Syndee Winters is returning to the stage as Nala in “The Lion King” on Broadway. She was previously starred in “Hamilton,” “Pippin” and “Motown: The Musical.” “Good Morning America” caught up with her to talk about acting, show business and how she went on to create her own show. This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
GMA: Did you know you were going to be on Broadway one day? Was this always the childhood dream?
Syndee Winters: Oh, God, no. I didn’t know anything about Broadway. I went to see “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” I think. It was a school trip. And we saw the show and it was super cool. I was like “Oh, they’re singing. This is really great.” Didn’t think anything of it.
“The Lion King” came out and I said, “I just can’t wait to be king.” [I] bought a sing-along tape with my own allowance money. I cleaned the floor. So I bought that with my own money, and made my parent’s listen to that tape inside and out, and I made them read all the lyrics. And then when I found out that the musical was even going to be a thing, I was like, “Well, this is the thing that’s kind of interesting to me.” I heard “Shadowland” for the first time and I started to cry.
And I said, “I’m going to sing this song. I don’t care where I sing it: church, supermarket, high school musical. I don’t care. I’m going to sing it.” That was my first introduction to Broadway and the desire to want to be on that stage doing that thing.
GMA: Is there somebody for you guys that was that person that went, “Go, do this. I know you’re scared, but go out. Do this.” Was there somebody?
Winters: The thing is that I’ve had so many mentors. I think the first mentor is my father. He was like, “You want to do this? You figure it out. We’re going to figure it out and we’ve done it.” My dad has been my number one supporter since the day I was born.
GMA: You had made your debut in “The Lion King,” and then you went off and did “Pippin.” You did “Motown.” You did “Hamilton.” Did you ever think you were going to come back to Nala?
Winters: No. I thought she had left for good. “We’re going to hang this costume up.” No, I was actually thinking about moving to L.A. And the day before, I was going to check out L.A. for a couple of months, I get a call to ask if I wanted to come back for a little while.
And I said, “You know, I’m trying to break up with you. OK? New York, you’re making it hard.” I was out in California. I did a show with The Old Globe for the fall. I ended that show on December 31, New Year’s Eve.
I came back, took a red eye, landed January 1, made some food, took a nap. And then I started rehearsal for “Lion King” on the second and I was in the show on the ninth. And I was watching it, thinking to myself, “Oh, Nala does that. Wow.”
GMA: “Did I do that? Did I do that too?”
Winters: “I did that, too? Wow.”
GMA: Coming back to a show is probably a little out-of-body, too, in that way.
Winters: It’s really interesting. Because the show’s been running for so long, I mean, we have a brilliant cast of a wide array of performers that have been there quite a few years, so these are the same people that are my tribe, it’s like coming back home and everyone’s so excited to see me, and I’m so excited to see them, and then I put on the costume and I look in the mirror and go, “Girl, you changed.”
GMA: It’s different. You’re a different Syndee.
Winters: Nala is different in my body. Nala is different in my mind. And so to be able to return to a role that I’ve separated myself from and gone and done other projects and lived another life. It’s really fun to explore who she is now. And you know, especially as the show has changed over the years, I matured, too. And the audiences that come and see us, they’re changing and maturing as well.
GMA: So I want have a little bit of real talk. Has there ever been a time where you go, “No, I’m done. I can’t. I can’t do this anymore,” because journey’s are ups and downs. And this business does get hard, and it does test you as a human being and as an artist. Have you ever had that moment?
Winters: I remember distinctly one day I was at home in New York. It was freezing F-ing cold, and I call my dad in Miami and I was like, “I want to come home now.” That was my only line I said on the phone. And he said, “Alright, you want to come home? OK. Let me tell you something. I miss you and I want you here. But you have two more years to stay there.”
I said, “How do you know? How do you know I have two more years?” He said, “You have two more years. You have to stay there for two more years.” And I said, “OK.” And that year, I booked “Motown: The Musical” and “Pippin,” and then the year after that, I booked “Hamilton.”
GMA: ’Cause you hung in there.
Winters: Cause I hung in there.
GMA: You also create a lot of your own work, which is really cool. You have that great show about Lena Horne [“LENA: A Moment With A Lady”] that you do, that you created it. You’re like, “Well, if the phone’s not going to ring, I got to make it ring for myself, right?”
Winters: Right, and that was a big thing for me. I had just come off the national tour of “Lion King” and I said, “Well, I’m not being seen right now. What am I going to do?”
I had a friend who had a one-man show and I said, “That’s possible? Oh dude, I can do that.” And he said, “OK, well, who you think you could tell a story about?” And I gave him two other options, and he said, “No, no.” I said, “Well, there’s this one, but I don’t know.” He’s like, “What?” I said, “Maybe Lena Horne.” He said, “Oh, do Lena Horne.”
Hung up the phone on me ’cause he had to catch his vocal rest, and I said, “OK. Well, I don’t want to disappoint this person. I don’t have anything to do. I have all this time. Let me start googling.” So I looked her up online.
And then I went to the library at Juilliard, and I started reading books and fell headlong into this story about this woman because I really started feeling like she was more important and timely and perfect and all those things now, and so I just started writing, and I started the Google campaign, crowdfunded and did it front of an audience.
Somehow, we got on the news and they called me to perform on the morning news, and then the night of the show it was sold out, and then I had people coming to me saying they wanted to produce this thing right away, and I didn’t know what it was.
And I was like, “Wait a minute, I don’t know what this is yet. Let’s take a beat until we can get the story right.” And now we have a creative team. I have a director and a co-writer and a musical director who are all women of color, who are all strong and excited and dying to tell this story. And so I’m really excited about it.
GMA: That tenacity about it, like, “I got to do it. I got to write.”
Winters: Now, all these people are in the car with you, you’re like, “OK, I don’t feel so bad ’cause we’re all going to go down together.”
GMA: Or make something really beautiful.
Winters: Or make something really beautiful.