwang's personal, political satire, Soft Power. He was still playing his long-time role of Oliver in Shondaland-infamous How To Get Away With Murder at the time. Since then, Ricamora has been all over: gracing the cover of Mixed Asian Media during the premiere of Fire Island, in The Public Theater-originated Broadway production Here Lies Love, and most recently he’s taken on the role of Abraham Lincoln in Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary!—for which he’s received his first Tony Award nomination, in the category of Best Featured Actor. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and length and contains spoilers for Oh, Mary!

Bri Ng Schwartz: Congratulations on your Tony nomination for Oh, Mary! This show has really brought New York Downtown theater back to Broadway. What about the show do you think resonates with audiences so much?
Conrad Ricamora: People are hungry for authenticity. We've been pandered to, and sometimes it feels like the entertainment industry is run by corporations and committees creating work based off of existing IP. This show came straight from (playwright Cole Escola’s) brain, and everybody that has been involved from the production side. Cole has their roots in niche downtown theater and cabaret spaces, and people are missing that integrity in the entertainment industry right now.

BNS: In addition to Cole, you’ve worked with other people making waves in the comedy space right now, including other Asian American actors like Bowen Yang and Joel Kim Booster. Have you learned anything about your own relationship to comedic performing while working with them?
CR: Joel and Bowen specifically are making headway for all of us in the community because they're doing it with jokes that don't have to do with our race and our ethnicity. A lot of times Asian American performers have had to let go of their dignity in order to perform, because that's the only material that was either being written for us or accepted in the marketplace.

BNS: Do you feel like theater and film are the same in that way?
CR: No, I feel like there has been more headway with TV and Film. I was cast in How to Get Away with Murder, and it wasn't written for an Asian American man. That's the great thing about Shonda Rhimes. She blindly throws out a casting breakdown, and when I went in for that role, there was a Black guy that went in before me and then a white guy who went into the room after me. I got to be on that show for six years.

BNS: Speaking of your TV credits, and working with other comedic performers, I'd love to hear more about your experience with Natasha Rothwell on How To Die Alone.
CR: Just like Cole, Natasha is somebody that I had on my radar for years and years. When I saw her Love, Simon movie, I just thought she popped and there was a presence to her. On How To Die Alone, I got to do some alternative takes on certain scenes and flex my ad-libbing and improv skills. That meant something, especially coming off How To Get Away With Murder, which was not a super comedic show. 

BNS: Having seen both shows, it seemed like you were having a lot of fun playing Rory in a different way than your character Oliver in How To Get Away With Murder.
CR: Yeah. Being able to stretch those comedy muscles in How To Die Alone and in Fire Island has been great. And now in Oh, Mary!

BNS: Since returning to Oh, Mary! after a two-month hiatus, have you learned anything new about Lincoln or your relationship to the role?
CR: The break really gave me this perspective on gender roles and gender expectations, and what gets lost or suppressed when somebody feels a degree of pressure to perform a given gender role. For Cole’s Lincoln, the pressure to be hyper masculine is so high because of the Civil War and because Mary is so out of control. The stakes of being married to a loose cannon at that time when you're the president could not be higher. And then there’s having sexual feelings towards men. So, the amount of repression that has to take place from not being allowed to show any vulnerability explodes in certain ways.

We went for a year straight without having a break. It felt like such a pressure cooker. After having two months off, I was able to intellectually understand what was going on.

BNS: I read a recent interview you did with People Magazine, and you said you were having “rage dreams” about the play.
CR: Last year in January and February, I was having rage dreams, and I couldn't understand why. My husband told me that I was kicking and thrashing in the middle of the night. The pressure on Cole's Lincoln is so high that I was feeling it in my sleep. Luckily, for the last couple of months, I've been able to just inhabit that on stage and let go of it off stage.

BNS: Oh Mary! and past productions you’ve been in, like David Henry Hwang's Soft Power and David Byrne’s and Fatboy Slim’s Here Lies Love, are all in their own ways, political commentary. Have these shows shaped the way that you view the world that we're living in today?
CR: There's so many layers to that answer. Oh, Mary! has shaped the way I think about identity. What Cole’s done has allowed audience members to let their concepts of identity melt in the theater. When they're laughing at what we're doing on stage, I feel like they're also laughing at their own ideas of gender. It’s hilarious that we have these rules set up, not only for the outside world but for ourselves. It's made me see that identity is so fluid.

Soft Power. Oh God. I went and saw a production they did in D.C. last year. That is the most timely show right now, and it will never get produced. To me it feels like every day, our democracy's just getting chipped away. I never thought I would see the president of the United States attacking free speech and higher education. The hits just keep coming. 

Here Lies Love also tells a story about people losing their democracy. If anyone ever did a film about the People Power Revolution, I would go back and play Benigno Aquino III in a non-musical setting. His story is so amazing, of how he was in prison for seven years and stood up while the democracy in the Philippines was being chipped away again. 

BNS: Are there any other shows that you're rooting for this Tony season?
CR: I just saw Maybe Happy Ending, I was sobbing. It's rare to see a musical that is not bombastic, and this has such sweet subtlety to it. It’s about the desire to connect, even though it's two robots. I superimposed my desire to find connection and belonging in this world—feeling like you don't fit in the world anymore and the want to find a home and a companion. 

BNS: What you were talking about at the beginning of our conversation regarding familiar IP, especially on Broadway for the past couple of years, Oh! Mary and Maybe Happy Ending give me hope, as a theater person, that original shows can succeed and sell.
CR: It’s restored my faith in pure storytelling. 

BNS: I will be rooting for you this Tony’s season, and I'm wishing you best of luck in the rest of your time as Lincoln.
CR: Thank you! It’s a blast. Even though we're very focused and committed—that tsunami of laughter coming at us every night—it feels pretty special hearing how much people are enjoying it. It’s a special show. 

BNS: That, it is.