Micki Grant

Micki Grant, born Minnie Louise Perkins on June 30, 1929, in Chicago, Illinois, was an American soprano, actress, composer, lyricist, and book writer whose Broadway career spanned from 1963 to 1996. The daughter of Gussie and Oscar Perkins — her father a self-taught pianist and master barber, her mother an employee of Stanley Products — Grant began her musical education early, taking double-bass lessons at her elementary school before starting piano at age eight. The following year she began acting lessons with Susan Porché. After graduating from Englewood High School in Chicago, she studied at the Chicago School of Music and attended the University of Illinois, leaving after three years to relocate to New York City. Decades later, she returned to formal education and earned a degree in English and Theatre from Lehman College in 1994, graduating summa cum laude. In 2015, Lehman College awarded her an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree. Grant died on August 22, 2021, in Manhattan, New York City, at the age of 92.

Before settling in New York, Grant spent time in Los Angeles, where her cousin, film actress Jeni Le Gon, mentored her. During that period she was cast in Fly Blackbird, a musical by James V. Hatch and C. Bernard Jackson that subsequently transferred to New York City. In the early 1960s she appeared off-Broadway in Jean Genet's The Blacks, alongside James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson, and in Brecht on Brecht, in which she performed "Pirate Jenny." In 1964 she played Ella Hammer in Howard da Silva's off-Broadway revival of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock, opposite Jerry Orbach and Rita Gardner. She also appeared in Tambourines to Glory and Jericho-Jim Crow, both co-written by Langston Hughes.

Much of Grant's most significant theatrical work grew out of her collaboration with director Vinnette Carroll, the first African-American woman to direct on Broadway. Together they developed Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope, in which Grant starred and for which she wrote the music, book, and lyrics. The production enjoyed a long Broadway run and earned Grant the Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Lyricist and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance, both in 1972, as well as three Tony Award nominations for her writing. She and Carroll also collaborated on Your Arms Too Short to Box with God, for which Grant contributed additional music and lyrics. Her other Broadway appearances included Working, It's So Nice to Be Civilized, and Having Our Say, in which she portrayed Sadie Delaney.

Grant's writing credits extended well beyond Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope. She composed music and lyrics for numerous productions, among them Croesus and the Witch (1971), Step Lively Boy (1973), The Prodigal Sister (1974), The Ups and Downs of Theophilis Maitland (1976), I'm Laughing but I Ain't Tickled (1976), Alice (1978), Phillis (1986), Step into My World (1989), and Carver (Don't Underestimate a Nut) (1996), for which she also wrote the book. She contributed music and lyrics to the 1978 musical Working alongside Stephen Schwartz, Craig Carnelia, James Taylor, Mary Rodgers, and Susan Birkenhead, and provided additional lyrics for the 1978 revue Eubie! Her songwriting reached beyond the stage as well: her pop song "Pink Shoe Laces," recorded by Dodie Stevens in 1959, reached number three on the U.S. singles chart, while a Spanish-language version held the number one position in Mexico for nine weeks.

Grant was equally prominent in television. She originated the role of attorney Peggy Nolan on the daytime soap opera Another World, a character that represented the first story line written for an African-American in a daytime soap opera; she held the role from 1966 to 1973. She subsequently appeared on The Edge of Night, replacing Billie Allen as Ada Chandler, and was a cast member of Guiding Light from 1982 to 1984. She also briefly hosted Around the Corner, a children's program on CBS. Early in her New York career, Grant worked as a receptionist at a radio station, an experience that led to an on-air role; she hosted Readings and Writings, a program featuring material she compiled through research at a public library. Grant married television news film editor Ray McCutcheon in 1966; the marriage ended in divorce in 1978. She was a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.