Cody Davis: Music Man With A Story
By: Isabella Bagnaro
Cody Davis on Broadway (CL).
Before you read this, I would like to say that I am thankful for the opportunity to write this story and I thoroughly enjoyed writing it. It is my belief that everyone should meet Cody Davis at least once in their life. Even better if you get the chance to know him. He is friendly, talented, and his humility despite his brilliance bleeds out from him. He loves his job, and furthermore, he loves the arts and those around him. So without further ado, Cody Davis.
From Jenks, Oklahoma to New York Broadway, Cody Davis has truly lived the “dream,” yet here he is, back in his hometown making a way in the arts for others at his Alma Mater.
I hiked up to Davis’s office. Two white fluffy pom-pom decorations hung from the upper part of the door, with three small whiteboards underneath them, one with a note that read: “Leave a message if I missed you!”
Upon entering, I was greeted by a brightly lit room on the third floor of the PAC (a rather dreadful walk, to which Davis agreed) one large wraparound desk, and a smiling Cody Davis. As I neared his desk and sat down I noticed a coaster with an assortment of Broadway musical titles displayed on it, a “What would Beyonce do?” name place on the desk space behind him, and various musical and Broadway posters hung around the room and on the back of the door. A picture of him and his husband hung on the small wall gap next to his desktop.
While this wasn’t my first time meeting Davis, he was just as polite and cheery in our first interaction. With a polite greeting and talking through the latest bit of small talk in our lives, we began to discuss his background and I learned of a man, brilliant and inspired.
“Every day is different,” said Davis. He appreciates his job for the spontaneity of it.
Davis grew up in Jenks, Oklahoma and attended Jenks High School his entire academic career. He was part of both vocal music and drama, where he discovered his passion for musical theater.
After graduating high school, Davis went to the University of Michigan where he became close with his relatively small class of fellow Musical Theatre majors.
“After I graduated and went to UMich then on to NYC, I realized I was out of my (still beloved) Jenks bubble. I began meeting people that were so different than I was, yet we learned how much alike we were. That curiosity has stayed with me to this day,” said Davis.
Cody Davis in New York.
“I went to New York city to pursue a career in acting. And once I was there I was able to do national tours of shows, I performed on Broadway, and did some regional shows. I got to kinda live the dream for a little bit,” said Davis. He went on to say that while New York is his favorite city, it's also the toughest to live in.
“It was a grind, waking up and auditioning was my job,” said Davis, who would do between one and four auditions a day. “So I would go audition everyday. Go to dance calls, go to singing calls, go to class all the time, just trying to get your face and name out. It's a big city, everyone is talented.” Though he was pursuing his passion, and did truly love where he was, it wasn't perfect.
“I had to learn that there was only so much I controlled, and oftentimes I wouldn’t get something for something that was so out of my control,” said Davis.
Casting directors often go into auditions with a specific look in mind, appearance can be a determining factor. Davis stated that at some auditions the casting director would line them up and those above or below a specific height would be asked to leave. Davis and those around him still made the best of it, often going out to lunch afterwards.
“It was really hard, gratifying you know, when you get a job it’s awesome. But I also had to learn that I had to find my worth outside of the business,” said Davis, “When you’re trying out, you're the product and it's hard to not take things personally. I was trying to find joy through jobs, and that's not gonna happen. You should enjoy what you do but that's not what has to make you happy.”
While living in New York, Davis was cast in some regional works, and two national tours. These tours were White Christmas and Bright Star. Davis stated that Bright Star was, and still is one of his favorite shows.
Cody Davis standing on stage.
After four years in New York, while he enjoyed his tours, Davis had accepted that he may never be on Broadway and began to ask himself if that was truly his goal, or if his goal was a steadier life as an actor. But just as he accepted that, he got a call.
“I auditioned in September, I didn’t get the call that I got it until May,” said Davis. After four years of auditioning and hoping to one day be on Broadway, he was cast in Cinderella. He claims this show is remarkably special to him: “It’s really cheesy but it's all about dreams coming true and things becoming possible and I really feel that it was the perfect show for me at the perfect time. It taught me again that things come out of nowhere and if you put in the work you’ll be rewarded.”
Cody Davis in Cinderella.
Shortly after, life surprised him and the whole world. In early March 2020, Covid had started to hit New York badly and they were beginning to shut down the subways. And at that point, Broadway, and all of the theater was closing. Davis’s mother, who was in New York at the time, decided to go back to Oklahoma, and suggested Davis and his (now) husband - who had two weeks of online grad school classes - come with her.
“We left March 12 and never went back,” said Davis, “We had no idea when it [theater] would come back, if it would come back. I had two friends that came to live here as well at my mom’s house because they were on national tours and didn’t have apartments in New York.”
