By Sara Pajor
You may not be familiar with Norm Lewis, but once you see his list of credits, you’ll certainly want to be! Norm Lewis was born June 2, 1963 in Tallahassee, Fla., and growing up he never had much (if any) involvement in theater. But being the grandson of a preacher and the son of the chairman of the deacon board, he essentially “lived at church” and began singing in the church choir from a young age. When he reached his high school years, he decided to expand his singing repertoire by joining the choir, and it was then that he truly developed a love of singing.
However, Lewis’s plans were to go to college and enter the business world. He worked for a number of years as an advertiser for a newspaper, but he continued singing as a hobby. And it may have remained a hobby had he not entered a particular singing competition where he caught the eye and ear of one of the judges. It so happened that this particular judge worked with a cruise line and was so impressed with Lewis’s voice that he offered him a job singing on the cruise line. Lewis decided to take a leap of faith and took the job. While working on the cruise line, he met several performers that lived and worked in New York. These people assured him that he had the chops to make it in the business, and they encouraged him to go to New York and pursue acting and singing as a career. Once again, Lewis decided to take a leap of faith. He went to New York, began working as an actor, and never looked back.
Lewis’s charismatic personality and rich baritone voice provided him with opportunities to play some incredible musical theater roles. He made his Broadway debut in 1993 with a role in The Who’s Tommy. Over the next several years, he was seen in Miss Saigon, The Wild Party, Side Show, and several benefit concerts, including those for Dreamgirls, Chess, and Hair. In 2004, he played Billy Flynn in the Broadway revival of the musical Chicago. In 2006, he made history by being the first Black actor to play Javert in a professional English production of Les Miserables, a role he reprised many times, including in the 25th anniversary concert of the show. In the 2007 Broadway production of The Little Mermaid, Lewis originated the role of King Triton, and can be heard singing the part on the original Broadway cast recording.
As Lewis’s career began to really pick up steam, the amazing roles kept coming. He played the title role in Sweeney Todd in a 2009 Fort Worth production, following that up the next year with a feature in the musical revue Sondheim on Sondheim, where he sang alongside the likes of Barbara Cook and Vanessa Williams. In 2011, Lewis starred in a revised version of Porgy and Bess, playing the role of Porgy with Audra McDonald in the role of Bess, first in Cambridge, MA, and then moving to Broadway. For his performance, he was nominated for Tony and Drama Desk awards for Best Actor in a Musical.
In 2014, Norm Lewis once again made history by becoming the first Black actor to play the title role in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. He played the role for nearly a year, working opposite Sierra Boggess as Christine. Over the next few years he continued to build upon his already impressive resume, performing in productions of Show Boat (Joe), Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd), and The Music Man (Harold Hill).
Somehow during this time, Lewis also managed to start building a television and film career. From 2012 to 2015, he appeared on the television show Scandal in the role of Senator Edison Davis. He has also been seen in episodes of Gotham, Blue Bloods, Chicago Med, Mrs. America, and Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It. This last role turned out to be particularly fortuitous as it led to Lewis being handpicked by Spike Lee to play the role of Eddie in his film Da 5 Bloods (2020), a movie that deals with the traumas and struggles of Black VietNam war veterans.
As if all of this weren’t enough to keep him busy, Lewis has also worked with other Black theater workers, including Billy Porter, Audra McDonald, and Phylicia Rashad, to create the organization Black Theatre United (BTU). The group was created in 2020 and is meant to serve as a voice for Black theater workers to promote representation and equity in all areas of the theater business, not just for performers. BTU has worked with Sherrilyn Ifill, President of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, as well as Leader Stacey Abrams and Dr. Jeanine Abrams McLean, the VP of the nonprofit organization Fair Count.
Unfortunately, with Broadway being closed down due to COVID-19, it may be some time before any of us has the opportunity to see Norm Lewis performing live. Luckily, in the meantime we have YouTube! Check out some of Norm Lewis’s impressive performances in the links below and enjoy that incredible voice. What roles would you like to see Norm Lewis play when we can safely gather again?
#blackperformers #blackhistorymonth