| 19 July 2010
Clarke Peters is an accomplished actor, star of The Wire, playwright and singer. Now he’s returning to he stage with the musical he created two decades ago – Five Guys Named Moe.
“People like to rock ‘n’ roll and they like to party, and that’s what Louis Jordan was about,” says Clarke Peters. “As a jazz musician he was about a good time, and if you take a look at the state of the world right now, don’t you feel like you want to have a good time and forget about things for a minute?” he pauses. “I tell you, right now, I do.”
Peters is saying this at 5am in Albany Airport, New York. His wife has just missed her flight to their home in London. When he says that he “just wants the good times to roll,” he does so with understandable conviction.
Peters’ career has been nothing if not varied. From singing backing vocals for Joan Armatrading to playing Nelson Mandela in the film Endgame, via a pivotal role as Detective Lester Freamon in seminal TV drama The Wire, the 58-year-old American has never had to complain about being typecast.
This August, he’s in Edinburgh to assume yet another guise: that of Nomax in a 20th anniversary revival of the musical Five Guys Named Moe. Peters wrote the the story and dialogue two decades ago, bringing Jordan’s songs together into a cohesive show. It debuted at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, before going on to be an Olivier-winning hit in the West End and on Broadway.
The show follows the fortunes of broke and unlucky in love Nomax. Equipped with Louis Jordan songs such as Early In The Morning and Choo Choo Ch’Boogie, the Five Moes burst out of Nomax’s radio to brighten his day.
“Five Guys is about Louis Jordan,” Peters explains. “You can watch a biopic and you’ll come away with facts and figures, but you won't get the person's character, you won't really get them.”
Its upbeat, feel-good vibe is a long way from the heroin-ravaged Baltimore of The Wire, but Peters is as happy in a musical as he is in a gritty drama.
“With Five Guys, I wanted the audience to get Louis Jordan’s persona,” says Peters. “He influenced Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and so on but it’s no good telling people that. You want to make them hear it. Let’s just cut to the chase and get to the music. Find out what the cat was about.
“The Wire, on the other hand, speaks for itself. It’s a docu-drama that feeds the intellect, rather than dumbing us down. It’s been three years since we finished filming the final series, and even now it is still part of people’s conversation.”
Peters landed his first professional part in the hippy musical Hair! in 1971. Nearly four decades later, he is still inundated with attention-grabbing offers of work, including a juicy role on David Simon’s post-Hurricane Katrina tale, Treme. Does he have any advice for aspiring actors in Edinburgh in August?
“Question whether you want to be an actor or a waiter, because you will be out of work more often than not.”
Five Guys Named Moe, Underbelly's McEwan Hall, 4-29 August (not 27th), 5.15pm, From £10, Tel: 0844 545 8252
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