What It’s Like to Return to Broadway in the Middle of a Pandemic
SlateTshidi Manye was backstage at The Lion King, trying against all odds to keep it together, when someone tried to give her a hug. As Rafiki, Manye sings the show’s opening lines; that iconic “Nants ingonyama bagithi baba” that, thanks to Disney’s reach and the musical’s unparalleled success, are now fairly endemic to popular culture. A few days before Sunday’s Tony Awards showed packed houses enjoying numbers from the nominated musicals Jagged Little Pill, Moulin Rouge, and Tina, a masked and vaccinated audience filled the Minskoff, the mood ebullient. This puts someone like Manye in an interesting position: she’s spent most of her adult life—eight shows a week, most weeks of most years—performing the same role in a pristinely preserved show, even as her own life moves forward. “‘My mom is in The Lion King!’” he’d soon brag to friends and teachers.
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Tears, joy and surprise guests as Broadway’s big musicals return
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