Actor Noah J. Ricketts is having a moment. The stage and screen star can currently be seen eight times a week at the Broadway Theatre as Nick Carraway in the new musical The Great Gatsby. In addition, Ricketts shines in the Showtime and Paramount+ LGBTQ+ series Fellow Travelers, in which he portrays Frankie Hines, a queer drag performer. Fellow Travelers spans decades, beginning with the Lavender Scare and ending during the AIDS epidemic. Entertainment journalist for Spectrum News NY1 Frank DiLella caught up with Ricketts to chat about the importance of remembering LGBTQ+ history during Pride Month, and more.
How familiar were you with the novel of The Great Gatsby prior to signing on for the musical?
I was forced to read the book — like most people are — when I was 16. And I remember not really feeling a connection to any of the characters in the story. But visiting it years later and after so much life experience in New York, it totally hit differently. The themes of class and the divide between the rich and the poor, all of that really stuck and it made me realize how ahead of his time F. Scott Fitzgerald really was.
Pride to me is a lot of things — and that includes a party! I have to say, you all are having quite the party over at the Broadway Theatre!
Yeah, baby! Eight times a week we’re having a party! And it’s a great thing to remember about the period: Similarly to us, in the 1920s they were coming out of the Spanish Flu. Our comparison to COVID. And back then, everyone was dying to get back to the streets and back to life and back to socializing. It was important to bring that lifeblood of the Roaring Twenties that you read about in the book to the stage.
Who is your LGBTQIA+ hero?
Billy Porter is my hero. When I was coming up as a young person, in the theater scene I didn’t really have a lot of Black queer icons to look up to. And then there was Billy Porter, who was working on Broadway. I’ll never forget seeing that YouTube video of him performing “Beauty School Dropout” from Grease! He’s my hero because as I go up in the world of Hollywood and television and in theater, we’ve become close, and he’s really helped guide me through my career choices.
Do you have a favorite LGBTQIA+ play or musical?
One of my favorite LGBTQIA+ theater pieces is a play that I was a part of, this play at Second Stage called To My Girls. It was a short, limited run, but it was all about the dynamics and gay relationships across generations and ethnicities. And I thought it was brilliant that someone did a deep dive into that material and into something that we don’t normally get to explore.
You were recently part of a major television project that the LGBTQIA+ community embraced: Fellow Travelers.
I’ve been fortunate to do some great theater and television in my time, but nothing seems to stick like Fellow Travelers. There’s not a day when I come out the stage door that someone says to me, “Thank you so much for the work you did on Fellow Travelers.” And I think it’s because, as a person in the queer community, we were starved for quality content that was able to see us and reflect back to us our life experiences through generations. And that’s what Fellow Travelers gave to so many people. So as I reflect back on the series, what I take away from it is this great sense of pride that I was a part of something that is so much greater than myself.
Pride is about reflecting on our history. Fellow Travelers highlights a dark period in the U.S. known as the Lavender Scare, a time when LGBTQ+ citizens were literally being hunted by the government. How familiar were you with that moment in time?
I really didn’t know much about it, and I think that’s what is so special about Fellow Travelers. It puts a spotlight on the erasure of gay and queer history and it’s forcing people to google and research these events and ask, Did this really happen? And the truth is, yes! And I think what’s important about this series is, like we learn in school, history repeats itself. And if we aren’t shown these events and these events aren’t put into the forefront, then they have the ability to once again happen.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
The advice I would give: Keep moving forward and be authentically you. That is something that I have learned and relearned year after year and role after role.
How are you celebrating Pride?
I’ve got two events that are non-negotiable. The first is the Pride Parade. I’ve been going every year since I came to New York City, so that’s 10 years and I love it! And the second is, there is usually a boat party on that final Sunday of Pride that is my favorite time because things are winding down and to be on a boat with disco music and dancing with a bunch of gays from across the world — there’s nothing like that!