Since the July announcement that a Purple Rain musical would come to Broadway (following an out of town production in Prince’s native Minneapolis), plenty of questions have loomed about the production, but none bigger than the obvious: who would take on the role of The Kid, immortalized by Prince himself in the film of the same name?
Billboard can now reveal the answer: Jordan Fisher, the 32-year old alum of the screen and stage who’s played several leading roles on Broadway in recent years, will take on the Purple One’s role when Purple Rain begins previews at the Majestic Theater on March 12, 2027 (an opening date is set for April 12).
“I’ve been such a fan of his for such a long time, for a myriad of reasons, and with this show everything that I have ever worked on in my career professionally I am exercising at the highest level: every instrument that I can play, I am playing on stage live; every dance move, every acrobatic thing that I can do, I am doing on stage in three-inch heels,” Fisher tells Billboard. “I get to tap into this material that’s so familiar to people, but presented in a way that’s fresh for a new generation who maybe didn’t grow up with Purple Rain or with a real understanding of who Prince is and why he is so loved and respected. He is your favorite artist’s favorite artist. He is your favorite musician’s favorite musician, and that kind of mantle is something that I I take very, very seriously.”
Fisher has taken on increasingly demanding leading roles on Broadway in recent years, including John Laurens/Philip Hamilton in Hamilton, the title role in Dear Evan Hansen, Orpheus in Hadestown, and Antony in Sweeney Todd. But The Kid is his most high-profile yet, a role he’ll originate in a sure to be much-scrutinized new musical. On the day he speaks to Billboard, Fisher — wearing a fresh purple and green manicure, not an homage to Prince but the result of a fun trip to the salon with his nephew — is on a break from rehearsal during the show’s second week of development (rehearsals for the Broadway production officially begin in February). He opened up about why he took on such a monumental role, the time he just missed meeting Prince, and getting encouragement from Lin-Manuel Mirandaas he prepares to lead the band on the Broadway stage.
How did you get introduced to Prince’s music, and why do you think it grabbed you as a young person?
I mean, there’s so many avenues that we can go down here. I’m five eight and light skinned-ed; I’m an artist and I’m a multi-instrumentalist and I craft and build and create and produce and write and have a very similar kind of pursuit of new and doing things differently. Of course, by no stretch of the imagination would I ever compare myself or my artistry to Prince Rogers Nelson, but [those similarities have] kind of been impressed upon me for a very long time. You don’t work in the music industry without hearing people talk about this man and the way that he broke rules left and right and stood up for what he believed in, how he loved his city and and yearned for awareness of the magic that was coming out of [Minneapolis].
The genesis of [my own love of] Prince — my grandfather, who’s no longer here, really loved him. He was the first person to really open my eyes and ears to him and his music. I didn’t really get it when I was younger, and when I when I started digging into it and making [my own] music, people started being like, “Oh my God, you must be a huge Prince fan, huh?” Initially, I was like, “Yeah, yeah, because I’m short and I play a bunch of instruments and we look alike?” But no, it’s all these other things I was missing, and I’ve carried that with me in a massive way. The very first song of his that I ever heard was “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” and I mean, it’s in the marrow of my bones.
So many people in the entertainment world have a Prince story. In your years working in music in Los Angeles did you ever find yourself in a room with him?
I have a story for you, and it’s just gut-wrenching. I have a friend who had a residency at the W Hotel right across from the Pantages for a long time, and I was there every Sunday pretty much, singing back-up, singing some songs myself, in the midst of auditioning for different things and whatnot. One Sunday I was not there — I was at like, a friend’s wedding or something. [Prince] showed up around 1 A.M. He stood up in the middle of a song — because he’s Prince and he could — and he walked onstage and pointed at the guitar player’s guitar, [and he] realized it was Prince and goes, “Here you go,” and then [Prince] played. It was a moment nobody will forget, and I was not there for it!
But a few years later, I did get a chance to play with Sheila E for a show in LA, and that was the closest that I had been to his artistry and to his excellence, and it oozed off of her, right? That’s the closest I was able to get to him until this [show]. And now I’m like, talking to Bobby Z on a regular basis, and Lisa and Wendy and all of these people that like are in our space here?! Nothing like it.
You were called to audition for this production — did you have any skepticism or did you immediately want to do it?
There is a right way and a wrong way to tell this kind of story, and I think that there’s plenty of right ways to make it happen, but I do think that one of the biggest North Stars is the music and how that happens and how that’s presented. When I got the call, I was like, “Well, I gotta give this thing a shot.”
When I saw [director Saheem Ali’s] name on the breakdown, I was like, “Oh, they got it right!” Like they got it right because he knows how to keep music at the core and tell a story that is human and tangible and for everyone. Like if you go see Buena Vista Social Club [the Broadway musical, which Ali directed], you don’t need to speak Spanish to understand exactly what’s happening, and that is magic. I have so much love for that man, and I don’t have enough great things to say about him. He is the perfect director for this.
And then Ebony [Williams], our choreographer, is a commercial dancer and choreographer with commercial background — she approaches choreography from a commercial perspective that’s still driven by storytelling. And then Jason Michael Webb is our music supervisor, and he and I have worked together a handful of times in the past, and I know his process but more than anything, I know that man is the biggest Prince fan I’ve met in my life. He’s a walking encyclopedia of Prince. Those pieces right there are the key to presenting this show in the best way possible.
You’ve been lucky enough to do a few big original musicals, including Hamilton, and I know you and Lin-Manuel Miranda are friendly — I’d imagine he’s excited about the idea of a Prince musical?
Yeah he is. He’s got Warriors happening right now too [on Broadway in 2027], he’s in the thick of all of that. But I mean, he’s my homie. I’m hard pressed to think of any human being that could ever give somebody advice on playing Prince on Broadway, but we hung out about a month or so ago. We were talking about it, and he was just like, “Man, I know you’re gonna kill it.” That’s really all that you can say to somebody that’s about to take this on.
Do you feel like Prince’s music is well-suited to Broadway?
Prince was probably one of the best musical theater writers that never wrote a musical. His songs have a clear story; there’s a clear “want,” nothing is ever accidental, everything is curated from the lyrics to the notes to the solos to the chord structure to the kind of microphones he used, he had it all down to a science. I wish he could experience the way that his music really tells this beautiful story [in the show]. We’re exploring some of that stuff today [in rehearsal] with “Computer Blue” and “When Doves Cry.” It’s hard to believe that this music works in the musical theater canon the way that it does so successfully. Like it’s not just a jukebox musical; the songs actually carry the show.
How are you approaching the vocals — how much of the “voice” is Jordan vs. Prince?
This is a constant conversation. I’m pretty good at impressions, I’m not gonna lie. I’m a nerd and an actor, it’s just part of who I am, it’s like one of my love languages — if I know you and I love you, I’m gonna build an impersonation of you. But the presentation of this — I’m not Prince, I’m The Kid. This is a fictional story, it’s not like a biography of the man. Therefore, his voice is his voice. My voice needs to encapsulate the essence of who he is but still be a fictional character; otherwise I’m just doing an impression on stage and that isn’t necessarily what we’re going for. The voice he uses in the film doesn’t necessarily work on the stage. So it’s the math of all that, and how do I make it sound like not a musical theater thing but let it have enough presence so that I can reach those people in the back of the mezzanine? To be continued!
