Online Reporter
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
IN 2012, Saimon Mambazo Phiri found himself in a smoke-filled room in the United States, facing three cigar-puffing executives who held the keys to his biggest dream.
For the humble boy from Nguboyenja in Bulawayo, it had taken blood, sweat and tears to reach that moment.
Since founding Nostalgic Actors and Singers Alliance (NASA) in 1989, later renamed Siyaya, Mambazo had built a reputation as one of Zimbabwe’s leading theatre visionaries.
By then, his Zambezi Express had broken box office records at the Bulawayo Theatre and become the country’s most lucrative theatre export.
Now, he wanted to scale the final mountain — Broadway.
Broadway, with its 41 professional theatres in New York’s Theatre District and Lincoln Centre, remains the ultimate dream for stage performers worldwide.
In that room, with clouds of cigar smoke spiralling onto the ceiling, Mambazo realised that this meeting was perhaps one of the most important since the founding of NASA.
Alongside London’s West End, it represents the pinnacle of global theatre, the crucible that has launched some of Hollywood’s brightest stars.
But in that room in 2012, Mambazo learnt that the road to Broadway was not only paved with talent. In that room, choking with smoke, he found that the road to Broadway is indeed long.
“In 2012, I went to America to negotiate a contract for Zambezi Express for an off-Broadway gig,” he told Sunday Life in an interview.
“There’s Broadway, which is the main thing, then there’s Off-Broadway, which is the annex, and then there’s Off Off-Broadway. I went into a meeting with three producers, all of them very old, smoking cigars.
“They offered to take Zambezi Express in Las Vegas and LA, but I wanted an Off-Broadway venue. They told me that the earliest they could get me such a venue was 2027 and at the time, 2027 seemed so far away.”
As he exited that meeting, the usually upbeat Mambazo was perturbed.
Fifteen years is a long time to wait and who knew where he would be when what at the time seemed a distant year finally arrived. However, as he exited that smoke-filled room, he discovered that the dark cloud that he thought had mushroomed over him had a silver lining.
“They offered me something that was going to happen in 2015 and I turned it down. When it was all said and done, the secretary for one of the guys that I had a meeting with approached me and said, ‘I respect you because, of all the African producers who have ever walked through this door, you are the first one to turn him down.’ She said ‘age is on your side and the product is yours.’ She told me to go back home and be patient because we had created something beautiful and it would stand the test of time.”
Two years from 2027, the legend of Zambezi Express will return as part of Mambazo’s 50 Dates at the Theatre blockbuster concept.
While he adopted the concept as part of his 50th birthday celebrations, Mambazo acknowledged that he always had his eye on Broadway.
“This is why I am now doing this. I’m getting ready for 2027,” he said.
Mambazo said he had quickly learnt during his time in Europe that there was a food chain to be followed. To attain his ultimate dream, he would have to adhere to it.
“That actualisation made me realise that this industry is bigger than what we think. It is not about getting on a plane, putting on your traditional regalia and singing in a single file. There is more to it.
“It has a support system and one thing feeds into another. America does not buy from Africa; it buys from Europe and Europe buys from London. So, you have to follow that line. Zambezi Express was in London, so Europe consumed it. Zambezi Express was in London, so it got attention in America, but they said you can only get on this stage 15 years from now. After 15 years, we will think about you, they said,” he said.
Mambazo added that he had spent the last 13 years hawking Zambezi Express around Africa, where it had found willing takers. Without the burden of travelling with an ensemble, he said that he felt that his load had been lessened.
“So, in those 15 years, what was I supposed to do? I had to sell the concept. I took it to Kenya, and they loved it. I took it to Uganda and they loved it. I realised that I can now travel with my work without necessarily carrying the people who are doing the work. I am just like a sports coach. If a catch gets fired from one team, he can go to the next and he does not need to go with the players,” he noted.
He reckons the production had found itself at home in Africa, particularly Kenya, where it was embraced even more than in his native Zimbabwe.
The first time he sat in the audience in Kenya and watched as the story of Mzili and his football dream unfolded on stage, he cried.
“We created something that embroidered itself into the world theatre circuit. If I tell you now that this production was in Kenya, without anyone from here, you will not believe me. I went to watch this show and I shed a tear. I never imagined that my work could be exported and performed without me. I can be a member of the audience and watch
it all unfold without my involvement.
“This is the same thing that our local private schools are doing when they perform productions like Ipi Ntombi. They pay royalty rights to the owners of the work. That is what the likes of Falcon, Girls College, etcetera are doing.
“They go into the same pot that you find Zambezi Express and purchase these shows. Unfortunately, our schools choose South African productions, so when a school from Kenya came and purchased Zambezi Express, I said, ‘If Kenya can bless me, I am okay.’”
Bongani Ndlovu