Baring It All with Call Me Adam Podcast Interview
Season 5:
Episode 11:
Norm Lewis
Ceremonies in Dark Old Men
Actor, Singer, Entrepreneur
The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, Sweeney Todd: The Demon of Fleet Street
This season on my podcast, Baring It All with Call Me Adam, I am spotlighting My Entertainment Idols.
Today I am speaking with Tony, Emmy & SAG Nominated Actor Norm Lewis whom I last interviewed in 2019 when he was getting ready to perform at 54 Below.
Now, Norm is once again lighting up the New York Stage, in the Off-Broadway production of Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, which has not had a NYC production in almost 40 years.
In this interview, Norm is Baring It All with Call Me Adam about:
- Why now is the right time to revive Ceremonies in Dark Old Men
- The similarities between the play’s time period (1950’s) and today
- How Norm got his name
- Some jobs Norm had prior to making it as an actor
- Working with the legendary Vanessa Williams
- So much more
Originally scheduled to play through May 18, 2025, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men has been EXTENDED, due to popular demand, through June 29, 2025 at The Theatre at St. Clements in NYC. Click here for tickets!
In Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, it’s New York in the 1950s. Russell Parker, a ne'er-do-well barber and the widowed father of three adult children, spends his days playing checkers and reminiscing about his life in vaudeville as a song and dance man.
His two sons, Theo and Bobby, are dreamers of a different sort – a pair of petty criminals looking for a “score" in the form of ill-conceived and dangerous bootlegging and numbers schemes. Russell's daughter, Adele, the only gainfully employed member of the family, refusing to work herself into an early grave like her mother.
When Adele's long-simmering resentments boil over and the boys' criminal enterprise falls apart, tragic consequences ensue for the whole family.
A Personal Behind-The-Curtain Note...
I have loved Norm ever since I saw him in his Broadway debut in the 1994 Original Broadway production of The Who’s Tommy.
Since then, I have had the pleasure of seeing Norm in Les Misérables (2006 Broadway revival), Sondheim on Sondheim (Broadway 2010), The Gerhswins’ Porgy and Bess (2012 Broadway), The Phantom of the Opera (Broadway 2014) Once on this Island (Broadway March 2018), Sweeney Todd: The Demon of Fleet Street (Off-Broadway June 2018), and Chicken & Biscuits (Broadway 2021).
I have also loved Norm in his many television & film appearances including his recurring role, acting besides Vanessa Williams, on VH-1’s Daytime Divas, his guest starring roles on The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and TV Land’s Younger as well as seeing him in the 2nd Sex and the City film.
Click here to watch this interview in video format!
Special Thanks:
- Brett Oberman at Keith Sherman & Associates
- Theme Song by Bobby Cronin
- Podcast Logo by Liam O'Donnell
- Edited by Adam Rothenberg
- Underscore music by Cutique
More on Norm Lewis:
Emmy, Tony, and SAG Award nominee, Norm Lewis was recently seen onstage starring in the national tour of the Tony Award-winning production of A Soldier's Play and in Andrew Lloyd Webber's West End Concert of Love Never Dies.
He starred in Spike Lee's critically acclaimed, Da 5 Bloods, and in the groundbreaking FX series, Pose. Additionally, Norm can be seen starring opposite Hilary Swank in the feature The Good Mother, Amazon Prime's newest series, Swarm, and Hulu's, Up Here. He was also seen as 'Caiaphas' in the award-winning NBC television special, Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert!, alongside John Legend, Sara Bareilles, and Alice Cooper.
Norm returned to Broadway in the Fall of 2021, starring in Chicken and Biscuits at the Circle In The Square Theatre. He previously appeared in the Broadway revival of Once on This Island and as Sweeney Todd in the Off-Broadway production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at the Barrow Street Theatre, receiving the AUDELCO Award for his performance.
In May of 2014, he made history as The Phantom of the Opera’s first African American Phantom on Broadway.
He has been seen on PBS in the Live From Lincoln Center productions of Showboat with Vanessa Williams, Norm Lewis: Who Am I?, New Year’s Eve: A Gershwin Celebration with Diane Reeves, as well as American Voices with Renée Fleming and the PBS Specials First You Dream – The Music of Kander & Ebb and Ella Wishes You A Swingin' Christmas.
He had a recurring role in the VH1 series, Daytime Divas, also alongside Vanessa Williams. His additional television credits include TV Land's Younger, Women of The Movement, Law & Order, Dr. Death, Mrs. America, Better Things, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Bull, Chicago Med, Gotham, The Blacklist, and Blue Bloods, as well as in his recurring role as Senator Edison Davis on the hit drama Scandal.
Norm is a proud, founding member of Black Theatre United, an organization which stands together to help protect Black people, Black talent and Black lives of all shapes and orientations in theatre and communities across the country.
He received Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle award nominations for his performance as Porgy in the Broadway production of The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess. Other Broadway credits include Sondheim on Sondheim, The Little Mermaid, Les Misérables, Chicago, Amour, The Wild Party, Side Show, Miss Saigon, and The Who’s Tommy.
In London’s West End he has appeared as Javert in Les Misérables and Les Misérables: The 25th Anniversary Concert, which aired on PBS.
Off-Broadway Norm 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 has released two albums The Norm Lewis Christmas Album & This is The Life.
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