Tony-nominated composer Micki Grant died on Sunday. Born Minnie Perkins in Chicago on June 30, 1941, Grant was encouraged in the arts by her parents. She began with the double bass in elementary school, then added piano at 8 and acting lessons at 9, giving some of her first performances with Center Aisle Players. At 18, she wrote the pop hit “Pink Shoe Laces,” a Top Five hit for Dodie Stevens, which you can watch below. Following graduation from Englewood HS, Grant studied at Chicago School of Music and University of Illinois, which she left after three years to move to Los Angeles.
While in L.A., Grant was cast in Fly Blackbird (1962), moving with the show to New York to make her Off-Broadway debut in the Obie-winning musical. In New York, she also earned her bachelor’s in English and theater from CUNY’s Lehman College and began studying acting with Herbert Berghof and Lloyd Richards. Grant returned Off-Broadway in the revue Brecht on Brecht (1963), soon making her Broadway debut in Langston Hughes’ Tambourines to Glory (1963). She also acted in Hughes’ musical Jerico-Jim Crow (1964) and the Off-Broadway revival of The Cradle Will Rock (1964), from which you can watch Grant singing “Joe Worker” below.
For the next decade, Grant portrayed attorney Peggy Harris Nolan on Another World (1965-73), in the first story line written for an African-American on a daytime soap opera. She also began working in director Vinnette Carroll’s Urban Arts Crops. Their first collaboration was the musical Croesus and the Witch (1971), followed soon after by Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope (1972), which earned Grant two Tony nominations, two Drama Desk Awards, a Grammy, and an Obie. Below is the 2018 Encores! Off-Center revival company in a medley from the show.
Grant continued to collaborate with Carroll over the next ten years, including the musicals Step Lively, Boy (1973), I’m Laughing But I Ain’t Tickled (1976), The Ups and Downs of Theophilis Maitland (1976), Your Arms Too Short to Box with God (1976, Grammy nomination), and Alice (1978). Grant also wrote The Prodigal Sister (1974, with JE Franklin) for Woodie King and three songs in Working (1978, Tony nomination) for Stephen Schwartz. Below is Patti LaBelle singing “Cleanin’ Women” in the PBS broadcast of the latter show.
Grant’s later work included lyrics for Eubie! (1978), scores for It’s So Nice to Be Civilized (1980) and Phillis (1986), the revues Step into My World (1989) and Looking Back (1994), and the musicals Carver: Don’t Underestimate a Nut (1996) and Springtime in Alaska (2002). Below is Charlayne Woodard’s recent interview with Grant for the Dramatists Guild’s Legacy Project.