“I guess that’s what got me back here, but I always knew I’d come back,” said Davis, “When I was in kindergarten I said that I was going to teach kindergarten in the morning at Jenks, work with my dad in the afternoon, and I was going to sing at a nightclub at night and that was gonna be my life so I always knew I’d be back at Jenks somehow.”
In 2021, Davis was hired by Michael Shimp and Julie Hester to work alongside the high school's vocal music program. He wasn’t an official employee of the school, but he directed the musical that year.
“Before he was the performing arts director, he had moved back, we got to hire him to be our director of the musical. Me and Mr. Shimp did the music,” said Hester. When the position opened up, Davis was hired as the performing arts director. He claimed that he would’ve done anything at his Alma Mater.
“I’m so grateful that they trusted me enough to give me a chance, I'm in love with my job, every single day is something different, and I'm still learning every day,” said Davis. He went on to say that while he was experienced in production, he recognized that he had a lot to learn in the administrative side of his new job.
“I’m grateful that I get to do something I love in so many facets at a place that I love,” said Davis.
“I don't teach, but all of the stagecraft students end up being crew for our concerts, productions and assemblies so I get to know them for sure throughout the year,” said Davis.
Davis not only manages our high school PAC and helps with events and shows here, but goes to the intermediates to work alongside their band and orchestra directors.
“I get to site-hop,” said Davis. This year, the fourth graders are getting to see the ballet. And last year, several poets came to the High School. Artistic performances and events like these can help inspire students in the arts they are already pursuing, or introduce them to a passion they might not have been aware of.
“Whatever show we’re working on, that's my favorite at the time,” said Davis. Though he does have some recurring favorites. He loves the band and orchestra concerts - especially around the holidays - the annual musical and fall plays, Trojan Idol, and the Jenks Pom Fashion Show.
“Every year, the pom fashion show is the first big one. I went to Jenks and I was in the pom fashion show. It kinda takes me down memory lane,” said Davis.
Davis isn’t just beloved by his family, but all of those around him, and it is shown in how they speak of him.
“You know, he’s like my son,” said Hester. An adored Jenks High School teacher who used to help manage choir and vocal music, who now teaches AP Music Theory and Piano. She explained that he was a student of her’s, and ended up befriending her daughter.
“He and my daughter, they just became the sweetest friends, literally best friends and are still to this day,” said Hester.
Hester and her daughter kept in touch with Davis throughout his time at UMich and in New York. They both went to see him in the national tour of White Christmas when it came to town. So when he returned and helped Hester and Shimp direct the musical that year, it was a lovely experience for her.
“I had that personal connection with him, but then I also had that professional work experience with him as well,” said Hester. “I was blown away. When I saw him in his element directing that show, it was outstanding and I was so proud of it.” Her experience with him as director was that he was “immediately all-in.”
Hester was inevitably asked to write him a recommendation letter before he was hired as the director of performing arts.
“I love studying acting in school, I love studying people's habits and character traits. I never want to put labels on anybody or think I know what somebody’s gonna do but I love figuring people out. I like to get to know people,” said Davis. He believes that his never-dulling curiosity and love for others helps him not only in his job at the school, but in his daily life.
“I think that definitely makes me think a lot about how I interact with other people,” said Davis. “I think actors and performers can do anything, you know, ‘fake it ‘till you make it’ but within faking it there's a lot of courage, strength, and knowledge behind it. To where you have to know how to relate to people.” He went on to say that he truly believes that is what life is, faking it, to a certain degree.
“That's what I think life is too, sometimes I put on my professional hat, sometimes I put on my fun hat - well I like to be fun all the time - we all do that,” said Davis
While Davis isn’t an avid performer at the moment, he is in a teacher band and sings at weddings when asked. He still loves Jenks and the arts, “Our community is full of so many creative people and collaborating with them is one of my favorite things about my job. Our students are brilliant and learn quickly, and they always rise up to the task at hand,” said Davis.
As he spoke, I took in the various elements of his eclectic office, several playbills along with a keyboard hung on the wall opposite his desk, the ink from my pen bled notes onto the page my forearm rested on - this man has a fascinating story - and my eyes settled on the framed “Periodic Table of Broadway Musicals” resting on the continued desk space behind him. Passionate, brilliant, Broadway star, understanding, and self-proclaimed chronic optimist.
“I am a chronic optimist, but I also understand things don't always go as planned and not everything is perfect. However, there is always good to be found. I try to focus on the good and carry that with me, but we still have to learn from and remember all that other stuff,” said Davis.
A quote he gave me that was my takeaway from speaking with him: "Every day may not be good... But there's something good in every day." -Alice Morse Early.
