Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson made her Broadway debut this weekend. She also made history as the first member of the nation’s highest court to grace its storied stage, according to the production that invited her.

Jackson appeared in a one-night-only walk-on role on Saturday night in the Tony-nominated romantic comedy musical & Juliet, a modern take on Shakespeare’s tragedy that imagines what would have happened if the female protagonist survived and took control of her own life.

The show announced Jackson’s performance several days in advance, writing on Instagram that the justice would also participate in a talkback with the audience afterward. Jackson also spoke about it on Saturday’s episode of NPR’s Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me, recorded in New York City hours before she took the stage.

“They have invited me to do a special walk-on role that I’m told they wrote for me,” she said. “So I’m very excited.”

Later, & Juliet posted behind-the-scenes footage on social media showing Jackson rehearsing songs and choreography, getting her hair and makeup done and trying on her monochromatic teal costume featuring baggy jeans, a tunic and a corset.

It also captures the moment when a cast member brings Jackson onstage, at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, introducing her by name as the night’s “very special guest.” Jackson ran onto the stage — and later took her final bows — to roars of applause.

“I did it!” Jackson exclaims at the end of the video. “I made it to Broadway.”

Jackson has long been open about her “unabashed love of theater,” as she called it in her 2024 memoir Lovely One. She illustrated it further by singing a few lines from The Wiz and Schoolhouse Rock during an interview on her book tour this fall.

In the memoir, Jackson describes writing in her application to Harvard University — where she earned her undergraduate and law degrees — that “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.’ “

Jackson went on to pursue theater during her time at Harvard, including performing in a production of Little Shop of Horrors (alongside frequent Wait Wait panelist Mo Rocca). She also took a drama class in which she was once a scene partner with future Academy Award-winner Matt Damon, as she recalled in the Wait Wait interview.

“We did the scene, and it was some play that didn’t have a whole lot of action like Waiting For Godot or something, where you’re just sitting on the stage,” she said. “But at the end, the professor said, ‘Oh, Ketanji, you were so good. Matt, we’ll talk.’ “

Jackson became the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court after she was nominated by President Biden and confirmed by the Senate in 2022.

It took just two more years to make the rest of her fantasy a reality.

“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.”

Jackson isn’t the only Supreme Court justice with a passion for the performing arts.

The late justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, ideological opposites, famously bonded over their love for opera — a friendship that inspired a comic opera in 2015. One year later, at age 83, Ginsburg made her onstage debut (with a speaking role) in a one-night-only cameo as the Duchess of Krakenthorp in a Washington National Opera performance of The Daughter of the Regiment.

About a year ago, longtime friends Laura Baginski and Susie Lee reconnected at their 30-year high school reunion. As the two women caught up with each other about their careers, motherhood and everything in between. They vented about how they missed going out and had been struggling to find a spot that played music they liked and didn’t start late at night.

That lengthy conversation is what inspired the duo to start Earlybirds Club, a joyous dance party for “middle aged-ish” women, nonbinary and trans people who want to go out, and also be in bed by 11 p.m. because they “have sh—t to do in the morning,” as their tagline states. The (mostly) bimonthly event launched in Chicago in February and expanded to New York. Next month, it’s coming to L.A.

As the name suggests, the nighttime function starts and ends early — beginning at 6 p.m. and finishing up at 10 p.m.

“I just can’t stay up late anymore,” said Baginski, 49, a former nonprofit marketing director and mother of two young children. “There’s nothing out there that speaks to that kind of need for women our age. You can go out to dinner, you can take a yoga class, but if you want to go out dancing, the clubs don’t open until like 10 p.m. So that is out of the question for us.”

She adds, “You don’t get to dance much anymore with groups except at weddings or bar mitzvahs, and that shouldn’t be the only place where you can dance at this age.”

For Lee, who is experiencing stage 4 breast cancer, Earlybirds Club has given her something to focus on outside of her own struggles. “The diagnosis, chemo and the surgeries stopped my life entirely,” says Lee, 49, who’s been a makeup artist for more than 20 years. She’s battled cancer five times.

“I was totally depressed,” Lee says. “Then we started Earlybirds Club on a whim and I switched my focus to creating joy and fun for others.”

Baginski and Lee threw their first party in February at a dive bar in Chicago called the Burlington on the night of a blinding snowstorm. Despite the weather, more than 100 people showed up — many of whom they didn’t know — ready to dance and sing with their girlfriends in a sweaty room. Lee’s cousin who goes by DJ hbom (Helean Lee) handled the soundtrack for the night, playing ‘80s new wave (Baginski and Lee’s favorite genre), nostalgic pop records and female empowerment songs. Some party favorites include “Poison” by Bell Biv Devoe, “Like a Prayer” by Madonna, “Turn Down for What” by DJ Snake and Lil Jon, “Fantasy” by Mariah Carey and anything by Britney Spears.

Word about the party spread quickly, so they upgraded to a venue with a larger capacity for their next party. They still had a wait-list of more than 600 people, so they threw another event shortly after to accommodate the demand.

After receiving several requests from their followers on social media, Baginski and Lee decided to begin taking the party on the road. They hosted two events in New York in November, which both sold out.

Although the event was created explicitly for middle-aged women, trans and nonbinary folks, people ages 21 and up are welcome to attend — just as long as they don’t identify as a man.

An attendee turns up and dances to the music at an Earlybirds Club party in May.

(Julie Dietz)

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“There’s enough spaces for men,” Lee says. “Women need safe spaces where no one is being creepy, hitting on them or making them feel uncomfortable. At several parties, some attendees have even brought their daughters with them. They’ve hosted 11 parties in Chicago this year.

When Baginski and Lee reflect on the seemingly quick success of Earlybirds Club, they say people are connecting to it because it allows them to take a break from their responsibilities — running the household, raising kids, caring for elderly parents and more — and let it all out on the dance floor.

“This is an age group that’s not catered to,” says Lee. “We are invisible in the media and in marketing, which is stupid because we are the ones who [often] control the money in our households.”

She adds, “[During the] pandemic, mothers had to take care of basically everything and there was so much stress. So coming out of it, this is something geared strictly toward middle-aged women. For the first time, people feel seen and heard. It’s like, ‘Oh, wow. Here is my community of women who get me.’”

On the Saturday following the presidential election, Baginski and Lee were worried that no one would show up to their party. But when hundreds of people came, it made them realize how much it was needed.

“In this current climate, a space like this feels even more essential and almost political, which we never meant for it to be,” Baginski says. “Now it feels that way as an act of resistance.”

Earlybirds Club will host its first L.A. parties on Jan. 10 at the Sardine in San Pedro and on Jan. 11 at the Virgil near Silver Lake. Admission is $40. Ten percent of all proceeds will go to two L.A.-based nonprofits, Rainbow Services and the Los Angeles LGBT Center (specifically its Trans Wellness Center).

“This is not a scene,” says Baginski, adding that the event is “come as you are.” Attendees wear everything from full sequined looks to pajama sets with Ugg slippers. The only thing that the duo doesn’t recommend people to wear are heels “because you are going to be in pain,” Baginski jokes.

“It is pure joy, fun and great energy,” she adds. “It’s just women supporting women, creating a safe space to be absolutely ridiculous and dancing like maybe you haven’t danced in a very long time.”