We recently had the chance to connect with Gehan A Cooray and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Gehan, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
One of my proudest moments took place this year when a veteran director here in New York City where I now live compared me with Alfred Drake, who was the most prolific leading man of Broadway’s Golden Age, originating the roles of Curly and Fred Graham in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” and Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me Kate”, while also starring in the original productions of other Broadway musicals like “The King and I”, “Kismet” and “Gigi”. I had idolized this gentleman since I was 13 years old, and when the director likened my singing voice to his, he wasn’t sure I would even know who Alfred Drake was (his career spanned from the early 1940s through the 1970s) but as a Classic Broadway Buff, it felt like the ULTIMATE COMPLIMENT that I could be paid in New York!
The partner of a critic who attended my most recent Solo Concert on 42nd Street here reiterated this by saying that she too had been reminded of Alfred Drake when I performed – and I must mention here that this latest solo show of mine itself is a moment of immense pride because it took place at the Green Room 42 near Times Square, which has been described as Broadway’s “swankiest” cabaret venue, and performance there is strictly by invitation only. Josh Groban himself has headlined there, and I am the very first singer born in Sri Lanka who was invited to do my own show!
The Director of Programming there, Ben Rimalower, has personally directed such Broadway legends as Sutton Foster and Christian Borle, while also being a friend of the great diva Patti LuPone, and for him to invite me felt like I had indeed “made it” in Manhattan, because doing solo shows on Broadway is the dream of every musical theatre performer. He also allowed me to incorporate my Operatic Arias and Classical pieces into the show, since I’m also an Opera singer, and I am very proud to carry on the legacy of people like Alfred Drake who also incorporated their operatic and classical vocal training into Broadway musicals (versus the pop/rock styles of modern musical performers).
This was the New York show that made me proudest since my Carnegie Hall Solo Concert Debut in 2019.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Marc Cherry, the creator of ‘Desperate Housewives’ described me as a “multi-hyphenate” back when I lived in Hollywood.
I am a Sri Lankan American Operatic Baritone Singer, Actor, Independent Filmmaker and Director who currently resides in Manhattan, having spent most of my adult life in Los Angeles and grown up in Sri Lanka. My independent feature film ‘The Billionaire’ was eligible for Oscar and Golden Globe nominations in 2021, after winning the Best Comedy Feature Award at the Burbank International Film Festival in 2020. The post-production for this film was done at Warner Bros. Studios under my personal supervision, which was as unforgettable an experience as making my debut at Carnegie Hall as a singer. My solo album ‘Classical & Cool’ was eligible for Grammy nominations the same year. I graduated from the University of Southern California in L.A where I majored in Theatre and Psychology, with a minor in Cinema.
Since I moved to New York last year, I have focused primarily on concerts and stage performances, because I think it’s very important in this age of AI to prioritize real, visceral human interactions versus hiding behind a screen. As glamorous as making a movie is, there is nothing that can beat the connection you establish with a live audience, and what sets me apart from most singers is that I do not need a microphone to perform, owing to my Operatic vocal training, but I’m also as musically and dramatically comfortable with Musical Theatre as I am with Opera. Most modern singers bifurcate Opera and Musical Theatre, but someone who has been trained in the Bel Canto technique like I have can effortlessly switch back and forth, because the mechanism for healthy, rich, quality singing is always the same irrespective of genre, as I have discovered.
Out of all the stage productions I’ve ever done, my favourite opera is Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ (in which I portrayed the amorous toreador Escamillo), my favourite musical production has been Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (in which I played the villainous Gaston), and my favourite play has been Tom Stoppard’s ‘Arcadia’ (in which I portrayed the arrogant professor Bernard Nightingale). Escamillo and Gaston are two of the most macho roles imaginable, but when I was younger – attending an all-boys Catholic school – I have also played female characters like Calpurnia the wife of Caesar in Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’ and Pitti-Sing in Gilbert & Sullivan’s ‘The Mikado’ (for which I wore a kimono). I think it is imperative that artists and people in general balance the masculine and feminine energies within themselves, because gender is ultimately a social construct, but the yin and yang energies are present within everyone, seeking a balance.
Even as a singer, I subscribe wholeheartedly to the Italian concept of ‘chiaroscuro’ which means balancing both the light (“chiaro”) and dark (“scuro”) shades in vocal music, the same way the best artists would when producing a great painting. The binaries of light and dark, masculine and feminine, have to be embodied equally in order to be the best performer/artist or even the best version of yourself as a human being, because these energies transcend mere societal norms. I always try to push the envelope as a performer and challenge people to look beyond their preconceived notions. For instance, when I played the title character in my feature film ‘The Billionaire’, I in fact masculinized a character originally known as ‘The Millionairess’ in a play by Bernard Shaw – while also introducing an Asexual component to the character, since I am Asexual in real life.
One might say I bridge both the old and the new in my work, the same way I bridge the gap between masculinity and femininity, light and dark, I really don’t think a performer, artist or person in general has to choose one thing OVER the other. It’s so much deeper and more complex to embrace apparent opposites. Over the past few years, I have also privately studied both Western and Eastern Astrology, and I have done many successful readings for people (also Tarot Card readings), in addition to conducting Vocal/Singing and Dramatic/Acting masterclasses and workshops for performers who wish to improve their craft, although I’m known primarily as a performing artist and a filmmaker.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
During the 2nd year of the pandemic, I somehow started watching videos of the way Pigs are horrifically abused on farms around the world, because Pigs had always been my favourite mammals. These videos really opened my eyes to how twisted the human race is, because Pigs are scientifically known to be more intelligent than dogs (which includes superior emotional intelligence as well) – they are on par with a little human child, as studies have established – and yet they are treated like dirt, whereas dogs are treated like gold especially in Western and ‘Christian’ countries. I had a major epiphany, albeit a sad one.
