A musical about the life and times of Nelson Mandela sounds a risky proposition; in the past, musicals about politicians have met with mixed success. Stephen Sondheim’s hit Assassins dramatised the life of the men and women who attempted to kill US presidents, but his Anyone Can Whistle, a satire about a corrupt mayor, was an early flop. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice made a world-beating hit of Evita, about the life of Eva Perón, but 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, a show about racism and the White House by the distinguished team of Leonard Bernstein and Alan Jay Lerner, lasted seven performances on Broadway.
Undaunted, South African songwriting brothers Shaun and Greg Dean Borowsky have been developing Mandela the musical for seven years. The result, with a book by Laiona Michelle (who wrote Little Girl Blue about Nina Simone) and additional music by Bongi Duma, opens at London’s Young Vic this month, starring Michael Luwoye, who played Hamilton – another hit show about politics – on Broadway.
