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Versatile actor-singer Norm Lewis, who headlines the solid of the Roundabout Theatre Company\u2019s nationwide touring manufacturing of A Soldier\u2019s Play<\/em>,<\/strong> appears to maneuver effortlessly amongst musicals (Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em> and The Phantom of the Opera<\/em> on Broadway, Sweeney Todd <\/em>Off-Broadway), straight dramas (The Tempest <\/em>for Public Works), and stage comedies (final season\u2019s Chicken and Biscuits<\/em>). With A Soldier\u2019s Play<\/em>, which closes its Washington run on the Kennedy Center this week and subsequent seems in Charlotte, N.C.\u2019s Knight Theatre (full schedule right here<\/a>), he takes on a meaty position in one of many nice Twentieth-century dramas.<\/p>\n In Charles Fuller<\/a>\u2019s play, set at a segregated U.S. Army army base in Louisiana throughout World War II, Lewis performs Richard Davenport, a resolute Black Army captain, despatched to research the homicide of a polarizing Black sergeant, who in his pursuit of the reality unravels an online of racism and colorism towards a background of custom and tradition, sacrifice and repair. The piece gained Fuller the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for drama after its manufacturing on the Negro Ensemble Company<\/a> and Off-Broadway. That was adopted by an acclaimed movie adaptation, A Soldier\u2019s Story<\/em>, and at last, a belated Broadway debut in 2020, with Blair Underwood within the Davenport position. The tour kicked off final Dec. 13.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is something I never even thought I would be a part of,\u201d Lewis, who’s 59, stated in an interview. \u201cI\u2019ve admired the work, loved it, thought it wonderful, but it was just never on my radar to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Since reserving the present final summer time he\u2019s immersed himself within the script, which options three main monologues from Davenport and covers fraught emotional terrain.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot I have to ingest,\u201d he stated. As with all roles, he stated, \u201cI try to figure out what the author is talking about and then I bring in things I\u2019ve experienced in my own life to the character. You have to bring yourself to make it your own.\u201d Lewis is very struck by the best way that Fuller was unafraid to discover \u201cthe dynamics within our race. He created such an amazing piece of history through art.\u201d<\/p>\n Though he could also be finest identified within the theatre for his work in musicals, Lewis brings dramatic craft to that work as effectively.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen students do a song in master classes I teach, I make them do it as a monologue first,\u201d Lewis stated. \u201cThat way they understand the words and subtext, instead of getting locked into the melody. And then they go, \u2018Oh, wow, I just found something new\u2014I didn\u2019t realize that\u2019s what that was.\u2019 Sometimes you get so caught up in the beauty of how it sounds instead of what it actually means.\u201d<\/p>\n For Soldier\u2019s Play <\/em>director Kenny Leon, Lewis\u2019s distinctive magnetism is what makes him a match for the position.<\/p>\n \u201cNorm has a kind of presence and charisma onstage unmatched in the American theatre,\u201d Leon raved. \u201cI\u2019m trying to dig into that and tie that to Captain Davenport\u2014someone who loves his country, loves his culture, and can take us through this play. That\u2019s Norm.\u201d<\/p>\n