Friday, August 22, 2014

Sergio A. Mims: PopWatch: Watch Norm Lewis as Broadway's first African-American 'Phantom'

 "Norm Lewis as Broadway's first African-American 'Phantom'"
Image Credit: Matthew Murphy

Norm Lewis

Sergio A. Mims:

I thought you would be interested in this:


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On May 12 of this year, Norm Lewis became the first-ever African-American actor to take on the lead role of The Phantom of the Opera on (ahem) the Great White Way. (Robert Guillaume became the first-ever actor to do it regionally in 1990.)

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In the clip below, Boggess’s Christine falls under the spell of Lewis’s masked man to the signature solo “The Music of the Night” and slowly, gently, “Night” unfurls its splendor. (That falsetto, who knew?) Lewis’s inimitable vocal prowess on this Andrew Lloyd Webber tune is one of several reasons that Phantom remains a $6 billion enterprise that has run for over 26 years.

The Phantom of the Opera is currently running at the Majestic Theatre in New York. For tickets and additional information, visit the show’s official website.

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