Ketanji Brown Jackson Becomes First Supreme Court Justice to Perform on Broadway

Supreme Court Justice (and theater fanatic) Ketanji Brown Jackson made her Broadway debut over the weekend. As she joined & Juliet on Saturday, Jackson made history by becoming the first member of the Supreme Court to perform on Broadway.

The Justice appeared in a one-night-only role during Saturday night’s showing of the musical, which takes on a “what if” scenario on Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet — what if Juliet didn’t kill herself, while using hit songs produced by Max Martin. On Monday, the Broadway production shared behind-the-scenes video of Jackson preparing for the role with the cast, and also clips of her performance.

“This has been a dream of mine,” she says in a TikTok clip. “I think that it means that anything is possible.”

Jackson has been a longtime fan of theater, and wrote about it in her memoir, Lovely One, earlier this year. “I wished to attend Harvard as I believed it might help me ‘to fulfill my fantasy of becoming the first Black, female Supreme Court Justice to appear on a Broadway stage,’” she wrote in the book, per NPR.

Jackson has made history in more ways than one: In 2022, Jackson also became the first Black woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court after being nominated by President Joe Biden.

“I got a call, and someone said, ‘We heard that this was your lifelong dream,’” Jackson told NPR. “And it is — to be a Broadway performer and a Justice.”

Back in September, she sat down for an interview with Gayle King, in which she revealed that she was once a scene partner with Matt Damon while in school.