In 2014, fresh off his Marathon High School graduation, Xavier McKnight took the stage as the centerpiece of a benefit concert at Marathon Community Theatre, aiming to raise funds to send him to the American Musical & Dramatic Academy in New York City.
Twelve years later, he’s hitting the road again – and still proving every dollar was well-spent.
It’s not his first time acting on a national tour – he’s already secured roles in the Cat’s Pajamas Vocal Band and played Young Max in the musical version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” But now, he’ll travel the country as a swing and understudy for Hermes and Hades in the musical “Hadestown.”
For those unfamiliar with the term (including this writer, until this interview): That means he could be called on at any time to play not one, not two, but up to seven roles on a nightly basis.
Graciously sparing the time at 7 a.m. for an interview, before climbing on a bus to sleep a few hours ahead of his next performance, the Keys Weekly caught up with Xavier on the road in Utah.
What made you want to pursue theater? I saw “Wicked” at the Broward Center. I thought ‘This woman paints herself green and gets to fly and sing these crazy songs – how cool is that?’ I wanted to pursue theater, but my parents wanted me to go into something more practical, so my backup was to be a band director. But my band director at the time said, ‘Honestly, I think you like theater a little more.’
And what gave you the confidence early on that this was a real career option? I started auditioning for theater schools, but I didn’t really pitch the idea of actually going until I had actually gotten in. I had gotten in, but that didn’t mean my parents were going to let me go. Miss Ann (Hart) and Miss Rita (Irwin) were a big part of convincing them to let me go. They started a fund at the theater, and I did my benefit concert. I think the fund raised $9,000 and the benefit concert raised $4,000. After that, my parents were like ‘OK, we still don’t know about this, but we’ll let you go.’
There’s always more to be done. But was there a moment where you sat back, took a look around and said to yourself, ‘I actually made it?’ When I booked Cat’s Pajamas Vocal Band, I was like, ‘Okay, I’m doing good.’ They’re an a cappella that was on a TV show called ‘The Sing Off,’ and they were on the same season as Pentatonix. But when I booked the Grinch, that was when I said ‘I’ve done it, I’ve made it’ because I’d been trying to book that show since college. I felt like that again once I booked ‘Hadestown’ – it won Best Musical at the Tony Awards.
What’s the dream role, or have you already done it? I would LOVE to play Boq from ‘Wicked’ at some point; the first song I ever sang at MCT was ‘The Wizard And I.’
You’re a Wicked fan, so … did you like the film adaptation? I liked it, but I thought it was too long. The second half of the movie was really weak, and I feel like in the show it’s much stronger.
Any films or other works that you’d like to see turned into a musical? So, I just found out this is actually happening. I’ve always said that ‘Happy Feet’ would be a great musical because the tap dancing is so incredible. I’ve had the chance to see Savion Glover, who taps in the movie, live, and he’s just incredible – he brought my husband to tears. They just announced yesterday that it’s going to be a Broadway musical.
Take us through a week on the road. What’s that like? This one moves around a lot. If it’s a big city, we’re usually there for a week, or on ‘split weeks’ we’ll be in one city half the week and a different city the second half. But this has a fair amount of one-nighters, so at times we’re in four to five cities in one week. That’s when it’s not fun. The bus will pull into the hotel at 3 o’clock and we have to be at the theater at 4:45. And the majority of the time on the bus is quiet hours because we’re getting up so early, everyone sleeps most of the time.
