130_SPR19

Broadway to Cape Cod

Cape Cod Life  /  June 2019 /

Writer: Haley Cote

Broadway to Cape Cod

130_SPR19

Cape Cod Life  /  June 2019 /

Writer: Haley Cote

Kurtis Blackburn

“When I was 2, going on 3 years old my sister was in ballet class,” recalls Grandy, a native of Belleville, Illinois. “My mom would take me on watch week, and I would get really bored, so I’d go in the back of the room and start dancing, doing whatever they were doing in class. One week, the teacher had been trying to get the kids to do this tap step for many weeks, and none of them could do it still, so out of frustration she said, ‘Can anyone do this?’ And of course I thought that meant me too! So I jumped off my mom’s lap and said ‘I can!’ I did the tap step, and the teacher walked over and grabbed my shoulders, looked at my mom and said, ‘He’s mine!’” 

Grandy’s mother later encouraged him to pursue theater, which led him to The Muny in St. Louis. “They were looking for a way to connect more with the community,” Grandy says, “so they started this summer program for kids. They built shows around us, and then we toured around the city of St. Louis doing these shows. And I got to be in these main stage productions with real Broadway actors when I was 7 and for many years after that.”

After studying musical theater at Syracuse University, Grandy moved to New York City, and for the next several years he worked as a performer. But, “My brain always was kind of dipping into the producer world,” he admits. “I believe that the reason I was put on this earth is to be a storyteller, in whatever facet that takes. And right now it’s certainly coming out in producing.”

Haley Cote

Haley Cote is the assistant editor for Cape Cod Life Publications. A lifelong Cape Cod resident, Haley is an alumna of Barnstable High School and Cape Cod Community College. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Suffolk University. When she’s not writing, this self-described “pop culture junkie” also loves discovering new music and catching up on the “Real Housewives.”