WATCH NOW! Zooming in on the Tony Nominees: Dominique Morisseau

Welcome to Broadway with Ain't Too Proud

How excited are you? I'm so very excited. I love this story and I love the team that's telling it

So I'm just pumped. What was it like creating the book to this beautiful musical

You know, working on this book was a dream come true. It was, I learned a lot because this is my first music

and I'm a writer who always writes with music in mind or writes from a perspective of music

because I'm married to a hip-hop artist and music rules my marriage and my life

But this was different because, you know, you have to sort of let the music and the songs be your co-writer

and they're going to be your monologue where I would normally want to do that, you know

And so trying to find that balance of being able to do that was a very fun and amazing challenge for me

Because what unlocked it all for you with writing a musical? I just, honestly, I trust, I trust other words, you know

Like, I do trust the song lyrics a lot. And I loved being able to listen to The Temptations music

hear these songs that I think I already know so well, and find new meaning in them

That's just like a fun activity to do. And so to be able to do that and then find a way to pull that into a story

for this musical was exciting to me And being on Broadway what that means to especially with this musical that everyone is falling in love with You know I remember after our first preview a woman I did not know

she was invited by some friends of mine. She came up to me and she gave me a hug. She was from

Detroit. And she gave me a hug and she said, Detroit's on Broadway. And she started crying

you know? And I thought, and I said to her, yeah, we are. We are. We are

And so being on Broadway means representing my city in the most visible and exciting way and making them feel proud

And that's the best thing ever. If you could tell your younger self, I'm going to write the book to an incredible musical on Broadway and then be nominated for a Tony

What would your younger self say? Okay, girl, do it. That's what she would say

Yeah. You can do anything. You can do anything. I ain't nobody can tell you nothing

I mean, when I was a kid, like, there was no answer. Then the word no did not apply, even when it probably should have, you know, like from my parents

But it just didn't. And so if I wanted to write on the wall, I wrote on the wall, you know, and I thought, this is creative genius

I should write in cursive on the wall. This would look good. So that girl would tell me, if you want to do it, like, you're going to be amazing

And I should listen to her some more. I love that. From writing on the wall to writing for Broadway

That's right. Some journey you've been on, right? That's right. Only one's going to get me a spanking with my mama