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Longest-Running Rafiki Says Goodbye to ‘The Lion King’

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The first time Tshidi Manye auditioned for the musical “The Lion King,” in Johannesburg in the 1990s, she went with a friend and neither of them was cast. In response, they fasted for seven days, she said — “no food, just water. Praying like nobody’s business,” asking for a better outcome next time.

When the show returned to hold fresh auditions, her friend got a role and went off to London. Manye (whose name is pronounced TSEE-dee MAHN-yeh) got nothing. Disappointed, mad, discouraged — not least because her prayers hadn’t worked — she decided: never again.

So the third time she heard about “Lion King” auditions, Manye resolutely stayed away. But on the day of callbacks, a colleague banged on her door at 7 a.m. and summoned her there nonetheless. “He’s like, ‘I’m telling you, I’m not asking you,’” she said.

Tshidi Manye in red, yellow and blue baboon makeup and in a white robe in a backstage dressing room.

Manye went, triumphed and transformed her life — as evidenced by her recounting that story in her Broadway dressing room at the Minskoff Theater, where she plays Rafiki. It is a starring role: the shaman mandrill who sings “Circle of Life”; who holds the newborn cub Simba aloft; and who, after Simba’s long exile, welcomes him back to the fold.

Since 2000, when she started in the Toronto company, Manye has played an estimated 9,000-plus performances of “The Lion King,” most of them on Broadway. Among the 30 productions mounted in the show’s 28 years, she is the longest-running Rafiki, according to Disney Theatrical Productions.