If the stars were his: An interview with queer renaissance man Claybourne Elder

By Gregg Shapiro

Photo By M Cooper

Onstage, onscreen, on CD and vinyl, there doesn’t seem to be anything that Claybourne Elder can’t do. He’s even a dad to a young son! Elder is also having a good 2026, beginning with the release of his debut album, “If The Stars Were Mine” (Center Stage) in April. Comprised of songs from Broadway, new and familiar, as well as some contemporary pop chestnuts, the album presents Elder’s full range of interpretive talents. Additionally, since late May, he can also be seen as high-flying dentist Dr. Orin Scrivello in “Little Shop of Horrors” at New York’s Westside Theatre. As busy as he is, Elder was kind enough to make time for a phone interview.

Gregg Shapiro: Clay, at what age did you discover that you had a gift for singing?

Claybourne Elder: That's a good question. I come from a family that's musical in a very recreational sense. Nobody was doing it as a job. But my mom played the piano and the guitar, and my dad played the guitar. I learned to play the violin when I was young. Then, when I was in the 4th grade, we were doing a school play and there was a big solo part that we all had to audition for. I remember thinking, “Oh, well, I'm not a good singer, so I’m not going to do that.” Then I got it, I got the part. I specifically remember thinking, “Oh, my gosh, am I good at singing?” [laugh]. Then I started getting parts in the school plays, and I was like, “I think I might be good at this.”

GS: Did you do theater in high school, as well?

CE: I worked at two different community theaters during high school. It sounds hyperbolic

to say that theater saved my life as a kid. I wasn't a troubled kid or anything, but I didn't

have my thing. I wasn't great at school, and I wasn't great at math. But I loved theater, and I found these communities of people working at the community theaters where I lived through high school. I was at the theater every single night from my freshman year of high school on. Either working the concessions, in a show, or helping with the lights and sound.

GS: Do you also think it was a sort of coming out in a way? Because there are obviously a lot of queer people in theater. Do you think that was also a way to find community?

CE: 100%! There was a part of me that was maybe like, “That's where the weirdos are.” Somewhere in high school I think I finally heard that trope of like “the musical theater gay.” [Laughs] I was like, “Oh, my gosh. That's where I belong.”

GS: Your debut album, “If the Stars Were Mine,” was released in April. Why was now the time to make this record?

CE: I started touring this solo show after I finished “Company” on Broadway. My son was getting older,

and I didn't know if I wanted to be in a show every single night for a little while. I was looking for other things to do, and everyone said, “Put together a solo show.” I sort of expected to do it for just a few

months and tour it to some places. I had done cabaret-style shows before, but I decided that I wanted

to really write something, about something I wanted to say. It's sort of like a stand-up comedy show

combined with my TED Talk, and then I sing. Because it was somewhere between a piece of theater and a cabaret show, theater spaces were booking me, but then also cabaret venues were booking

me, and then music halls were booking me. I ended up doing it a lot. It got passed around between

the artistic directors of those different things. I ended up doing it for 2½ years. People kept asking me

where they could hear the arrangements of the songs that I did, because I also tried to reimagine the songs I was singing so that if I was going to sing them, I was going to say something about them rather

than just, “And here's a song from ‘Les Miz.’” When people asked if they could hear it anywhere, I said,

“No, not really.” People said if it was an album, they would buy it. I was thinking about it, and then, also, since becoming a dad, I feel like I think a lot more about what we leave behind. I thought about my son having this for his whole life and maybe playing it for his kids. I was also like, “But it's a weird,

little, musical theater nerd album. Who’s going to listen to it?” Then, talking to some friends and colleagues, somebody said, “Yeah, but I bet Clay Elder at 20 years old would have loved this album.” You know what? I would have.

GS: Because it was a show, was there a conscious decision to go into the studio to record versus recording one of your live sets?

CE: That's a great question. Because I did think about that. In the end, what I decided was that if I

was going to make an album, I wanted it to be a real album of music. Not that those (live) albums are not real. I do my show with (just) a piano and if I'm going to record it, I want to do it with a band. I want to capture it in that sort of way. There is talk about doing a deluxe version that is the studio recorded songs, and then you get the tracks of me speaking the show in front of people in between. The liner notes of the album are important because it really gives the context around why I chose each

song.

GS: I want to thank you for covering underrated – I think she’s underrated – singer/songwriter Melody Gardot’s song “If The Stars Were Mine,” which is the album’s title track. Why did you choose this song?

CE: I sang that song before my son was born. Moises Kaufman, who's a playwright and a friend of mine, asked me to do all the music for his wedding. He asked me to sing them down the aisle. I found that song, and it was perfect. It's upbeat, it's about love, and it's such a beautiful song. When my son was born, I found myself singing lullabies to him. I was trying to think of a lullaby that I know. I started singing that song to him. It's been a lullaby that I sang to him his whole life. Also, I’m a huge

fan of Melody Gardot’s. I think she's a genius. Randomly, after theater started coming back after the

pandemic, I started this nonprofit, and out of nowhere, Melody reached out to me on Instagram, just to say, “Hey, this is such a cool thing that you're doing, and I support you.” I wrote her back and said, “You have no idea what an enormous fan of you I am. A huge fan of yours, and that you wrote me that is really amazing.” She was so sweet. We haven't continued to converse because I am too shy [laughs], but I do know that she had a baby recently. I love that she had a child, and I'm singing her song as a lullaby, and I recorded it.

