Three decades ago, Jonathan Larson’s groundbreaking Rent was birthed Off-Broadway in Manhattan’s East Village at the storied New York Theatre Workshop. Now an equally timely, poignant, and empowering new musical is setting that venue ablaze each night with defiant and uplifting queer joy. Boasting fierce creative credentials, Saturday Church has a book and additional lyrics by Damon Cardasis (based on his 2017 feature film) and Fat Ham’s James Ijames, music and lyrics from pop icon Sia, with additional music by DJ, fashion legend, and activist Honey Dijon, who won a Grammy for Best Dance Album for her work on Beyoncé’s Renaissance. With dynamic direction by Whitney White, the show’s kinetic choreography is courtesy of Darrell Grand Moultrie (Beyoncé’s Mrs. Carter World Tour), while the looks are by the Obie Award-winning costume designer Qween Jean.
The talent on stage also delivers 10s Across The Board, including the history-making Tony-winner J. Harrison Ghee dazzling in dual roles, a sensational B Noel Thomas, and Bryson Battle making a remarkable professional stage debut after turning all four chairs on The Voice earlier this year. At the heart of the show is an emotional queer coming-of-age story that follows New York City teenager, Ulysses (Battle), as he navigates the restrictions of his home life and the judgments of his Pastor (Ghee) while receiving celestial guidance from Black Jesus (Ghee) and discovering the liberation offered by Saturday Church, a sanctuary for LGBTQ+ youth run by the matriarchal Ebony (Thomas). Read our full ★★★★ review.
With Saturday Church making its world premiere Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, extended for a second time through October 24th, three of the show’s standout stars, Bryson Battle, B Noel Thomas, and J. Harrison Ghee speak with The Queer Review’s editor James Kleinmann. With exclusive photography for The Queer Review by Steven Menendez.
J. Harrison Ghee
The Queer Review: How was your passion for musical theatre first ignited?
J. Harrison Ghee: “My first encounter with it was as a kid when my dad gave me a VHS of Porgy and Bess starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge. I watched it incessantly. Actually, very recently my mom asked me, ‘What was that thing you watched all the time as a kid?’ That’s the film she meant. Something about the storytelling and the entertainment and the commitment to art was so enthralling to me. It didn’t circle back as a desire to do it myself until high school when I was in my first production, playing the Tin Man in The Wiz, which is also my favourite movie ever.”
Jumping forward to the present day, why did want to be part of Saturday Church?
“I know this story all too well. My dad was a Missionary Baptist Pastor so I grew up in church and had my own struggle with my queerness, realizing what that was and then going on the journey that took me to where I am with that today. So being asked to do it and play the roles of the Pastor and Black Jesus was a no-brainer. It felt very aligned to my ministry of working with intention and purpose, but most importantly, with love.”
How do the two characters you play fit into the story?
“As the Pastor, I scold Ulysses for being himself in church and put him down. But as Black Jesus, I get to raise him up and encourage him to really trust himself and the holy that lives within him.”
You are almost unrecognizable in these two very different roles.
“That’s so fun for me. In my own life, I lovingly refer to myself as a shapeshifter and I pride myself on that. In Saturday Church, I really get to show the spectrum of who I am as an artist and as a human. I love tapping into that and showing other people that they have access to that for themselves.”
What are these songs like to perform and do you have a favourite number in the show?
“The music is so vast. There are so many styles and so many different feels of the show and I love them all. I’m backstage singing along with everybody else’s songs when they’re on stage. It’s good listening, feeling music, and every one of them is fun to perform every night. But truly, I love screaming in the theatre, “Are There Any Queens in the House?” Giving people that permission to make noise and to identify whatever that is for themselves. It’s like how we say to Ulysses in the show, ‘find your shoe’, whatever that may be for you. Whatever your queen is, let that out!”
The choreography brings such energy to the piece, what’s that like to perform?
“The choreographer, Darrell Grand Moultrie, really trusted us and gave us freedom to bring ourselves and our own fabulosity to the story. The collaboration of building that together was so much fun. We get to play around on stage and be free and be unabashedly queer in who we are. That’s amazing and necessary right now.”
What’s it like to work with this ensemble cast?
“The ensemble is incredible. We keep saying that it’s 10s across the board. Everywhere you look there is talent, there is heart, there is intention, and everyone on stage is being cracked open every night too. There are so many nights where we’re all emotional because of the story. What we get to do is not lost on us. What this moment is for each of us as individuals, but also as a collective.”
What excites you about performing this show to a new audience each night?
