Jordan E. Cooper has quickly established himself as one of the most daring and dynamic voices in American entertainment today. At just 24, he became the youngest showrunner in television history with the groundbreaking BET+ sitcom The Ms. Pat Show, a raw, hilarious and unapologetically honest series that shattered streaming records, earned multiple Emmy nominations and won praise from none other than Norman Lear, who called it the kind of television he dreamed of making decades ago. By 27, Cooper made Broadway history as the youngest Black American playwright when his searing and wildly inventive Ain’t No Mo’ opened at the Belasco Theatre, going on to earn six Tony Award nominations and cementing his reputation as a fearless storyteller unafraid to challenge, provoke and entertain.
Now, Cooper is entering what may be his boldest season yet. He stars in Disney’s Freakier Friday alongside Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, returns this fall with Season 5 of The Ms. Pat Show and prepares to premiere his highly-anticipated new play Oh Happy Day! at the Public Theatre in New York. A saucy reimagining of the story of Noah’s Ark, the production features original gospel music by Grammy Award winner Donald Lawrence and has already wowed audiences with a sold-out run in Baltimore. Both a provocateur and a truth-teller, Jordan E. Cooper is redefining what it means to be a multi-hyphenate artist in theatre, film and television—and his latest work proves he’s only just getting started.
Oh Happy Day! reimagines Noah’s Ark through Gospel, queerness, and family redemption. What drew you to this story, and why do you feel now is the right time to bring it to the stage?
I am a church boy. I grew up in the church. A lot of the first plays I wrote before even setting foot in a theater were from my pastor putting on plays in church on Sundays. So I’m very in sync with that. As you know, growing up black and queer was a constant contradiction. I was really trying to discover my own self through the eyes of the church and religion and even past that, with my own relationship with God. Because I was constantly told I was going to go to hell. But I knew that there was something inside of me that just knew that wasn’t true. So that is something that I worked on for years and years. That religious trauma. When I was in college, I actually started writing this play and I was really interested in the idea of Noah specifically. Because I like the idea of starting anew. Washing everything away. And what does that mean, when you have to start anew within yourself? You have to start anew when it comes to stuff like the traumas that come with being black and queer. As well as family drama on top of that. Because I think sometimes people forget that queerness is not our only cross to bear.
When you are black and you are the black sheep of the family, being told that the whole town is going to flood and you’re going to die if they don’t do what he tells them to do.
The play follows a man who asked God to save the very family that rejected him. I feel like your own personal journey is found in this story. How much so?
My DNA is definitely in there. It’s not my story particularly, but my DNA is definitely in there. Which is probably why it’s a play that I have avoided for a long time. This is something I’m learning as I get older as an artist. I learned that sometimes we are given things for us to put out in the world that at the time that we’re giving them, we might not fully understand. Sometimes it takes a little bit more life to truly understand the vision that you’ve been given. For me, I was terrified of this play. It felt like it was challenging me. Because I am not a writer that sits down until I can pour a message into the world. It usually takes some convincing for me to share it with the world. That was the case with this play. I’ve been writing it for seven years. Finally, I got a chance to share it with the world. My directing team told me that I can’t just let this sit in my laptop. You got what you needed from it, but you never know who else might need from it.
So Donald Lawrence wrote the score with his original music. How does gospel elevate the play’s theme of forgiveness and faith?
First off, Donald Lawrence is an icon who I was listening to as a kid. Like a lot of young queer teenagers, there is this idea that you are alone, you are worthless, nobody cares, nobody understands you. And then suicidal ideation starts to trickle in. Those dark thoughts. What is crazy is a lot of the time Donald Lawrence’s music–particularly the songs like “Encourage Yourself” and “The Best Is Yet To Come”–will pull me out of those moments. They give me something to hold on to. So the idea that I can write this particular story, which really exorcises religious trauma and to get to collaborate with the gospel icon, there are truly no words for it. People keep asking me, “Is it a musical? Is it a play with music?” This content required music in a way where sometimes language has a barrier. Sometimes the words we use with our mouth has a barrier. And sometimes the words we use with our mouth stop what music picks up. Music is an universality. I can have a conversation with somebody from a different culture or language that they don’t understand what I’m trying to communicate, but there is something so universal and spiritual about the sound of music that I just can’t even put into a category. Music just kind of lives in this play. And where it lives, there is no category.
You are breaking a lot of barriers. Youngest black playwright in Broadway’s history. The youngest showrunner in The Ms. Pat Show. Can you recall a moment in your life that changed the whole trajectory of it?
