I would like to share with you just three cardinal rules of my ability and longevity.

One, surround yourself with people whose eyes light up when they see you coming.

Two, slowly is the fastest way to get to where you want to be.

And three, the top of one mountain is the bottom of the next.

So keep climbing.

That was Andre DeShield on stage at the Tony Awards in 2019.

He won a Tony for his role in the musical Hades Town,

and, you know, even before that, Andre has had this incredible career in the theater. He originated

the role of The Wiz and the Wiz. He was in 8 Misbehavin, Fulmonte. And yet, despite those

credentials, all of this attention, this acclaim that he now experiences,

he says it only just began with this recent role in Hades Town, and more specifically, when he won the Tony.

I would say, prior to Hades Town, I played the Magical Negro.

I have no regrets about that.

But that was the mold out of which I was creating

a career. But all the while, and this is going to sound corny, but it's true, all the while I'm saying,

why doesn't someone cast me for my mind, for my intellect, and my really just another pretty face.

And it came together in Hades Town.

Andre joins us today to talk about this new phase of his career, about being a long-term survivor of HIV,

and why he says that everything is poetry and metaphor.

So from the Advocate magazine in partnership with Glad, I'm Jeffrey Masters,

and this is LGBTQ and A with the Broadway legend, Andre DeShields.

Your first Broadway show was called Warp, and it closed after 12 performances.

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