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Video: And Just Like That... Christopher Jackson Is Back on Broadway
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Aug 1, 2025
It's been almost ten years since Christopher Jackson last appeared in a Broadway musical. From making history in Hamilton, he's now making music a couple of blocks south in Hell's Kitchen. The Tony nominee stepped into the role of 'Davis' in Alicia Keys' Tony-winning musical last month. Watch in this video as he chats more about his new gig in Hell's Kitchen.
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By 25, I had already done the thing that I set out to do
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not knowing that, oh, but there's five more things that you're going to get, you know
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because that's the artist's way. It's never like, I accomplished this thing. I've created the painting
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Well, you worry about the next painting. You know what I mean? You start thinking about what the next thing you get to do
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or want to do is, and I'm really fortunate to have been in that place
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Welcome to Backstage with Richard Ridge. We are once again at the legendary Sardis
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And you know my guests from such musicals as The Lion King, In the Heights, and Hamilton, which is about to celebrate its 10th anniversary
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He is also one of the co-stars of the hit HBO Max series, And Just Like That
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And he's recently stepped into the role of Davis in Alicia Keys' hit musical, Hell's Kitchen
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Please welcome Emmy and Grammy Award winner, Christopher Jackson. Okay, you are back on Broadway again
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How does it feel? It feels great. The best part about being on a Broadway show is, of course, the audience
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It's an audience unlike any other part of entertainment TV set. You are sequestered on a soundstage somewhere where no one is paying attention
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and the audience is on a Broadway, in a Broadway show, in New York in general
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give you so much life and inform so much of the work that you're doing in an instant
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And that's the part that I live for. Yeah. So when the opportunity came for you to take over the role of Davis
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in Alicia Keys' incredible musical, Hell's Kitchen, what made you say, yeah, I'm going to do this
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I felt like, first of all, I was fortunate enough to be there opening night. So from the moment that I saw it, I felt like, okay, well, I'm dad of a teenager now
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I've been around the world. I certainly know what it's like to be an artist and try to make your bones both pursuing the art, but also like feeding yourself and your family
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There were just so many different parallels, just from my own relationship with my father and watching my mother navigate those waters that are always difficult
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There were a lot of parallels from what I had grown up and experienced and what I was seeing on stage
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And that's a rarity to be able to encounter a piece of art that tells that story so fully and so well
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And so it was really interesting just the prospect of being in this role
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And I was happy when it came up. Okay, first night on stage across the street at Hell's Kitchen
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What do you remember? How magical was that night? Nothing. I spent the first..
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The putting process was short. That's being fair. It was very, very fast
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and as someone who hasn't been on stage in 10 years, it took a lot, it was a lot of re-sort of
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acquainting myself with just the walk from the parking garage to the theater
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and then walking into the theater and just all of the things that ultimately I rely on
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I love the structure of half hour, five minutes, places, let's go, you know
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But it took a lot of, it worked a lot of muscles
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that I haven't worked in a very, very long time, right? It's a big show
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It is deceptively big, and it moves very quickly. Though it's not sung through, it feels as if it is
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So I was jumping on a moving train. That train was definitely full steam when I jumped on
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I get to shout the cast out, though. Everybody in the cast is so supportive
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And that's what you find in the theater. When you jump into a show that's already there, if you're lucky
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You have a cast that is that they also understand what it going to take and how challenging that can be And they were and have been and continue to be super supportive loose and encouraging There a thousand different adjectives to describe it
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but it's been a wholly beautiful process to be welcomed into. Hell's Kitchen is such a big show. It's such a hit show. What does it mean to you just watching how
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this show is affecting audiences and how they walk away, the doors of a Schubert Theater open
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and people come out and they're like, wow, what a great night in the theater. You know, if I take five seconds to think back, I've been a part of some really big shows
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And the one thing that I find consistent and that I take home with me every night is that people are, you know, an artist's job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable
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Right. And I think that this show brings a lot of relief to really kind of difficult questions that people are experiencing in life
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If we do our job right, then the audience is able to experience thoughts they can't necessarily access on their own
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And the heightened circumstances of a show gives them the license to experience that in real time
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And I think that at the core of why we're doing what we're doing, it's to help people feel the things that everybody feels
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and maybe give words, give expression to that so that they then get to walk home
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talk to their neighbors, talk to their own kids, look at their own lives, examine the things that are working well
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that they relate to in the show. And it's a really powerful thing
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And I think that this show definitely accomplishes that. You mentioned the big shows you've been a part of
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You made your Broadway debut, I did. I mean, how magical was that
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You know, it only gets bigger the more I look back on it, right? It only takes more
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has more of an influence on and it's just profound to me how I, through no fault of my own
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have found myself in these amazing productions and have been so fortunate to, like, see how all
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of the machinery works. The fuel for all of it is the audience. The audience drives the creativity
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and the desire to get it out to as many people as possible. And it's no small thing to walk by
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the Lion King. And even though it's in a different theater, I helped build that. I was a part of the
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building of that, to walk by the Rogers and see Hamilton going. I got to be a part of that
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it hearkens the line that Lynn wrote legacy is planting seeds in the ground
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you never get to see but the real gift is that I'm able to see these things
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and I'm able to like on a daily basis walk by and it just reminds me
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of how grateful I am because of the fact that I have gotten to
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experience, be a part of it to build it, to influence it, to shape it
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and know that people are filling those seeds and are having that experience, it's crazy to me
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Because you started the ensemble, then you became Simba. I did. I did. And the amount of growth that happened, you know
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I often say that Lion King was like grad school for me. I was there four and a half years
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I went through injuries and recovery, and I started in the ensemble, and I worked really, really hard, and I was fortunate enough to move into the lead
