Born in Paducah, Kentucky, Mckynleigh “Miki” Abraham is a non-binary actor and singer who started performing at the age of seven. Past theater credits include national tours of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and Once on This Island. Miki appeared on Oxygen’s The Glee Project, competing for a spot on Fox’s television series Glee.
This work eventually led to auditioning for a new show called Shucked in 2022, when they understudied the role of Lulu both regionally and on Broadway. These days, Abraham is traveling on the first national tour of the Tony Award-winning musical to over 30 cities.
Shucked is the story of a small town in Cobb County with a crop shortage and a hero who tries to save the day. The music was written by two out and proud songwriters, Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally. The show is directed by Jack O’Brien, who won a Tony for Hairspray and the book is by Robert Horn, who won a Tony for writing the stage adaptation of Tootsie.
During the 76th Tony Awards, Shucked was nominated nine times and the original Lulu Alex Newell became one of two openly non-binary performers to win a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.
Abraham talked about Lulu, corn and much more out on the road before their arrival in the Windy City.
Windy City Times: Where in the world are you today?
Miki Abraham: Fayetteville, Arkansas. It’s getting harder and harder to answer that question because we are in a different place every week!
WCT: Have you been to Chicago much?
MA: Yes. I’ve toured there with two other shows in the past. I was in town with Beautiful: The Carol King Musical and with Once on This Island right before the pandemic. I did some press there this last summer and performed in Millennium Park.
WCT: I attended the Broadway in Chicago summer concert where you performed and you did a great job. Can you start off with a little of your background and pronouns?
MA: My pronouns are they/them and I was born and raised in Kentucky. I went college at Northern Kentucky University.
I have been doing theater all my life and I started when I was seven years old. I never really did anything else.
WCT: How did you hear about Shucked?
MA: I started my journey with Shucked in 2022. I auditioned for the show and it didn’t have a name yet, but I was cast. It was called Moonshine and The Hee Haw Musical. There were different versions of the show and it began in Salt Lake City, Utah before it transferred to Broadway. We opened on April 4, 2023 in New York at the Niederlander Theatre and that was my Broadway debut.
I took a seven-month break after the show closed on Broadway and I am now full-time in the role of Lulu. Shucked has been my life for almost three years.
WCT: Have you known Alex Newell for a long time?
MA: I met Alex Newell when…I was 19 and they were 18. We were doing The Glee Project in 2011 in LA. We met on that reality TV show and that is how Alex became Unique on Glee. It was wild that our paths crossed again with Shucked.
WCT: Were you intimidated by a powerhouse song like “Independently Owned” and Newell’s rendition of it?
MA: I have to say our creative team has done such an incredible job of letting the understudies, and the other folks that sing the song, do it the way that they want to do it.
I went on for Lulu on Broadway for the first time two days after we opened. I had not rehearsed, but I had just been watching and making notes. I did go on and that was terrifying.
Our orchestrator was awesome and restructured the song for me even though it had been written for Alex.
I would say the biggest part that is stressful about doing “Independently Owned” eight times a week is the pressure coming from a song that everybody knows. They have heard it sung in gay bars across the country, so I really try to do it justice!
WCT: Alex and you were both in the musical Once on This Island. Were these separate productions?
MA: Yes. Alex was in Once on This Island on Broadway and I was on the first national tour.
WCT: What do you tell people who have never seen Shucked before about it?
MA: It’s a show about a community whose livelihood is corn and one day the corn dies.
They have to leave their comfortable town to find someone to get them out of the sticky situation. Along the way, they learn that change is not scary and that they have way more capacity for acceptance and love than they originally thought.
It’s about corn, but it’s not about corn. It’s an original idea, which is just really abnormal these days.
WCT: Are you sick of corn?
MA: Not yet and that really speaks to how Robert Horn has written this script. I still genuinely laugh at the show that I’ve seen and done so many times.
WCT: Does the corn choreography trip up the cast sometimes?
MA: The “cornography” as we call it. Most of the time once you get it, then you get it.
It’s similar to patting our heads and rubbing our stomachs at the same time.
We have had a couple of mishaps where the corn plastic prop pieces have broken off. When the corn falls off and then the performer will have to do the cornography without corn. I don’t wish that on anyone, but that’s the joy of live theater!
WCT: I love a good Southern-fried show. Is it different performing Shucked in smaller towns as compared to big cities?
MA: It’s different in the way that we win the crowd over. The show’s opening song is “Corn” and it’s a four-minute-long opening number about corn. I will see the audience sometimes look around confused like, “What have we bought a ticket to?” I will watch them warm up to the world of Cobb County after that.
The fact is we are exposing them to a truly original idea and many musicals these days are based on movies or a revival.
We officially opened in Nashville, Tennessee and, being in the southern states, sometimes we don’t win them over as quickly as we did on Broadway. In the northern states, people have to fix their ears to adjust to the cast’s country accents. There’s something in the show for everybody and everyone usually laughs at least once.
WCT: Do you have a favorite musical of all time?
MA: Yes, it’s a tie between Little Shop of Horrors and Les Misérables, which is very funny because they’re completely different. They are both brilliant musicals and flawless. I love them so much.
WCT: How was meeting Reba McEntire?
MA: Meeting Reba McEntire was insane! I grew up singing country music in Kentucky. “Fancy” was my go-to country competition song that I’d sing all the time. When I met Reba I thought, “Well, I’ve peaked and there’s nothing else for me to do in this life. I’ve done it!”
She’s so incredible and I just love how much she loves our show. She’s endorsed our production and that says a lot.
WCT: Can you speak on your side business of Castle in the Sky?
MA: Yes, I am a self-esteem and career coach for artists. It’s a little company that I started during the pandemic to work one-on-one with performers. I work with people who are auditioning for national tours and other people who need a little boost to realize their worth doesn’t depend on whether or not they get a job.
I’ve had about over a hundred one-on-one clients in the past four years, then I do workshops at schools on top of that. I’ve built a little community there, which is really lovely.
WCT: Can you speak on the queer community and how you relate to Lulu?
MA: It’s really interesting to be stepping into this role as Lulu, because it’s become an unintentional non-binary role in the musical theater canon. I love that it’s accidentally become that, because it’s not something that the creative team planned on, but it just adds a little extra spice to it.
Within the world of Cobb County, everybody is different and anybody can be anybody, which is very special. Moving through this show on tour as an LGBTQ person is interesting, especially one who is a person of color as well.
It’s definitely scary to be touring during 2024 in the spaces we are in with the political climate as it is.
WCT: Aren’t you married to a cis man?
MA: Yes, I am married and my husband is Alex Joseph Grayson. He’s in New York right now. I can show a representation of many things, such as being queer doesn’t look one way and neither does gender identity.
Sometimes people will describe me as a powerful woman onstage and if that’s what they get from it then that’s great. This is art and can be interpreted that way. Other folks will see it and appreciate the non-binary representation. It’s truly me just showing up on stage, being myself and whatever people are getting from that works for me.
WCT: That’s such a healthy attitude! I hope you change hearts and minds while out on the Shucked tour.
MA: It’s going well so far. My bio has my pronouns in it and younger people who have come to the show with their parents…will say at the stage door how they appreciate the pronouns which makes me so happy.
I am living out loud and while that can be scary, I’m also excited to be brave about it. It’s my birthday tomorrow and I feel like I am finally being seen these days.
WCT: Well, happy birthday and see you in Chicago soon!
MA: Thank you!
Shucked sprouts up at CIBC Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St., from Jan. 7-19. Pop over to BroadwayinChicago.com for tickets and visit mikiabraham.com for career coaching.