GS: You perform a ballad version of Whitney Houston’s dance classic “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” Gay singer Calum Scott also performs a ballad version of the song on his new album. What do you think it is about the song that not only makes it worthy of this kind of reinterpretation but also attractive to gay male singers?

CE: I don't know how old he is [laughs], but for me, when I was a kid, and I heard that song, there was, like many love songs, a sort of innate sadness about it. I remember thinking, “I don't know that that will ever happen to me.” I think that the lyrics of the song have so much longing in them that

it's easy to reinterpret in that way because there's a sense of melancholy about it, if you read the words.

It's “I wanna dance with somebody,” it's not “I’m gonna.” I hope one day I'll get to… I think that rings

true for a lot of queer people.

GS: You mentioned the liner notes, and I got a lot out of reading them. You wrote about fatherhood and your son, subjects that appear to have played a role in the album’s selection of material, including the songs “Hey, Kid,” “How Glory Goes,” and “Paving The Runway.” Do you think your son appreciates having a talented father singing to him?

CE: [Laughs]Because if it were my father, may he rest in peace, he couldn’t carry a tune in a bag.It's

such a funny thing. No, he does not. I sort of love that he doesn’t. I don't want him growing up thinking, “Oh this incredibly special thing!” At our house, it's our family job. There's part of me that loves that he doesn't get how special it is that he used to go hang out in Patti Lupone's dressing room during “Company,” and things like that. He's just like, this is just what I do. Like any kid whose dad works or who thinks, “I wish you didn't have to work because I wish you were hanging out with me.” I think to him it's my job. That said, I do try to impress on him how lucky it is to get to do this. He knows

it's something I love to do. That I've chosen to be a creative, and that was a big and important decision

for me. When I’d just finished the final tracks of the album, I was listening to it a lot in the car to take

notes on it and things as we were working on it. One day, we got in the car, and I said, “I'm

gonna turn on some music. What do you want to listen to?” And he asked, “Can we listen to your

album?” I was like, “Oh, my gosh!” It was amazing to me. He actually likes to listen to it, which is really fun.

GS: Are there music artists that you listen to for your own enjoyment that you think might surprise your followers?

CE: There are so many that would not surprise them, like Jamie Cullum and Melody Gardot, obviously. Do you know what my Spotify is full of? I listen to a lot of comedy shows. I listen to a lot of stand-up comedy albums. I love listening to the science of the comedy that people do in those sorts of environments. How they craft things. Maria Bamford is my very favorite. I have every Maria Bamford special. I've listened to all of them many times. I just think she is so funny, interesting, and vulnerable. I think it's fascinating.

GS: You played the character of John Adams in twelve episodes of the HBO period series “The Gilded Age.” My husband still mourns your character’s death. What was that experience like for you?

CE: It was so thrilling to be part of, not just because I was such a big fan of “Downton Abbey.” First of all,getting to work on a Julian Fellowes show was like, “I can't believe I'm working on a Julian Fellowes show! This is incredible.” Also, very purposefully, the original show runner sought out theater actors to

do the roles. People say it was because of the pandemic, and they were just trying to give theater actors jobs. We were cast in 2019, and it was very purposeful to cast theater people because he felt like

theater people could handle the language and style of the time period better than a lot of contemporary actors. Everyone in the theater who went to theaterb school has some sort of training in

period speech, but manners and mannerisms and things. I think it was a smart decision to do that.

Also, it made for such a lovely cast environment. I only had one other stint on a TV show, and then doing episodes of things and working on films occasionally, it can be a very bro-ey environment. This was just lovely. Showing up to set, you know the work that people are doing. You can trust each other in a different way because you all have a similar background and care about similar things. That's what was most special about it to me: to be with a group of people making something in a different medium that we all cared about.

GS: You can currently be seen in the role of Dr. Orin Scrivello D.D.S. in “Little Shop of Horrors” at the Westside Theatre in New York. I know it’s only been a couple of days, but how is it going so far?

CE: I'm having the best time! I have played different roles in my life, but I think that doing comedy is my favorite. This is a broad role. Replacing somebody in a show, especially in a comedic track like this, you hope that they're like, “Yeah, do whatever you want to do,” within bounds, make it your own with your own funny things. They have been totally open to me getting to play and do my own thing. Also, playing a person who is on edge and a little bit crazy is just fun because it allows you this freedom to be

spontaneous in a really fun way. I'm having a blast. I'm only three performances in, and I'm still learning a lot, but having such a great time.

GS: Are there any other TV, movie, or stage projects in the works that you’d like to mention?

CE: I'm actually shooting a film next month. I'm taking off some performances of “Little Shop,” so if people are coming, look on the website because the website will tell you what show I’m in. For about five weeks, I'm taking off random shows here and there, and then I have one week when I'm completely out. I'm shooting this movie that Douglas Carter Beane wrote. It's a really beautiful little film about a down-onits- luck town in Pennsylvania and a group of community theater actors who live there. Santino Fontana's in it, and a lot of theater people.

Photo By M Cooper