Phyre Hawkins on Heating Up Broadway in the Summer Return of Hair

Age & Hometown: “Old enough to drive!”; Flint, Michigan

Current Role: A Broadway debut as Dionne, Hair's big-voiced diva who starts the show with a soul-stirring rendition of “Aquarius.”

Playing with Phyre: Hawkins got her incendiary name as a kid, because two other neighborhood girls happened to share the name she was born with, Tiffany. “We all had nicknames, and mine was Phyre because I’m a Sagittarius, a fire sign. Once people know me and I tell them my real name, they say, ‘Noooo, that doesn’t fit you at all!’” A finance major at Michigan State, Hawkins abandoned the business world after being cast in a campus production of George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum. “I re-evaluated my life and moved to New York to pursue what I love.”

World Traveler: Over the past six years, Hawkins has become an expert at hitting the road, including a stint in Avenue Q in Las Vegas (“a great place to relax”) and national tours of The Color Purple and Hair. “One of my goals in life was to travel, and I’ve been to London [in Hair], India [in the play My Soul Is a Witness] and all over the United States.” When the Hair tour booked an unexpected summer stop at the St. James Theatre, “We were all crazy with excitement,” she says. “Audiences in New York understand this show,” she says. “There are cities in the bible belt where people have walked out. In one city, they thought we were a hair show and not the musical Hair!”

Peace & Love: The daughter of deeply religious parents (her dad, a retired fire chief, is a pastor), Hawkins credits Hair with broadening her horizons. “The show came into my life at a time when I wanted to become a more open person, and it helped me on that journey,” she explains. “You have to embrace yourself and everyone else, and let people be who they are. That’s a message that will always stand the test of time.” The actress is looking forward to nine more months on the road as Dionne, “then I want to come back to New York and get some film and television under my belt,” she says. “I want to do it all.”