Joe Lewis, 1997 Wootton Graduate, Wins Tony Award for Co-Producing ‘A Strange Loop’

Joe Lewis graduated from Wootton High School in 1997. Since graduating he had held positions such as Manager of Development at Comedy Central, Director of Production at 20th Century Fox, Head of Original Programming at Amazon Studios, and his current position as Head of Television at Amplify Studios. Last night he was a part of multiple Tony Award wins for co-producing A Strange Loop.

This year’s nominations were dominated by the musicals A Strange Loop and MJ The Musical, with 11 and 10 nominations respectively. Another Wootton High School alumnus, Myles Frost, who stars at Michael Jackson, won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

A Strange Loop is a musical with book, music and lyrics by Michael R. Jackson. In 2019, the show had its world premiere off–Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in co-production with Page 73 Productions. The Washington, DC production was postponed to December 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Strange Loop premiered on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre on April 26, 2022, following previews beginning April 14. At the 75th Tony Awards, A Strange Loop earned a leading 11 nominations and won two: Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical.

The show follows Usher, a black, queer writer writing a musical about a black, queer writer writing a musical about a black, queer writer etc.

Fun Joe Lewis fact: He was featured in the New York Times when he was a senior at Wootton as part of “Students Opposed to Smoking (SOS). An excerpt can be seen below:

Most teen-agers do not smoke, and some are vocal in their distaste for tobacco. Joe Lewis, 17, a senior at Wootton High School in Rockville, Md., and a member of a local group, Students Opposed to Smoking, says bumping up taxes by a nickel or a dime would have little effect. He advocates the full shock treatment.

”If cigarette prices went up by a dollar, a lot of kids would still try cigarettes once, like I did,” he said. ”But the younger ones, the seventh and eighth graders, couldn’t afford it and wouldn’t become addicted.”

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