As of this month, Jonesboro, Arkansas native Kyle Dean Massey has taken over the lead role of the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of “Pippin.” Massey is also known for high-profile roles in musicals like “Wicked” and “Next to Normal.” He was interviewed in the Arkansas Times back in 2005, when he was in a touring company appearing at the Robinson Center Music Hall, and at the time remembered, “Growing up in Arkansas and Jonesboro, I’m not sure I knew what real musical theater was, per se.”

He also talks about his Arkansas upbringing in his “It Gets Better” video, noting that he was “endlessly made fun of” and made to feel “subversive and wrong and evil.”

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