C2 EZ RE K THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, JUNE 7 , 2022
to hear — Frost is magnetic and
earthy and mysterious,” I wrote in
my opening-night review. “You
feel the eerie presence of some-
one who might any second float
away in a ‘Wizard of Oz’ balloon
basket.”
Strayhorn insists she sensed it
prenatally. “He was active inside
of me — you could just see my
belly just roll,” she said in a Zoom
interview from her home in Rock-
ville. “And I just felt like he was
special in that way. Didn’t know
to what degree of course, but at an
early age, I instilled in him that
you’re a star. And you can do
whatever you want to do.”
For Frost, that belief gave him a
solid backbone, whether he was
pursuing his youthful passions
for golf and piano, or charting a
path to a career as a recording
artist. “She’s always been like that
from since I was a child,” he said.
“She always supported me in anylike, ‘What did I get myself into?,’
it’d be when I was offered the
role,” Frost said. “It was such a
deep moment for me because I
thought about all the different
possibilities. You know, I thought
about the allegations. I thought
about the physical demands of
this, then understanding that I’d
be doing this more times than
Michael did.”
But not taking on the role was
never a serious consideration. “I
don’t believe that God puts you
through anything that you can’t
handle,” he added.
The path to Broadway started
in the maternity wing of a Wash-
ington hospital. Frost grew up in
nearby Prince George’s and Mont-
gomery counties, the son of a
single mom who worked as a
systems engineer. Charmayne
Strayhorn had a fierce love of God
and an equally fierce faith in her
children’s gifts: Around the neck
of newborn Myles — named by
her and then husband Irving
Frost for jazz great Miles Davis —
Strayhorn fastened a special little
bib.
“A Star is Born,” it read.
Critics would validate the in-
scription two decades later.
“Mimicking Jackson’s breathy in-
tonations — the voice of a man in
charge who forces you to lean in,ANNA WATTS FOR THE WASHINGTON POSTMyles Frost on getting the title role in “MJ”: “You know, I thought about the allegations. I thought about the physical demands of this, then understanding that I’d be doing this more times than Michael did.”
and everything and was always
there when I needed anything.
Just like you’re born with talent, I
think being born into a world
with a mother like that is definite-
ly a gem.”
Mother and son acknowledge
that financial constraints re-
quired them to move around a lot
with Frost’s sister (who’s 17 and
wants to be an entertainment
lawyer). But Strayhorn’s disci-
plined approach to parenthood
kept day-to-day struggles from
blurring his focus. “He had his
moments of being a teenager, but
he was a really nice kid offstage,
with an incredible family that
offered him a lot of support,”
recalled drama teacher Jessica
Speck, who taught at Wootton at
the time and directed Frost in
“Hairspray.”
Carla Ingram was Wootton’s
chorus teacher and the person
who first pointed Frost toward
the stage. One day, she found him
playing the grand piano in the
chorus room. “She walks in and
says, ‘Well, I hope there’s a voice
behind that piano playing,’ ” Frost
recalled. “I say yes, and she said,
‘That’s great because we need
more kids for this musical. We’re
doing “Hairspray.” ’ Oh? Like I
never heard of it.”
“It was the right voice at the
right time,” said Ingram. “His
poise and his energy are so posi-
tive.”
Years before, Strayhorn had
sent Frost to audition for com-
mercials. But it wasn’t until he
was a teenager and posting his
performances on YouTube —
singing Jorja Smith’s “On My
Mind,” for instance, and the Ush-
er and Alicia Keys song “My Boo”
— that people in the business
began to take some notice and
Frost took lessons from
a ctor-producer Leland Thomas.
Those efforts led to the audition
for “MJ,” after Ephraim Sykes, the
actor originally cast to play Jack-
son, left the production.
As a result, that newborn’s bib
became a prophecy — culminat-
ing, perhaps, on Sunday night,
when the Tonys are doled out.
“They told me that Michael
Jackson didn’t understand start-
ing at zero and working his way to
100 percent,” Frost said. “Michael
only understood coming into the
room at 100 percent and then
seeing how far he could go.
“There was no way I could go
through this process and not
adopt that ideology, of always
starting at 100.”MJ, book by Lynn Nottage. Directed
and choreographed by Christopher
Wheeldon. At Neil Simon Theatre,
250 W. 52nd St., New York.
mjthemusical.com/tickets. The Tony
Awards will be broadcast June 12 on
CBS and Paramount Plus.ful spring 2021 audition. “And
this very unassuming man
walked into the room, and right
in front of our eyes he trans-
formed into Michael Jackson. We
kind of turned to each other with
our mouths open. And we said,
‘What did we just see?’ ”
What they saw was a young
man of extraordinary natural
gifts and a serene, guileless confi-
dence.
“I didn’t know who these peo-
ple were,” Frost, now 22, said via
Zoom about facing a panel that
included two-time Pulitzer Prize
winner Nottage and ballet-world
star Wheeldon. “I walk in, I have
my little white fedora, and I say,
‘Hi, my name is Myles Frost, and
I’ll be auditioning for the role of
Michael Jackson.’ Chris [Wheel-
don] and I laugh at this now
because, you know: You intro-
duce yourself and say what you
will go for — and they’re like,
‘Yeah, we know that!’ ”
The opportunity and responsi-
bility that have been heaped on
an untested talent are remark-
able. Imagine it: The first time
you stepped on the musical thea-
ter stage was as a high school
freshman and you got the part of
Seaweed in “Hairspray” in a pro-
duction at Thomas S. Wootton
High School in Rockville. (“I’ll be
completely honest with you. I’d
never heard of a ‘musical’ before,”
Frost recounted.) Then, while an
undergraduate at Bowie State
University in Maryland, you’re
selected for the gargantuan as-
signment of convincing 1,400
Broadway customers, eight times
a week, that you are MJ incarnate.
Singular voice, sequined glove,
slinky moonwalk and all.
“I matured in that moment,”
Frost said of the phone call from
Wheeldon with the offer. “I think
that was the first time I’ve ever
experienced maturity in real
time. I felt myself becoming an
adult. In that moment, I felt like,
‘Okay, it’s time to get out of the
college party mentality.’ Like this
is the beginning of Myles Frost as
a grown man.”
In “MJ,” he is Jackson as a
grown man. Two other actors play
younger versions of the pop idol
at various points in a vibrantly
danced show that revolves
around rehearsals for Jackson’s
1992 world tour. The focus is on
Jackson’s artistic development
and only tangentially touches on
the allegations of sexual abuse of
boys that embroiled him in police
investigations and lawsuits. Frost
has had to contemplate that facet
of the star’s story without inter-
nalizing it — because the exer-
tions in becoming MJ are so
intense.
“If there was any time to be
FROST FROM C1
Myles Frost, moonwalking his way forward on Broadway
M ATTHEW MURPHYC HARMAYNE STRAYHORN“I felt myself becoming an adult. In thatmoment, I felt like... t his is the beginningof Myles Frost as a grown man.”
M yles Frost, on being offered the starring role in “MJ”ABOVE: Frost, pictured on
the Broadway stage in “MJ,”
had never heard of
“Hairspray” when a teacher
urged him to join a Wootton
High School production.
LEFT: Frost as a newborn,
with a prophetic bib that
reads “A Star is Born.”