Michael Luwoye would like to tell you a cautionary tale about checking your DMs. The 31-year-old actor once received a message on Instagram from a man named Greg. Greg thought Luwoye might be interested in a new project that he was choreographing. Apparently the two of them had met before. But Luwoye, who is hardly on social media, couldn’t place Greg’s surname and, besides, isn’t Instagram an unusual way to reach out about a professional opportunity? Luwoye left him on read.
Greg turned out to be esteemed choreographer Gregory Maqoma, and the project was Mandela, a musical charting the life of the beloved South African leader, which premiered in November at the Young Vic theatre in London, and will be broadcast online from today until 23 January. Luwoye is able to laugh about the DM now — and is doing just that on a Zoom call from New York — because, following a conversation with the director Schele Williams and a cast workshop in London, and at the time of ours, he was about to take on the lead role.
The musical has a decades-long sweep, from the 1960 Sharpeville massacre when the South African Police opened fire on protestors and killed 69 people — which became a tipping point in Mandela’s policy on nonviolent protest — to the activist’s release from prison at the age of 71 in 1990. As well as covering 30 years of turbulent politics, it promises to explore Mandela’s personal life (he fathered six children by three wives), including the impact of his imprisonment on his loved ones. That’s ambitious for a two-hour musical, admits Luwoye.
“But, at the same time, I think it’s a healthy amount of information and something that is easily digested.” A spoonful of music, which has a “rich South African flavour”, should help the history lesson go down, he says.
When we speak in September, Luwoye is a month away from arriving in London to rehearse. He’s nervous about the workload, but this is not his first playing-a-historical-figure-in-a-musical rodeo: in 2016, he landed the job as the alternate for the title role in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway juggernaut Hamilton. In doing so, he became the first Black actor to fill the revolutionary Founding Father’s boots. That would have been a career pinnacle for any all-singing, all-dancing 25-year-old, not least given he only started to take the business seriously after leaving school, studying theatre and dance at the University of Alabama.
Luwoye was raised by Nigerian immigrants in Alabama’s biggest city, Huntsville; his mother was an engineer and his father, delightfully, ran an ice-cream distribution company. Despite acting in a few school plays, he never thought of the stage as a viable career path. “I don’t usually see my temperament in theatre,” he says, confessing an aversion to jazz hands and bright lights. Still, this introvert thrived on Broadway and then some: in what will surely go down in Hamilton history, he once played the lead role in a matinee before taking on the role of Aaron Burr, the main antagonist, for the evening performance. Luwoye can’t remember the finer details of that day; he simply recalls the stage manager asking whether he had a “Burr in him” during the matinee intermission. It seems he did.
Joining the cast of the world’s most hyped musical, just days after it won 11 Tony awards, presented a problem. Here was a musical that piqued the interest of even casual theatregoers. But for its devotees, Hamilton was a way of life. They knew the lyrics, they took photos inside the theatre to prove they had reached the promised land. The challenge, as Luwoye saw it, was about “dissolving” those expectations and making it over anew. “You can feel the audience’s set knowledge and convictions about the show melt away to a place where they’re now with you, in the present moment.”
This sense of reinterpretation, of sparking new meaning through the medium of theatre (“a sacred space”), is all too relevant for Mandela. Its subject is sometimes more symbol than human: violent rebel, tireless freedom fighter, Zen elder statesman. It’s a mythos that many actors have contributed to, among them Morgan Freeman, Idris Elba and Danny Glover. Now it’s Luwoye’s turn, he’s ignoring those portrayals, more interested in capturing Mandela’s spirit. “I am not naïve, thinking I am going to do some exact representation of this man,” Luwoye says. “That can lead to a dangerous type of delusion.”
His approach has instead been bookish, a bit nerdy. He’s read Mandela’s letters and books, buffed up extensively on contextual history. Of course, while audiences may be able to trace the contours of South African politics, it’s unlikely that they’ll be as up to date on, say, the intricacies of Portuguese rule at the Cape of Good Hope. But it was important for the character’s motivations, and so it was important for Luwoye.
But still the question remains: a musical? Surely there isn’t going to be a lot of room for frothy dance numbers, let alone jokes. “There’s light and funny moments with the dialogue,”Luwoye says, “but I also think that if you’re entering the story about South Africa and apartheid, it’s understood that you’re entering into a difficult context.”
![london, england december 08 l to r nandi mandela, gregory maqoma, greg borowsky, michael luwoye, danielle fiamanya, schele williams, laiona michelle, shaun borowsky, bongi duma and luvuyo madasa attend the press night after party for mandela at the young vic on december 8, 2022 in london, england photo by david m benettdave benettgetty images](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/gettyimages-1245467338-1-1674137299.jpg?resize=980:* ""Mandela" - Press Night - After Party")
The music and lyrics, from the South African songwriters Greg Dean Borowsky and Shaun Borowsky, will emphasise contemplation over catchy hooks, he says. He predicts people will leave thinking about the story of Mandela and South Africa rather than proclaiming, “This song slaps.” And the big question: will Mandela dance? That would be a no, though Luwoye says there will be plenty of movement around him. “I don’t think you’ll be seeing him doing any flips.”
Last summer, Luwoye managed to speak with Nandi Mandela at the London workshops about honouring her grandfather’s legacy. The musical has been produced in cooperation with Mandela’s family and, while such a blessing can sometimes bring its own limitations, Luwoye remains steadfast about an honest portrayal. “A part of the human make-up is imperfection, so my imperfections will show through the characterisation,” he says.
It’s a neat get-out clause, and hopefully one that will add nuance to his Mandela. Luwoye smiles into the camera beatifically. “Everyone is a gradient.”
‘Mandela’ runs until 4 February at the Young Vic, London SE1; youngvic.org. Details of the online broadcast, which runs from 19-23 January, can be found here
Henry Wong is a senior culture writer at Esquire, working across digital and print. He covers film, television, books, and art for the magazine, and also writes profiles.
