EXCLUSIVE: Todrick Hall spills details on Super Bowl ad and new tour
The YouTube sensation also speaks on his recent Chicago stint and sharing a dressing room with Kandi Burruss.
Todrick Hall has been making big moves on his own terms for years and the seasoned performer’s huge following has made him a perfect pick for M&Ms’ Super Bowl ad.
The singer, dancer and all-around entertainer makes a cameo in the ad that’s scheduled to run during the first quarter of the big game this coming Sunday. We caught up with the YouTube sensation to find out what it was like to be a part of an iconic celebration, completing his second major role on Broadway and why he will be traveling the country later this year.
“I’m so excited. It’s a huge check off my bucket list,” said Hall of the commercial. “I thought it was too good to be true. What a great way to start off the year. It was everything I imagined it would be and more. To watch a legend like Danny DeVito at work was amazing. I have been such a huge fan my whole life.”
Hall recently wrapped up his starring role of Billy Flynn in Chicago on Broadway.
“It was a surreal thing. I have loved Chicago since I was first introduced to musical theater. I have done so many parodies on my YouTube channel of Chicago and they have been some of my more successful videos,” he says.
“To get to do the actual choreography and work with people who were there when the show was created…wow. It was a role that was very challenging for me. I have played a lot of flamboyant, eccentric roles, so to play a straight- shooter lawyer was a big change from Kinky Boots, which is the show I did the year before. It was amazing and I learned and grew so much as an artist and a performer, which is my favorite thing.”
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Hall, whose YouTube channel boasts nearly 3 million subscribers, also revealed that one of the best things about his recent stint on Broadway was his newfound friendship with Kandi Burruss.
“We shared a dressing room for a few days and it was so much fun. I was close to missing my cues on stage because we would be back there talking and getting to know each other,” he admits.
“Now we have become really close friends just from our time overlapping. That was really cool to pick her brain and for her to pick my brain about social media. Kandi is so cool and down to earth and so sweet.”
After his appearance in Taylor Swift’s controversial video, “Look What You Made Me Do,” and the recent flubs from major brands, we wondered if he had any apprehension about being in such a highly visible ad.
“It’s a very scary time for any performer to jump onto any set. You have to be so particular about everything. I was recently in Taylor Swift’s music video and there was a lot of controversy surrounding some of the images in that before it even came out,” he explains.
“I think that when you’re working with a brand as established and successful as M&Ms that has been doing this for so long, it makes it easier. The concept was so tastefully done and so comedic that I wasn’t concerned about it at all. It was delivered in the exact way it was pithed to me. They took such good care of me and their team was so prepared to make sure they pulled off this sunny story in such a brief amount of time.”
Check it out:
Aside from seeing his commercial aired on the biggest broadcast of the year, Hall is looking forward to seeing another big name take the stage.
“Justin Timberlake is such a legendary, iconic performer. He reminds me of a male Beyoncé,” he says. “Every time he performs you know you’re getting what you paid for. I’m definitely excited. I know he is the ultimate showman and when you have someone like that performing, you can just sit back, relax, and take it all in.”
According to Hall, JT will kill his upcoming Super Bowl halftime performance, with or without an assist from Janet Jackson.
“I have no idea [if Janet will perform]. I think that would be a little bit predictable, but I think whatever they do is going to be epic.”
Hall is gearing up for a new tour, Todrick Hall American: The Forbidden Tour, and it sounds like it will be quite the show.
“The Forbidden tour is my most relevant piece of work yet. It’s tackling serious political issues using musical theater, pop and hip-hop. It’s a beautiful story,” he says.
“It’s a visual album but it’s honestly more of a movie with music. There are 30 original songs I have written for it and there are a lot of really cool cameos from artists I love and respect.”
Prepping such an elaborate project wasn’t easy while starring in Chicago on Broadway, but Hall was dedicated to getting it done.
“I have been working on the tour and album hand in hand. The concept came to me a few months ago. Being onstage every night for Chicago really inspired me to focus. I have been recording all the songs and it’s going to be really great when it comes to the content and choreography and it’s slightly more elevated than my other stuff,” he says.
“I challenged myself to write songs that tackle the issues we are having in America right now.”
Here are Todrick Hall American: The Forbidden 2018 tour dates:
March 29 — Ventura, CA — Majestic Theatre
March 30 — Riverside, CA — Fox Theater
March 31 — La Mirada, CA — La Mirada Theatre
April 2 — San Francisco, CA — The Fillmore
April 3 — Portland, OR — Roseland Theater
April 4 — Seattle, WA — The Moore
April 5 — Tacoma, WA — Pantages Theater
April 6 — Spokane, WA — Bing Crosby Theatre
April 7 — Billings, MT — Alberta Bair Theatre
April 8 — Minneapolis, MN — Varsity Theater
April 9 —Omaha, NE — Sokol Auditorium
April 10 — Kansas City, MO — Madrid Theater
April 11 — Milwaukee, WI — Turner Hall
April 12 — Chicago, IL — House of Blues
April 13 — Indianapolis, IN — Deluxe at Old National Centre or The Vogue
April 14 — St. Louis, MO — Del Mar Hall
April 15 — Cincinnati, OH — Bogart’s
April 16 — Pittsburgh, PA — Rex Theater
April 17 — Toronto, ON — Opera House Toronto
April 18 — Detroit, MI — The Majestic (Click here for tickets)
April 19 — Cleveland, OH — Agora Theatre (Click here for tickets)
April 20 — New York, NY — Playstation Theater (Click here for tickets)
April 22 — Boston, MA — The Wilbur
April 23 — Philadelphia, PA — The Fillmore Philadelphia
April 24 — Freehold, NJ — iPlay America’s Event Center (Click here for tickets)
April 26 — Silver Spring, MD — The Fillmore Silver Spring
April 27 — Baltimore, MD — Baltimore Sound Stage
April 28 — Richmond, VA — The National (Click here for tickets)
April 29 — Charlotte, NC — McGlohon Theatre
April 30 — Greensboro, NC — Carolina Theater of Greensboro
May 1 — Raleigh, NC — Meymandi Concert Hall
May 2 — Orlando, FL — Plaza Live (Click here for tickets)
May 3 — Miami, FL — Fillmore
May 4 — Ponte Vedra, FL — Ponte Vedra Concert Hall (Click here for tickets)
May 5 — Augusta, GA — Miller Theater
May 6 — Atlanta, GA — Fox Theater
May 7 — Memphis, TN — New Daisey
May 9 — San Antonio, TX — The Aztec Theater
May 10 — Grand Prairie, TX — Verizon Theatre (Click here for tickets)
May 11 — Austin, TX — Emo’s
May 13 — Denver, CO — Gothic Theatre (Click here for tickets)
May 14 — Grand Junction, CO — Avalon Theatre
May 15 — Las Vegas, NV — House of Blues
May 16 — Tucson, AZ — The Rialto Theater
May 17 — Mesa, AZ — Mesa Arts Center
May 19 — Los Angeles, CA — The Fonda (Click here for tickets)
