bout a year ago, Alex Newell had just returned to New York City after the pre-Broadway tryout of themusical in Salt Lake City. A Utah alt-weekly was already calling Newell’s number “Independently Owned,” sung from the perspective of the self-reliant whiskey distiller Lulu, a “knockout show-stopper.” Broadway agreed: in June, Newell won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, becoming one of the first two out nonbinary’s J. Harrison Ghee.
