Originating a role in a brand-new Broadway musical like Paradise Square “was a huge dream of mine,” says Joaquina Kalukango, who was Tony-nominated for her performance in Slave Play in 2020. By all accounts, Kalukango blows the roof off the Barrymore Theatre as Nelly O’Brien, the owner of a saloon in Manhattan during the Civil War. “I feel a strong connection with Nelly’s bullshit meter,” Kalukango adds. “She can spot a liar a mile away, and so can I.”