Norm Lewis, who will be performing at the Perot Theatre on November 9th, is an acclaimed entertainer who has received Emmy, Grammy, Tony, and SAG Award nominations for his outstanding work across stage, screen, and music. He is widely recognized for his recurring role in the hit TV series Scandal and his appearance in Spike Lee’s film Da 5 Bloods. Recently, he starred in the national tour of the Tony Award-winning A Soldier’s Play and performed in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s West End Concert of Love Never Dies. In the Fall of 2021, Lewis made a triumphant return to Broadway, starring in Chicken and Biscuits at the Circle In The Square Theatre. His portrayal of Porgy in the Broadway production of The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess also earned him several award nominations.
Mr. Lewis is a founding member of Black Theatre United, an organization that stands together to help protect Black people, Black talent, and Black lives of all shapes and orientations in theatre and communities across the country.
Off-Broadway Mr. Lewis has performed in Dessa Rose (Drama Desk nomination, AUDELCO Award), Shakespeare in the Park’s The Tempest, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Drama League nomination), Captains Courageous, and A New Brain. His regional credits include Porgy in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (A.R.T.), Ragtime, Dreamgirls (with Jennifer Holliday), First You Dream, Sweeney Todd, and The Fantasticks. His additional film credits include Christmas In Tune (starring opposite Reba McEntire), Magnum Opus, Winter’s Tale, Sex and the City 2, Confidences, and Preaching to the Choir. Norm’s albums “The Norm Lewis Christmas Album” & “This is The Life” can be found on Amazon.com as well as cdbaby.com.
Norm Lewis allowed TXKtoday the opportunity to interview him about his career and upcoming event at the Perot Theatre on November 9th.
Stars from Les Misérables is one of your most viewed performances on YouTube. What are you thinking about while you are singing it?
Remembering my words. No, it’s more about the character Javert. It’s his soliloquy, and it’s him basically just saying that things have to be in order. He was born in this jail, and he has never wanted to be associated with unrighteousness, so everything is black and white for Javert. You, sin is sin. Whether you steal a loaf of bread or whether you kill somebody, it is sin, and there should be punishment for that. The only things that he sees in his life right now that are in order are the stars. So that’s why Javert gives homage to them and God in that same sort of frame. But yeah, I’m just kind of thinking of this guy not wavering in his belief and his understanding of what life is.
How do you keep your vocals in shape for performances?
You just try to get enough rest; that’s number one. You try to drink as much of the correct fluids as possible. I do exercise, either walk or I go to the gym and try to keep that stamina as far as lung capacity and power. I still do my vocal exercises. I still consult with my vocal coach, too, because you always need someone to kind of guide you either physically or audibly to help you with the instrument that you have.
First thing in the morning when I wake up, and especially if I have to perform, I always just check and see “hee” like there’s this “hee” that you do just see if it’s okay even before you get up and go to the bathroom, it’s like, “Is it there today?” hopefully so. If I’m doing eight shows a week, I try to be as conscious in the morning as possible by not speaking too much and drinking a lot of water. It’s an all-day process.
Have you worked with Orchestrator Joseph Jober before?
Yes. So Joseph and I met years ago, working with what used to be called the Broadway Gospel Choir, and then it morphed into Broadway Inspirational Voices. Knowing that I wanted to do this world of cabaret/concerts and things like that, I knew that he was a great orchestrator. I knew he was a fantastic player, obviously. He has earned major credentials, degrees, and awards.
He’s like a brother, and he definitely will let me know if things are not working, or he’ll give me the right key. So it’s a great collaboration.
What does it mean to you to be a founding member of the Black Theater, of Black Theater United?
Well, I’m really proud of this organization. You know the story. It morphed out of just 2020, the pandemic, and also the different murders that were happening, and especially because of George Floyd. So people felt emboldened to share their opinions about life and race and relationships and things like that, especially in our world of community of theater.
When it became a little contentious, we, as the older group now of LaShant’s, Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and 19 others, got together and decided to put this organization together and use our resources and use our connections to see what we could do to have a conversation about all of this. And, you know, that was four years ago. What has been interesting is that we have so many people who have come aboard, from producers, theater owners, and union leaders who are actually saying, ‘yes,’ we need to focus on this situation.
During the pandemic, we actually put together a summit that created those conversations that made up this thing called the New Deal. It’s not the constitution of the United States, but it is something that is keeping each person and each organization accountable for diversity and equity and inclusion, and it’s been great. We just had our second annual gala, raised a lot of money, like $1.2 million, and it’s going towards educational programs.
We also want to encourage people who don’t know that you don’t necessarily have to sing, dance, and act to be a part of this industry; if you have Public relations skills, managerial skills, administrative skills, or anything like that, you can help organizations. If you have something that you want to do backstage, if you want to be a crew member, things like that. A lot of people of color don’t know that there’s this opportunity out there. So we want it to be that voice.
What’s the best way for people to connect with your organization?
Just go to blacktheatreunited.com look at what we offer, you can join, you can become a member, an ally, you can donate, so there’s all kinds of things. We can send out a newsletter to you to let you know what’s going on for each quarter of the year. Since this success of our gala, because we got written up in the New York Times, now we are planning next year’s gala already, and we think that it’s going to be just as good, if not better.
What’s in the future for Norm Lewis?
Wow, that’s a great question. I don’t know; maybe I need to move to Texarkana and start a life there. You know, it’s interesting – This industry has changed so much over the years, especially in the past couple of years. So, I’m looking forward to a new beginning. I think after the election after the new year starts, I think there’s gonna be a mass of opportunities. Right now, theatrically, I was not right for a lot of things, and not necessarily saying that I went in for those things, but there seems to be a lot of stories that I’m not part of, which is fine.
Broadway is thriving and doing really, really well, but I know that there are some other new stories getting ready to come out. TV and film have been a little challenging the past couple of years, but concerts have always been kind of steady for me, which has been a blessing. So I know more concerts are on the horizon and we’re hoping to see where the industry goes in other different niches and genres.
I feel also that the powers that be, whether that be the creatives or the people with the money, are just kind of waiting because the past couple of years have been really interesting with the election happening and all that stuff. So, there seems to be a light that’s getting ready to come at the end of this tunnel.