In fact, the hypocrisy of Western countries and many Christian churches became staggeringly apparent to me:
A) Given the disparity in the way Pigs and Dogs are treated, completely flying in the face of science as well as compassion
B) Given the fact that the Bible explicitly and repeatedly prohibits the consumption of Pork (as well as Shellfish), and yet most Christians have carefully twisted passages from the ‘New Testament’ to endorse their gluttony and their diabolical indifference to animals like Pigs, who are actually the third most intelligent animal on the planet by some measures.
I was born and raised Catholic, and had been a devout Roman Catholic for over half my life, and so it dawned on me that my entire belief system had been based on a lie. The Bible clearly teaches that certain animals are not to be butchered and eaten, and yet the majority of churches (Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant) have promulgated the false claim that Jesus Christ and the Apostles allowed them to start eating ALL animals, including Pigs who are on a higher cognitive and emotional level than their pet dogs.
I had often turned a blind eye in the past to the Seven Deadly Sins that plague most institutional churches – Greed, Gluttony, Lust etc – but this whole issue concerning Pork caused the scales to drop from my eyes, to use a Biblical idiom, and I could see that the very people and institutions who were supposed to be stewards of Creation were really selfish barbarians at heart, concerned only with satiating their their disordered appetites and their craving for money/profit.
At the same time, I could not believe that even the supposedly ‘scientifically enlightened’ people in Western countries who are Atheists or Agnostics could allow the torture, killing and consumption of Pigs, knowing these animals’ supremacy over Dogs (who would never be treated even a fraction as badly in Europe, England or America).
The only countries in which I could “understand” the way Pigs are treated, although I would NEVER EVER ENDORSE IT any more than I would endorse child abuse or infanticide, is certain Asian countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, China and South Korea where dogs and cats are killed and eaten alongside pigs. These countries typically never had a Judeo-Christian culture, nor did they make the arrogant claims of scientific enlightenment made by Western/Christian countries in the past, and so as much as I abhor what they do themselves, I realized that at least they are NOT *HYPOCRITES*.
Thus, the way I see the world changed very literally as those awful videos depicting the unspeakably evil treatment of pigs made me dive deep into what I consider an abomination around the globe. I started examining the cultural, religious and scientific dynamics, and becoming all too aware of the unforgivable hypocrisy at play in certain parts of the world (namely the Occident and many ‘Christian’ communities). I must add here that this is not a criticism of True Christianity at all, which would follow the Bible and thus follow the Dietary Laws which Jesus Christ actually enforced rather than overturn if anyone actually read the Gospels mindfully.
This might be a very touchy subject, but I have never been one to shy away from controversy if it’s in the name of the greater good and the truth.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Suffering taught me the importance of being as self-reliant as possible, emotionally and psychologically speaking. The strength that one needs HAS to come from within, and I have become a master at this. It is actually very freeing and liberating, on top of being empowering and emboldening, once it’s embraced.
There is a song titled “Look to Your Own Heart”, in an early 1980s stage musical adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s second Oz book, sung by Glinda the Good Witch. The wisdom contained in this song transcends that of every hymn or motivational song I’ve ever heard, and the older I get, the more I realize how profoundly true and helpful it is. What people really need is not motivation after all, but rather wisdom, because mere motivation can be misleading, but true wisdom never fails.
In order to look to your own heart, one must filter out the noise of the outside world, and stop relying on other people for validation or comfort on a day-to-day basis. I suppose some people don’t even have a heart to look into, metaphorically speaking, if they have not tried to live a principled life of personal integrity, but for those who have cultivated principles, integrity and wisdom over the course of their lives, they can trust and count on themselves without depending on others to prop them up.
Someone once told me that the most important relationship you have is the one with yourself, which is very true. Coincidentally, there is another song sung by the Glinda character in another Oz sequel adaptation called ‘Journey Back to Oz’ – an animated film – and this song is titled “You Have Only You to Look To”. Quite a deep and heavy message for children, but one that should be taken to heart.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
Yes, absolutely. There is no daylight between the public me and the private me. I am an open book, whether on stage, onscreen, online or in print.
I also don’t act more formal at Carnegie Hall versus less formal at a cabaret club, for instance. I am who I am, regardless of the venue.
Those who are not authentic are only deceiving themselves, which can result in all sorts of psychological problems, neuroses and unhealthy coping mechanisms as they wrestle with the lie of who they present themselves to be versus who they actually are when they are alone with their own thoughts. This happens to a lot of celebrities, or those who fancy themselves to be celebrities.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. If you laid down your name, role, and possessions—what would remain?
My virtues would remain. I am proud to say that I live a very chaste, celibate and clean lifestyle. I could lose everything but still join a monastery or even a hermitage very easily, for instance.
This perhaps goes hand in hand with being Asexual and self-reliant. I do not look to other people, possessions, or any kind of status in society to give me my identity or sense of purpose.
I have never needed sex or alcohol or drugs or cigarettes or parties or nightclubs or any of the other things that people lean on as crutches – despite living in the Heart of Hollywood for most of my adult life, and now living in Manhattan “the city that doesn’t sleep”. I have never consumed alcohol, never smoked, never used any substances, and never had any interest in partying or clubbing – I actually call myself ‘Saint Gehan’ on Facebook, as a result. 🙂
So even if I lose my name ‘Gehan’, I would still be a saint in essence, because saintliness is not a role, but rather a state of BEING. 🙂
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3582034/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gehanacooray/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gehan.cooray/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCf16-wLiRPH8QVeaLptA8A
- Other: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/gehan-cooray/1579810596
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