The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
SHE’S GOT THIS
When she’s not ‘Working out the Kinks’ on YouTube, Sandusky native is jumping into ‘The Book of Mormon’ whenever she’s needed
You know the saying, “The show must go on.” ¶ J Nycole Ralph is a big reason the show CAN go on when it comes to the North American tour of “The Book of Mormon,” which returns to Cleveland in early September. ¶ She is a swing in the production, which means she is a bench player, to borrow a sports term. ¶ “We save the show!” says a laughing Ralph, on the phone from a tour stop of the enduring and irreverent hit musical in — of all places — Salt Lake City, Utah, where the Mormons make up a reported 50 percent or so of the population.
Essentially, a swing is, as the Sandusky native puts it, “on call” for every show. If someone “calls out,” be that far in advance or otherwise, a swing is there to stop into that performer’s role.
“There’ve been times when I’ve had to go into the show in the middle of the show because somebody got hurt or somebody got sick,” Ralph says. “I know all the women’s roles in the show, so I can step in at a moment’s notice.” Ralph grew up in several areas of the city that’s home to Cedar Point, being exposed to the arts at The Moving Company School of Dance in Perkins Township and performing in plays at Ebenezer Baptist Church in the city. However, she truly fell in love with acting, she says, as one of the leads in “Stand and Deliver” at Sandusky High School, where she was in the drama club. (A trick of the interview trade: If you do not want to ask a woman her age, you can try to get into the ballpark by asking what year she graduated high school. Again, you can try. “Ooooooooh,” the wise Ralph says with a laugh after getting that question, “I’m not at liberty to say that!”) Ralph is more than happy to talk about another project, a web-based video show she created, “Working out the Kinks.” “It is a show about women and their hair — particularly the differences between black women’s hair and white women’s hair,” she says. “It’s a comedy, and it touches on cultural differences in a lighthearted, fun way, which I think is very much needed in today’s social climate.” The show — set in New York City, where Ralph resides — stars her as an actress who gets a white roommate who experiences all kinds of culture shock involving her new life in the Big Apple. Ralph says initially she knew simply that she wanted to make a comedy series and that the specific concept came to her when she reflected on a constant she observed in her life and in those of her friends and family.
“After two and a half years, when I watch the show, it still makes me laugh — it’s hilarious.” — J Nycole Ralph, swing in the touring company of “The Book of Mormon”
“I just noticed whenever I would get in a room with other women that — particularly black women — that hair would always be a topic that would come up,” she says. “And there would usually be some funny story surrounding hair that would come up. “It’s a bonding moment for women when we’re talking about our hair.” The show can be seen on YouTube … for now, she says. “I have deals in the works with other platforms, which I’m excited about,” she says, declining to give details. “But right now, it is still there, so catch it while you can.” (Find the series’ 10 episodes organized at WoKseries.com.) As for “The Book of Mormon” — which, since opening on Broadway in 2011, has won myriad Tonys and awards and spawned multiple touring productions — Ralph admits she wasn’t a longtime fan when she got involved with it. “I hadn’t seen it before my initial audition for it,” she says. “After I did audition for it and got a callback, before I had the callback, I did go see the show, and I fell in love with it.” Cleveland audiences have fallen in love with it, too, see the fact that its run Sept. 6 through 15 at the Connor Palace will be its fourth stint at Playhouse Square, starting with its Cleveland debut in 2013. With a book, music and lyrics by “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, as well as Robert Lopez, choreography by Casey Nicholaw and direction by Nicholaw and Parker, “The Book of Mormon” generates laughs with a story of a pair of Mormon missionaries who try to bring their religion to a remote village in Uganda. It’s, um, funnier than it sounds. Take it from Ralph, who began bouncing between the Broadway production and the North American tour but who has been with the tour exclusively since January 2018. “After two and a half years, when I watch the show, it still makes me laugh — it’s hilarious,” she says. “And it also has a great message — it’s a universal, heartfelt message that will touch anybody’s heart.
“(The show is) a perfect combination of laughter, hilarity and a good heartfelt message that makes you go home feeling good about yourself or about the world.” Assuming she gets in at least one of the performances, this will be Ralph’s first time performing at Playhouse Square. She was with the show the last time it was in Cleveland, in September 2017, but she was with the Broadway company at the time, she says. So it’s safe to say there will be friends and family filling some rows of the Connor Palace? “Oh, yes,” she says. “They will be deep.”