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And so, you know, by 25, I had already done the thing that I set out to do
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not knowing that, oh, but there's five more things that you're going to get, you know, because that's the artist's way
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It's never like I accomplished this thing. I've created the painting. Well, you worry about the next painting. You know what I mean
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You start thinking about what the next thing you get to do or want to do is And I really fortunate to have been in that place You know thinking about you think the next picture Then you hooked up with Lin Miranda Yeah that one I mean in a little show called In the Heights which I saw down at the Berstakoff
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We were all invited down there first, and no one knew what it was. Right. All right, In the Heights
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When did you realize the impact that show was going to have? Before anyone ever saw it
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I met my wife, Veronica, early on in the reading process. our son was born as sort of the first heights baby if you will in 2005 and I have learned
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so much about the power of not just creativity but more importantly collaboration it set the tone
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for every professional endeavor that I aspired to since since 2002 which is when we met and it's
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been a lifelong collaboration you know a conversation that starts with hey I'm working
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on this thing on stage at the Rogers in a production a Broadway production of In the Heights
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turns into what became Hamilton you know my ability to be a part of it to influence it to
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to see how the thing was constructed and built into I think most importantly know what it's like
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to work with people that you trust with your life. And that's what I find in Bill Sherman and Alex Lacamoire and Tommy Kail and Andy and Lynn
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Like there's this never-ending felt of positive reinforcement, of know-how and being smart
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and being strategic and being thoughtful with just the approach to the creation, let alone
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what the output ultimately becomes is profound. I don't, you know, people ask me
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what's the next thing you're going to do with Lynn? It's like, well, I don't know. It's whenever and whatever comes
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It's the call, hey, I'm doing this. It's me calling him, hey, I wrote this thing
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I'm writing a musical. Like, I'm going to need to, like, bounce ideas off of you
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And the answer is always yes. It's not, well, let me check my schedule
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or let me, you know, call my, it's never that. It's close. It's thousands of performances
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and thousands of potential falls that don't, aren't falls, that are new moments of collaboration
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new moments of creativity and profound trust. It's just, it's so, it's so uncommon
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And then you get the call. I'm writing Hamilton. I didn't get the call
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He literally told me about it during Nome Digo on stage at the Rogers
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And then he goes to the White House, and then he comes back from the White House, and I've got this thing. And then the world starts to get snippets of it
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And then in 2014, in December, we're finally here, and we're doing this thing
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And then the world changed for all of us. And of course, August 6th is the 10th anniversary, which is a fundraiser, which I think is so important
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Tell me about August 6th with the 10th anniversary of Hamilton. Cannot wait. I saw the first act of the show a few weeks ago for the autism-friendly performance at TDF
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and Hamilton partner up to do, which is also just another sort of box
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in the things of my life that are of utmost importance and the fact that Jeffrey and the producers
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made room and space for that to happen in the cast put on an amazing show for an audience
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that was clamoring for the opportunity to experience it in the way that they could
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I think that whole thing was spectacular. August 6th is 10 years of this moment in time that we all spent together telling the story It has lived in so many different places for millions and millions and millions of people
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And it's a real honor to be in that number of people who have given their lives to telling this story
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We think about it in sort of like this business juggernaut, this phenomenon. But the reality is that the phenomenon exists because the people respond to it
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It answers a question for them in a really profound way. And it's going to be pretty awesome to sit in that theater and say, hey, look what we all helped build
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It's pretty fantastic. But I love this being used as a fundraiser for immigration rights, which I think is really, really important
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Obviously, it's America then told by America now. And I think that that is the perfect response to all of the things that we see and all the injustice and difficulty that we see in our current moment as a country and as a culture
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And I think that to take the resources from that and to move that to do real work is the most fitting thing that we could do
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Well, before we end, I have to ask you, this is the new season of And Just Like That. Yes
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Herbert. I know. I mean, you're amazing on that show. How much fun is it to do
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It's the most fun I think anyone could have on television. I think that it's obviously a fun show and light in most instances, but they take it incredibly serious
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There's not a syllable that isn't poured over and examined. The aim is to make the best television show ever
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and Michael Patrick King and our amazing writers and producers are all very
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they're so committed, not just to the telling of the story, but in us personally
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And they care about every storyline and how we carry through with all of those storylines
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So the work itself is unparalleled in terms of how enjoyable it is
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and how challenging it can be sometimes. but ultimately they know what they've got
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they know their fans, they're doing their best to speak to them
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every instance and you can learn a lot in an environment like that but it's the best of the best
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it's really like par excellence you're back on Broadway, we're sitting here at Sardi's
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one of the biggest things look what we found you have one of these
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yours is really good I mean, yeah, it kind of is I'm super excited about it, yeah
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But I mean, seriously, this is like, you know, people think of sardis, you come for dinner, whatever else
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You look at all these beautiful portraits. You have one. I know. I know
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This was, you know, this is another instance where I didn't dream that
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That wasn't a part of my dream, the thing that got me here, the thing that I wanted to be a part of
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Like, there's so many things that you don't see yourself being a part of. you see yourself being successful
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but you don't know what that success is going to look like or feel like or what it means but
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this is as much a testament to a lifetime of collaborating and dedicating every
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waking moment that you have to being the best that you can be for the sake of what you
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can do with it for other people and so it's hard to quantify
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or qualify how awesome this is. But it just points all the way back
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to just being deeply grateful and knowing how lucky I've been. It's been pretty awesome
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