This is the honest truth. I feel like I don’t pay attention to those things. I feel like I am always so busy trying to do them, just trying to open the door, never realizing that maybe I might be the first to open the door. Or the youngest to open the door. I just try to open the door. And then it just ends up being something really cool. I like to focus on the work. But being the youngest, while that is still special, because the person before me laid his work. And the idea that I could follow in those footsteps and just walk through the door, it then becomes my turn to open the door for somebody else to walk through. It’s just nice to show that you could do it.
With The Ms. Pat Show, people are calling it game changing. It tackles subjects like drug addiction, abortion, sexual abuse. These are things that sitcoms don’t really touch upon too much. How do you take the balance of the truth of these topics and add humor to it?
The crazy thing is, I truly believe that truth and comedy live in the same house. Often, through the truth, there is always a sadness, but there is also always something to laugh about. It may be night, but there is still a moon that is shining. I feel like what makes it funny is the hard conversation. Somehow we find a school shooting…we find something to laugh about. Because the situation itself is not funny, but it is our survival and our ability to overcome the pain that can be fun. Ms. Pat always says, “When you can laugh at something, you know you truly have control over it.” I believe that in all of my work. With Norman Lear, thankfully towards the end of his life, I went to his house and we hung out. This is the man who taught me how to write television. Because I can never see a play in real life. To me, shows from All in the Family to The Jeffersons to Good Times, when when you watch those shows, you see a great sitcom is great theater with cameras. He was something super special to me. The last time I saw him, he was at his birthday party and I just thanked him so much for being such a cool mentor. I thanked him for everything that he poured into the world. And he squeezed my hand much harder than any 101-year-old man should have. And he whispered in my ear, “To be continued.” Those were the last words that I ever heard from him. So I carry that in my heart. To be continued. Whether it’s film or theater, to somehow carry on that torch, because I always tell people Norman Lear was on the A-list because of All in the Family. If you’re a comedy writer and you’re not on someone’s A-list, you’re not doing it right.
I heard that he told you that what you’re doing is what he dreamed of with All in the Family.
He did. He did say that.
I want to talk about Freakier Friday for a minute. How cool was it to hang out alongside Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis? What kind of energy did you have, stepping into that?
It was exhilarating. I grew up in the era of like On Golden Pond. From the Freaky Friday reruns over and over again, that is my generation of TV, so I was already freaking out about that. But then to get on that set and to be so welcome and to feel so loved. We just had so much fun. A lot of that was from our director [Nisha Ganatra], who was a big proponent of ad libbing and Improv. We did a lot of improv. We just did a lot of things to try to make Lindsay break. I was able to do it a few times. These people have such big hearts. Lindsay has such a big heart. Jamie has such a big heart it and is such a champion of my work even outside Freakier Friday. With Oh Happy Day!, she’s been so helpful in trying to make sure that gets everything that it needs. It was a dream come true. I was just like…Pinch me.
You sit on the Tony Awards nominating committee. Has that changed any perspective when it comes to your own work?
Not really. What it did do was show me that I love the fact that you could see everything. All of the hard work that these artists put in whatever it is they’re putting on stage. Sometimes it hits you, sometimes it doesn’t. But you know the work that was put in on that stage. I always walk away learning something. Whether it be what they did with the lights or what they did with the costumes or the story edit, whatever that is. There is nothing like the theater. Because it is one of the last art forms that we have that does not require a screen and does not require technology. You are actually able to be present. If forces you to be present. What is special about it is that that will never happen again. You’re sitting in that space with the exact same human beings enjoying the performance while these other human beings are performing it for you. That will never happen again. These people will never be in the same building ever again. So that is what makes the theater so special. And to be able to be on a committee where I get a chance to champion and lift up the hard work, it is a dream. When I went out to New York, I couldn’t afford to sit outside of a Broadway theater. So being a part of the nominating committee for these shows is a high honor.
So, I’m going to ask you a question. It’s a little bit mean, but I’m going to ask it anyway. With Oh Happy Day! opening in the public and Ms Pat in it’s fifth season and Freakier Friday in theaters everywhere, what excites you most about this chapter in your career?
What excites me most is I feel like I am turning into a new animal. I feel like I am constantly shifting. Like I am coming out of my caterpillar shell. Especially with a play like this. Something that scares me. It’s a beautiful thing when artists are scared. Because that means there’s something unlocking within themselves. I feel this moment right now makes me the happiest. I am constantly challenging myself. I am constantly growing. I feel like I am competing with myself in a cool way. That’s really exciting. That is the point. We are supposed to remain curious. Even outside of artistry. I feel like the moment as a human being that we stop being curious and we stop growing, life is over. It has no point anymore. I feel like each thing that I do helps me to grow in all aspects of myself.
If you could have me ask you any question on the planet, what would it be and how would you answer it?
“What is the thing that brings me joy outside of theater and film and TV?” It is karaoke. I love me some karaoke. The singing and non singing asses alike–when you come over my house you’re doing karaoke.