“It’s so much fun to do. I’m leaning towards more theatrical experiences that encourage people to be free and to engage with the art, because the audience is always the extra character in the show, whether they realize it or not. We need that particular energy to add to the full experience. It doesn’t work without the audience. So the more we get from the audience, the better experience it’ll be for everybody. We ask of you to participate. You are a part of Saturday Church and that’s how Whitney White directed us. There are moments where she asked me as the Pastor to use the audience as the congregation. At the top of the show as Black Jesus, I’m immediately talking to the audience and it calls you to be an active participant straight away.”
What does it mean to you to be part of putting on a work like this in 2025 that centres stories of LGBTQ+ folks of colour?
“It is a privilege and very intentional and purpose driven to be a part of this and at such a time as this. Quite a few people have mentioned Jonathan Larson’s Rent and compared us to that show, having been created in the same space at NYTW, and now we’re bringing today’s queer liberation story in such a beautiful way. It’s been a great place to go play and explore every day, and then to get to turn that internal mirror out and to show it to everyone else and say, ‘Hey, look within yourself and then take that energy and go and be inspired and carry that into the world.’ It’s a blessing to get to do Saturday Church.”
Did you have a version of Saturday church in your own life growing up?
“During the rehearsal process, I was thinking about my life and I was reminded about a teen group that I was part of. We were called Teens Against Tobacco Use and we went around North Carolina doing tobacco prevention. We had a modeling troop and we’d do these fashion shows and step competitions. It was a bunch of queer kids and we would meet in the basement of a church, so very similar to the show. None of us were out at the time, but we had that place to go to be free to express ourselves. Back then, I was modeling to Kevin Aviance’s “Din Da Da”, not knowing who Kevin Aviance was at the time. Now I’m at balls with Kevin and I look around and think, look where life has brought me. Doing this show has been such a reminder of my own journey and the gratitude that I carry with me every day that I get to do it.”
Bryson Battle
The Queer Review: What ignited your passion for musical theatre?
Bryson Battle: “Musical theatre has been part of my life for longer than I can remember. I’ve got fond memories of being really little and not being able to sit still in church so I’d be taken to the church daycare. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella with Brandy and Whitney Houston was always playing on the TV in there and I was so enraptured by it. To this day, it’s still one of my top three favourite movies, but I didn’t I realize that it was musical theatre until much later when I was immersing myself in musicals as I was auditioning for schools. Discovering the movie musicals of Cinderella, Dreamgirls and The Wiz were all such pivotal points in my childhood before I knew what musicals were.”
“It wasn’t until my freshman year of high school that I decided that I wanted to do musical theatre myself. Reneé Rapp—who played Regina George in Mean Girls on Broadway—is from Charlotte, North Carolina where I’m from. We have this regional award program there called the Blumey Awards, which is run by Blumenthal Arts. I saw that she’d won that, gone on to the national Jimmy Awards in New York, and then right on to Mean Girls. Seeing her do that within a few years, going from being a high schooler from North Carolina to being a lead on Broadway, made it feel like that was in reach for me too. It also made me realize that it was something that I really want to do. Seeing her path was a big inspiration to me.”
What made you want to be part of Saturday Church?
“One of the really big things that made me want to be a part of it was how much support and love the team was giving me. This show is very close to home in terms of my own upbringing and my own internal battles with being queer and being in church and having a relationship with faith and with God. Whitney White and Cindy Tolan discovered me on Instagram and reached out during my junior year of college in 2023 to ask if I’d be interested in doing a workshop of the show. Them not even having me audition, but just knowing that they wanted me to come in for this role was so kind and generous of them. I believe that you should go into spaces where you are wanted and where you are seen. So that, in addition to the the story itself, made me really want to do it.”
How would you describe your character, Ulysses, and what do you enjoy about playing him?
“He’s at the centre of this story. He’s kind, empathetic, and strong, but also impressionable. He’s constantly being pulled in all of these different directions and hearing all of these differing opinions that combat each other. He’s still trying to figure out where he fits in in this world and how he can do so safely and authentically. He tries to meet all of these people where they are and to take all of the knowledge that he gets from every single person to try to understand why they are the way that they are.”
“When it comes to playing him, I enjoy his sweetness. He truly sees the best in everyone and is someone who leads with love. I think that side of him is so nuanced, especially in the scale of what an ingénue and what a leading man looks like. Expanding what that looks and sounds like is one of my favourite parts of getting to play him.”
What are the show’s songs like to perform?
“I’m noticing how much more I’m focusing on emotional storytelling as opposed to musical storytelling, though I’m not saying that they’re not intertwined. Music has been and always will be my first love, so coming into this show I was initially really focused on trying to make the music sound good and having a hyper awareness of how I was singing. Through all of the workshops and rehearsals, it’s become a lot more stripped down so that you can really understand the emotional task of each song.”
