Meet Cutes BTS: Backstage at a Broadway Love Story

We’re switching things up for this week’s Love Letter and taking you behind the scenes of a Broadway love story that our fans can’t get enough of.

Chris and Clay first shared their story with us a few weeks ago, when we caught them walking through Times Square just steps away from the Great White Way.

After the enormous response we got from fans, we reached out to the pair and asked if they’d be open to sharing the full version of their Meet Cute with us.

Read on to find out how a West Side Story audition led to a relationship that culminated in a flash mob wedding proposal.

Here’s their story.

Thank you for talking to us again! Can you tell us the full story of how you first met?

Clay: We both went to the open call for the national tour of West Side Story. At the time, both of us were non-union so we were just going to this audition hoping to get seen. The whole day I was reading for Baby John, who’s the youngest Jet, and Chris was reading for Tony, who’s the leader of the Jets. At the end of the day, they had us switch and had me read for A-rab and him read for Baby John. And in the room they said “that’s what we want.” 

What were your first impressions of each other?

Chris: I remember thinking he was really, really talented. He was a phenomenal dancer. He’s really flexible and kicked his leg so high and I remember thinking I wish I had that flexibility. There was a lot of mutual respect right away. 

Clay: To know that he was up to read for Tony, the lead of the show, I was thinking He must be really talented if he can dance the way he does and sing to cover the lead! And it turns out, he is very talented. 

What happened next? 

Clay: So we both got a job and we were in rehearsal. Our company manager told us “If you have a roommate, you can split the housing cost,” so I immediately went to Chris because we were hitting it off as friends and asked if he wanted to be roommates. 

Chris: Per our director’s instructions, we’d been hanging out a lot. We had lunch together and we did our dance warmups together every day at the ballet bar. One day in rehearsal he decided to stand with somebody else at the ballet bar, and I remember being sad about that. I was like Why do I care where he does his dance warm up? And I realized I just liked being around him. 

So when he asked to be roommates, I decided to give it a go. It wasn’t something that was necessarily a long-term commitment. It was just per city. We were in each city for a few weeks, we figured we’d try it out. We flew from New York to rehearse in Tempe, Arizona. That was only a week or two. And then we flew to Dallas, Texas where we opened our tour.

That’s where things took a turn. 

Clay: We walked into our hotel room and there was one king-sized bed. It turned out there were no extra hotel rooms in the entire hotel because there were like three different business conventions in town. Our company manager asked us if we were okay sharing that room for now and then as soon as another one opened he’d get it for us. And we were like “Yeah, that’ll be fine.” 

So Chris, as the very closeted straight man he was, built a pillow wall between us in the bed. I feel like it stayed up for a night. Maybe a few nights. And then I think Chris is the one who made the pillow wall disappear in the middle of the night. 

Chris: I remember we woke up kind of cuddling and spooning at one point. And I remember freaking out because I was closeted and didn’t know what these feelings were, but I knew I liked it. I was nervous about it, but it felt right. It was a wild first week of being roommates and having these feelings for each other. 

The crazy thing was that this was the beginning of our tour. We toured for a full year and we were roommates the entire time! I think some people maybe got suspicious, but we didn’t talk about the fact that we were dating for a long time. 

I have a really religious family and I knew I wanted to tell them first. When I did, it didn’t go over well, so it definitely prolonged the coming out process. But Clay was truly so sweet and supportive. He’s a few years younger than me and he was already out, so there’s a world in which he could’ve been demanding that I come out or saying he didn’t want to date me if I was closeted. But he was really patient with me. 

It took me almost a year for me to share with the cast and everything, but we were welcomed with so much love and support!

When did you know this was a real romance and not just a show-mance?

Clay: It’s definitely a very real thing that show-mances can fizzle out quickly. I think we’re one of two couples that are still together from our show, but there were eight or nine different couples. We’re very lucky that ours stood the test of time. I feel like starting as friends made it so much easier. 

Chris: It also took time to grow. We were young and we moved to New York City together right after. We got to experience the highs and lows of life in New York City and the highs and lows in the performing arts. We got to see each other experience big success in the industry in New York pretty quickly.

Clay landed his Broadway show a few weeks after we got back from West Side Story and I landed my next tour, so we went from being attached at the hip to doing long distance while we were working. We grew a lot and our communication improved. We learned how to be a cheerleader for one another.

The most exciting thing is to see your person’s dream to come true. We learned that early on, and that has made for a really wonderful relationship. 

What has the reaction been like to sharing your story with Meet Cutes NYC? 

Clay: I’ve been overwhelmed by the support. You don’t always see mainly positive responses in the comments section of an LGBTQ couple. I was such a genuinely happy surprise that the good comments outweighed the bad. That’s so uncommon, unfortunately. Seeing a queer couple celebrated was really special. 

Chris: I already followed y’all before you interviewed us. When we first saw the video go live, Clay and I were at dinner. I literally started crying just reading the comments. Not because they were celebrating us, but because so many people were saying they look forward to this sort of relationship and they can’t wait to find their person. It made me really appreciate and be thankful for the relationship we have.

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Interviewed and transcribed by Nicolas Vega. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.