In a career spanning more than 30 years, Broadway legend Norm Lewis made history in 2014 as the first Black actor to play the Phantom on Broadway in the classic musical Phantom of the Opera. He’s conquered the stage in leading roles as Porgy in Porgy and Bess, Javert in Les Miserables and Sweeny Todd. Lewis is also well known in film and TV, recently playing Senator Edison Davis on ABC’s most talked-about show on Twitter, Scandal.
On Easter Sunday, he’ll take on a new challenge, starring on live TV in the NBC production of the hit rock opera, Broadway musical and film Jesus Christ Superstar.
The hybrid Broadway/TV live extravaganza, which stars John Legend as Jesus and Sarah Bareilleis as Mary Magdalene, also stars Lewis as Caiaphas, the Jewish high priest who masterminded the crucifixion of Jesus. It’s a role the Tony-nominated singer never thought he’d play.
“I remember back in second grade, it was a major controversy for me,” Lewis told press at a round-table interview about the year the original 1970 album Jesus Christ Superstar came out. Lewis grew up in a Southern Baptist church as the grandson of a preacher in famed novelist Zora Neale Hurston’s hometown of Eatonville, Florida. His father would take him to the barbershop at 6 a.m. some Sunday mornings, then back home to eat, then to church, then to Sunday school, then back home to eat before evening service. Mixing rock and roll and the story of Jesus seemed blasphemous to some Christians at that time. “For a long time [as a kid], I was scared to even listen to it, because of that aspect.”
Once he got over the fear of listening to it, he loved it. “I listened to how [composer] Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote this music and the emotion in the music,” and he was sold. His favorite song used to be “Heaven on Their Minds,” Judas’ song from the opening scene, but after being immersed in the music for this role, he says, “I can’t even pick now.”
For his one-night-only role as Caiaphas, he’s preparing by watching the 1973 film version and studying up on the life of the high priest.
“It’s interesting because I’m seeing [him] from a spiritual aspect, but also this is very political, you know, [high priests] had a lot of power in politics,” he says. “Caiaphas, I found out, is the longest-running head priest…he was in this position for the longest time. So I’m trying to connect [the spiritual and the political] right now for myself,” he says of finding understanding and empathy for his character.
“But, definitely from the spiritual aspect of being almost like, if you know the story of Les Mis and Javert [the police investigator obsessed with punishing Les Miserables‘ protaganist Jean Valjean], there is no gray area, it’s all black and white,” he says. “So I’m just trying to put that into this character.”
As for the singing, the baritone will be staying in the lower part of his register for the role. “This is lower than a lot of roles I’ve ever done,” he says, so on Easter, to prepare for the live performance, “I’m not warming up [my vocals] so I can stay in my lower register for awhile.” He’s also got a strong day-of plan for any jitters he may feel performing on live TV:
“Lots of prayer and meditation first. Just making sure I get enough rest the day before to focus. Because it is a one shot deal,” performing in front of tens of millions of people around the world, as opposed to the 1,200 that pack into a Broadway theater.
If he weren’t going to be performing on the NBC Live international stage this Easter, he’d be celebrating the Holy days with family, “or ‘framily,’ if I can’t get to my actual blood relatives,” he says. “But also, I kind of celebrate a seder [too] with the Jewish community. So, I celebrate both.”
Jesus Christ Superstar airs live on NBC on Easter Sunday, April 1, at 8pm/7pm central.