“There are a lot of different genres and varieties of music in this show and they’re all distinctive, but they have a similar through line in terms of the story that we’re trying to tell. To get to perform them every night is really exciting and I think it’s really pushing me to grow as an artist. I love being able to take my mind out of the technical, musical ear aspect of it, and to focus on the emotional side that puts me at the epicentre of this journey.”
What do you enjoy about performing this show to a new audience each night?
“What really excites me is the impactful, innovative work that we’re all doing. Another really big part of this story is the diversity and the representation seen on stage. It’s not very often that we see trans individuals and nonbinary folks and this wide range of queerness on stage and I think that’s the most exciting part of it because it’s groundbreaking work. It’s innovative, it’s insightful, and it’s truthful. It’s so fulfilling and exciting to see queerness embodied on stage in a non-stereotypical way.”
What does it mean to you to be part of staging a work like this in 2025 that centres the stories of LGBTQ+ folks of colour?
“It’s incredibly empowering. The fact that you can do work like this in the face of such adversity not only shows how strong you are as an individual, but also as a company. Our creative and production team has been so transparent and encouraging. They’ve been behind us every step in making this show and they’re still here for us. They want to make sure that we’re okay and feeling supported. I’ve heard that’s not always the case in theatre spaces and I’m incredibly grateful for this to be my experience.”
Did you have a version of Saturday Church in your own life growing up, somewhere to go that helped you to accept yourself and that made you feel seen and safe?
“Yes. When I was in middle school and high school, I was a choir kid through and through and those were the first people who I came out to. I specifically remember sitting my choir friend group down and telling them without telling them. I said that I was like Kurt from Glee. That’s verbatim what I said to my choir friends and they understood it and didn’t bat an eye. They were like, ‘Girl, we know!'”
“Having that space to truly find myself, where I didn’t have to censor myself or have to mold or adapt in any way, but was able to just be me, was indescribable. I miss it and I’m so grateful for each of those individuals and for what that place was for me in my life. I’m so glad that that kind of space is being represented in the way that it is now with Saturday Church.”
B Noel Thomas
The Queer Review: How was your passion for musical theatre first ignited?
B Noel Thomas: “It started when I was a junior in high school when I did a production with this organization that I still work with today, the Peter Pan Foundation. They raise money to help the Children’s Hospital of Oakland, California. I was at Oakland School for the Arts and they came to my school to hold auditions for Hairspray. My twin—she’s not my blood twin, but we’ve known each other for forever and we look similar, so we call each other twin—said that she wanted to audition but she’d only do it if I did it with her. I was singing bass at that time and I was like, ‘No, I sing but I don’t do musicals.’ But in the end I caved in and we auditioned together and we both booked it.”
“I was bit by the bug and I have not stopped since that first production. That’s where I found my theatre mother and the “Noel” in my name comes from Leslie Noel Hansen, the founder of the Peter Pan Foundation. It really planted a seed in me that has been lifelong. I still work with them today doing productions and fundraisers every now and then.”
What were some of the things that made you want to be part of Saturday Church?
“The story itself to begin with. Telling a Black queer story within the church is so relatable to me and I know so many people who grew up as church kids but they were also queer. It was always something that wasn’t talked about. So now that it’s being talked about on such a big stage—and people are being taught tolerance and acceptance—that message alone meant that I was already in love with this story. Whether I booked it or not, I knew that I needed to come to see this show five times just so I could support it, so that it gets pushed to even bigger and broader audiences.”
“Once I heard who was working on it, all these names like Honey Dijon, Luke Solomon, Jason Michael Webb, and Whitney White, I was even more excited. All the things they’ve done to promote Black people and queer music has been incredible and reflects my own passion for sewing back into Black and queer communities.”
“When I first auditioned, I was like, ‘Well, at least they saw my face’, then it kept going and going and I was so excited when I got cast. Funnily enough, I was first cast in the role of Heaven, and Michaela Jaé Rodriguez was going to be Ebony. Then MJ took on more of a producer role and they asked me to take on the role of Ebony. It was a huge step and I didn’t know what to expect. It was a totally different role when I accepted it and then we massaged it and figured out who Ebony was and the story that we wanted to tell with her. They were very open to communication with me about it. Asking, ‘How are you feeling about the character? Do you think it’s going the right way?'”
“They also had ballroom people doing dramaturgy for the show to make sure that we were doing it right. Ballroom has a history that needs to be respected, just like with ballet or jazz. They put a lot of work into it.”
Who is Ebony and how does she fit into the story?
“Ebony is a mother, not only to the queer youth, but to her sisters as well. She is that matriarch, that Mother Earth, she is a guiding light and a safe haven for the queer community and queer youth that she was also brought up in. That’s where she found herself as well. There’s a brief backstory where we learn that she was found at the pier and especially back in the 80s and 90s sex work happened there. As queer and trans people sometimes that’s how they make their money and she gives a hint of that.”
