Mandela Tickets

Discover how Nelson Mandela changed the world in Mandela at the Young Vic.

The Mandela musical will focus on the early moments in the South African activist's life: he worked on anti-colonial law, served as a member of the African National Congress's paramilitary wing uMkhonto we Sizwe, and spent 27 years behind bars across Robben Island, Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison. The world rallied around Nelson Mandela, and in Mandela, you can find out more about the man and his movement.

After seven years of development, Mandela now opens at the Young Vic. The musical is produced in partnership with Nandi Mandela, Luvuyo Madasa and the Mandela family. Mandela's great-grandson Luvuyo Madasa hopes the musical encourages audiences to see him “in a new light and recognise he was just a human being following his path”.

The Young Vic’s artistic director, Kwame Kwei-Armah, hopes Mandela will inspire future revolution. In an interview with The Guardian, Kwei-Armah said: “Revolution isn’t cheap, it is really expensive on the soul, and I think for a generation who have grown up with activism at their core this is a really interesting reminder of the costs, and what we need to do to create a better world.”

The Mandela London musical features original music by South African composers Greg Dean Borowsky and Shaun Borowsky. Broadway actor Michael Luwoye plays Nelson Mandela; he recently played the visionary figure Alexander Hamilton in Hamilton.

Who is Nelson Mandela?

Nelson Mandela was the first Black president of South Africa, and held the premiership from 1994 to 1999. Under the South African apartheid government — a system that separated its citizens by the colour of their skin — Mandela was sentenced to 27 years in jail. Mandela and the South African president Frederik Willem de Klerk were able to negotiate the end of apartheid in the early 1990s, with the pair earning a joint Nobel Prize for Peace. Nelson Mandela died in Johannesburg in 2013.