'A Strange Loop' Actor, Creator on Long Journey to Tony Noms

New York (AP) -- When Jaquel Spivey found out he was nominated for a Tony Award as lead actor in “A Strange Loop,” he was shocked. Not just for the normal reasons, but for the statement it made.

“This is an industry that in history has not been here for people like me. And when I say people like me, just to be specific, like fat, Black, queer men who had just very openly feminine energy. I’m not the most masculine man in the room,” Spivey recently told The Associated Press at an event honoring this season’s Tony Award nominees.