Jordan Fisher Honors Tony Winner Lillias White for Black History Month

In honor of Black History Month, Broadway.com is celebrating some of the theater industry’s most influential Black artists. We invited Broadway actors to tell us about the individuals who most inspire them. Each week in February features a new entry in the series, with Broadway stars honoring their colleagues, mentors and the historic figures they admire.

Jordan Fisher, whose Broadway credits include Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Hadestown, Moulin Rouge! The Musical and Sweeney Todd, is moving to Skid Row as Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors off-Broadway beginning March 6. The stage favorite—and dad to a 3-year-old son—jumped at the opportunity to celebrate his friend and former Hadestown co-star, Tony winner Lillias White. She’s “Auntie Lil” to Fisher’s son (and to him and his wife), a moniker he says is shared by many. “That's probably why I'm so thrilled to talk about her,” he says.

“She obviously colored my childhood with Hercules,” Fisher says of White’s role as Calliope, the Muse of Epic Tales in the 1997 Disney animated film. “I admire the fact that there has been a continuity in her ability to perform at the level that she's been able to across so many different mediums, and it's just as impactful." Fisher first made the connection between White and her animated character when he came across a video of her performing as Effie in Dreamgirls, a role she understudied and later replaced on Broadway. Before he began his career, Fisher says he didn’t know a performer could make a name for themselves without originating roles.

“There's an art form to it, and time and time again—especially getting here and coming to the city and learning about how to do that and who does that very well—I kept hearing how Lillias has been able to slot into so many shows over her entire career,” he says. “That has absolutely fueled my fire for the decade that I've been working in New York theater.” As someone who’s replaced a number of roles on Broadway and brought new life to his characters, Fisher looks to White as an inspiration. [She doesn’t] “just assimilate into something that's already running and keep the integrity of that show held together, but is capable of making a mark that is entirely Lillias White, that's full of love. It's not self-indulging, it's just a powerhouse actor and performer and vocalist giving her Lillias to that thing. And that piece that has been working, remains working or even becomes elevated.”

Having been a longtime admirer of her work, Fisher was slightly nervous that White wouldn’t live up to his expectations if and when they met in real life. As it turns out, he didn’t need to worry. When the opportunity to star as Orepheus in Hadestown arrived, he didn’t know that White would still be playing Hermes. “I cried,” Fisher says of the moment when he found out they’d be in the show together. “I fell out of my chair. I was like, I don't even know how to truly process this other than I hope and pray that everything that I've heard about this woman is indeed correct. And sure enough, I was greeted with a, ‘Hey baby, come here’ and a big hug. The way that you should greet people, especially when they're doing a scary thing and coming into a very well-loved, very well-oiled machine.”

“She's just an absolute masterclass in how to receive people, how to love people, how to support people genuinely. No matter what, knock on the door, ‘Come in, baby.’ And that's not surprising to me, only because I know her now, but it's also not surprising to me from humanity's perspective, because that is how it should be done.” Fisher adds of their relationship, “Lillias White chooses to let those moments happen and leans into it, and is so consistent and so there for all of it, for anything that you're doing. A little show, cabaret, if you invite her, she's coming. That to me is so powerful and it goes such a long way.”

He aspires to be that person for others as well. “If there's an opportunity for me to lead and guide or just talk and listen, give thoughts or advice or feedback, I'm going to do it. Because I know what that means to me when I get an opportunity to have those moments.”

Fisher also shouts out his soon-to-be Little Shop of Horrors co-star, Nikki M. James. "Her Audrey is so honest and so real, which at times makes it all the funnier and at times makes it all the sadder, and sometimes makes it all the scarier," he shares. "And to be the first Black Audrey and Seymour in the show together is something that is not lost on me."

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