“It’s amazing to know that she came from that to now running this organization—that also helped her back in the day—providing food, and a bed, and love for people who need it. She’s giving Ulysses shoes. She’s also taking care of not only herself while she’s grieving the loss of the person who was like a mother to her, but also mothering this next generation on top of the people close to her age. She’s not a pastor, but she’s also preaching into these children’s lives and telling them they’re okay. Kids who have nothing as far as blood family and a place to live.”
What do you enjoy about playing her?
“It’s a treat to share this type of character with the audience because I feel like I’ve never seen an Ebony on any stage, on Off-Broadway, Broadway, regional, or anywhere. There has not been a role written for a trans woman to show such depth and growth, while also telling the story of love and being able to show the range of emotions that she has. Yes, we go through grief, but that doesn’t mean that we’re stuck at the bottom and that life is over and we’re done. You can be pulled back out, which I feel like a lot of queer people need to see. Even when you feel at your lowest, you are not alone. Being able to tell that story to audiences is powerful.”
“Even if people aren’t queer, they still see something in the show and in Ebony where they’re like, ‘You know what? Maybe I should call that person’ or ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to judge someone when I first meet them.’ A lot of people have come up to me and told me that they talked to their parents after watching the show or that my character gave them the courage to do that because of the way she talks to Ulysses’ mother and to his Aunt Rose. Sewing that seed into somebody’s life like that is a blessing for me and I’m so happy to be able to share that with other people.”
Have you got a favourite number to perform in the show?
“I love “5 Minutes Away”, that’s a classic but I also love the finale song, “Blinded By Love”. That’s a ballroom number and I love the ins and outs of everybody’s voices. I love a big ensemble number where everybody is singing and doing the harmonies. So on one end, there’s the sadness of “5 Minutes Away” and all the the emotion of that song, then on the other side of the spectrum there’s the fun and joy of “Blinded By Love”.”
What’s the choreography like to perform?
“Darrell Grand Moultrie is so good at telling the story through movement. To start with, I was like, ‘I can move, but I’m not a dancer.’ He was like, ‘Well, we will take what you can do and we’ll make that work.’ It’s been so nice to be able to play a little to see what we can do and then for them to take that and morph it into enhancing the story.”
“The choreography is a blast to do and it was so much fun to watch the ballroom people come in and to be able to incorporate what they’ve given us. It was so beautiful to see the collaboration in this process, especially in the dance department. The end result is that I can look like I’m doing a little bit of something even though I’m not doing too much, but I feel like I’m doing a lot!”
What is this ensemble cast like to be a part of?
“I love this ensemble cast so much. There are moments in the show that grew out of our relationships and friendships on stage and feeling comfortable enough to trust each other. It’s a cast that is available to anything that anybody needs and that’s always checking in with each other to make sure that we’re all good. Also, this is such an attractive cast! Everybody’s so gorgeous. We all said on the first day, ‘Why is everybody so attractive in this cast?! It’s crazy!’ It’s been such a good time and we really have turned into a family.”
What does it mean to you to be part of putting on a work like this in 2025 that centres the stories of LGBTQ+ folks of colour?
“It’s perfect timing. There’s so much going on in the world right now, so the fact that this story is being told at this moment—even though it’s been in the works for several years—is monumental. When people feel so lost and feel like they are being beaten down and they don’t have a light to look up to or a way out, this show is that small beacon. People can watch it and then go back into the world and feel hope and feel love and motivation to strive for more, versus thinking that they can’t go any further from where they are. It’s a serendipity moment for this show to be alive in the world right now and to be shared with everybody who comes to see it and hopefully there will be more after this.”
Did you have a version of Saturday Church in your own life?
“Absolutely. There were so many moments in this life when I was crying out to the Lord, ‘Why did you make me like this? Change me!’ All this stuff came up in arguments with my family about being queer and having a boyfriend. There are so many moments in the show that resonate with me like singing in church and trying not to do too much, to keep my hands down, trying to make sure that I wasn’t looking too flouncy or ‘flamboyant’ as they say in the show. I wanted to make sure that I was very much hidden and tucked away in church.”
“I lived a lot of moments that we see in this show, so to then find somebody like my theatre mother Leslie meant everything to me. She really pulled me out and showed me that there was more to life and that I didn’t have to be hidden. Once I met her and started doing shows I kept blossoming. She’s seen the whole process of me transitioning and how I went from this scared little person and blossomed into the grown woman that I am today that now helps youth to blossom under my own wings. It’s been a beautiful full circle.”
By James Kleinmann – Photography and creative direction by Steven Menendez for The Queer Review – Makeup by Virna Smiraldi
Saturday Church is playing at New York Theatre Workshop (79 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10009), extended through October 24th, 2025. For performance schedule and tickets head to NYTW.org.
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