Shaun Escoffery
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Voices don’t come much more resonant or robust than the booming sounds produced by Shaun Escoffery, the large-framed 35 year old who had a breakout performance last year in
Parade at the Donmar, playing several roles including, preeminently, the bluesy Conley. Escoffery got an Olivier nod for that performance, losing to his friend and former
Les Miserables co-star, Tracie Bennett (
Hairspray), in a supporting category that—unlike Broadway’s Tonys—lumps men and women together. Now, he’s stepped into the long-running
The Lion King, playing Mufasa, as Julie Taymor’s West End stage version of the Disney animated film heads toward its ninth birthday at the Lyceum Theatre in October. Mufasa is, of course, elder brother to the villainous Scar and father of the newborn cub, Simba—James Earl Jones voiced the role in the film and Samuel E. Wright got a featured actor Tony nomination when the show premiered on Broadway. Escoffery took time one recent afternoon to talk about making the leap from the not-for-profit Donmar to the sizable commercial waters of Disney and about a career that has found this son of a builder who grew up in Manor Park, east London, cutting three albums before cutting a musical theater swathe that looks to be unstoppable.
How great that you’re now playing Mufasa: it must be nice to get to wear a crown, at least of sorts.
It is amazing, and so far it’s been a fantastic experience. We’ve had about five weeks of actual performances and came in with John [Stefaniuk, resident director], and from the outset he wanted to start introducing the Balinese aspect of the show—to readdress how we move, so that it is very catlike. And all that is on top of the singing and dancing.
And the mask work, presumably.
Yes, it’s about that becoming part of your being, as it were; at first, it was completely alien but after about three or four weeks, it becomes part of you. Without it, you feel naked [
laughs].
Shaun Escoffery in rehearsal
for The Lion King
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Is that stuff heavy?
Heavy is not really the word. It’s just awkward, quite awkward: you’ve got this big sun mask thing on top of your head so your center has to be slightly different. Without the mask, your center is in your stomach; with it, it ends up being near your chest, It’s something you have to get used to.
Had you ever crossed paths with The Lion King before?
I did audition for it years ago, but that didn’t come off because I had a record deal. That was about eight years ago, so I thought, if it runs, I’ll audition for it again and then the opportunity came after Parade. This time, I jumped for it, and here I am for 13 months.
Mufasa offers proof that an important role doesn’t have to be a huge one.
My whole time is 20 minutes on stage, but it’s a great 20 minutes; I am so enjoying playing this, it’s unbelievable. Mufasa has so many different aspects that from the outside looking in you wouldn’t necessarily think about. He’s a king, so he has to walk around proud and regal and you might think that’s it, but I’ve found he’s an immensely deep character with loads of gravity. Obviously, he’s also a father to Simba, who he completely dotes on, but he’s also a loving husband and someone who physically is extremely powerful, so the way he walks has to be quite heavy but at the same time quite agile To mix all these facets is quite a balancing act. Striking that balance was quite a difficult thing at first.
Shaun Escoffery in The Lion King
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It must help your performance that you actually do have children.
Yes, I’ve got a son who’s 12 and a daughter age 10. They’re completely gobsmacked that I’m in this, though they haven’t been to see it yet. But the good thing I suppose is that I can relate to Mufasa especially when I’m acting out the part where Simba almost gets killed: that mixture of fear and panic that you feel toward a child all mixed into one.
What do you do, then, during the rest of the show?
I go upstairs, I read, and I’m still writing songs, of course. And there’s a gym room upstairs where some of the guys brought in some weights.
So even though you don’t appear in the second act, this job was a no-brainer?
A no-brainer, totally. I always wanted to play Mufasa. I was thrilled.
This must feel quite different from some of your previous jobs, especially
Parade.
Just the fact that it’s Disney and, yeah, all the different mask work. I mean, it has to have been one of the most wonderful experiences of my life working at the Donmar and doing
Parade: playing three different characters, especially Conley, which allowed me to just express myself in a very raw and natural way. It was quite liberating, really. It’ s only when I look back now that think, “Bloody hell, look at what I achieved and what the play achieved.”
Yes, all those Olivier nominations [seven in all], including one for you.
I tell you what, just working with Rob Ashford—I can’t sing his praises enough. That guy pushed a few buttons and just got whatever he needed to get out of you. And Jason [composer Jason Robert Brown] was like, ‘OK, this is my baby, this is how I want it done.’ Everyone had a clear vision of how they wanted it and they were not going to take second best. It was wicked. The whole thing was such a journey for everybody. When we realized what we had achieved and how far it had gone, it was very emotional.
The upsurge in visibility for you all must be particularly gratifying, given that you were a singer first, then an actor.
I just loved singing, really loved it, and was more involved in music before I ever got into the theater. I was signed to two major labels, Sony and EMI, and cut three albums—solo stuff with a soulful feel. I didn’t consider theater at all until I saw an open audition [in London] for Mama I Want To Sing, with Chaka Khan. I got called back, sang again and got the part, and it kind of just really progressed from there. I was the hawker in [The Who’s] Tommy—you know, the guy who sings, “You talk about your woman, I wish you could see mine to Smokey Joe’s Café and Les Mis [as Enjolras, opposite John Owen Jones’s Valjean].
That’s where you worked alongside fellow Olivier nominee, Tracie Bennett, who gave you such an eloquent shout-out when she got the award earlier this year.
That was amazing! She gets up there and then says, “If I could share this with you, I really would.” I was in tears. Honestly, I felt like I won something that night.