Billy Porter Is the Change

‘80 For Brady’ star on acting with legends, directing a drag queen’s story for TV and his return to music

You could say Billy Porter was born to play just about all of his roles. This, of course, is true of his portrayal of Pray Tell, the actor’s Emmy Award-winning part on “Pose,” and his star-making, Tony Award-winning role in Broadway’s “Kinky Boots.” And you definitely can’t argue with the fact that he was put on this earth to bring racial and gender diversity to his Fairy Godmother part in 2021’s modern retelling of “Cinderella.” The trend continues with Gugu, the iconic choreography he plays in “80 For Brady,” a role he slips into with such natural ease that you might be asking yourself, “Billy Porter who?” When I tell him that having seen him as Gugu, he may now always just be Gugu to me, he embraces it: “You can call me Gugu,” he says, laughing. In “80 For Brady,” Gugu is where Lady Gaga got her name from, so that makes Gugu immediately important to the whole gay world. He, with his smooth moves and flashy tracksuit, is also instrumental in the lives of four other ladies whose dream he helps to fulfill: Lily Tomlin, Sally Field, Rita Moreno and Jane Fonda, or rather their characters (Lou, Betty, Maura and Trish, respectively). In addition to “80 for Brady,” the 53-year-old stage and screen