Musical Theatre Nominees to Hit the High Notes at 54th Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards

Posted on 25 Feb 2019 by David Fick

With two weeks to go until the curtain rises on the 54th Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards at the Artscape Opera House, it is time for the South African Theatre Archive to offer its congratulations to the musical theatre nominees that hit the high notes in several categories awarded by the awards programme for their work in 2019. The Fleur du Cap Theatre awards are regarded amongst the most valued and prestigious in the South African performing arts industry.

The Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards are sponsored by the Fleur du Cap wine brand. At inception in 1965, the awards were known as the Three Leaf Awards, becoming the Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards in 1978 to celebrate one of Distell’s leading wine brands. The panel of judges, chaired by a non-voting chairperson, is made up largely of local critics, journalists, writers and drama educators and comprises Africa Melane, Dr Beverley Brommert, Eugene Yiga, Lwando Scott, Marina Griebenow, Maurice Carpede, Peggy Mongoato, Tracey Saunders and Dr Wayne Muller.

Nominees and winners are chosen from productions performed at professional theatre venues in and around Cape Town. Theatre practitioners are recognised for acting, directing, staging and technical ability. For musical theatre productions and opera, the casts on opening night are considered. The full list of nominees per category is available on the Fleur du Cape website.

The outstanding production of Matilda the Musical (produced by Pieter Toerien Productions and GWB Entertainment) earned a nomination for Best Production, alongside Endgame, Curse of the Starving Class, Kudu and Womb of Fire. The production collected a further ten nominations, including three in the category of Best Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Musical or Music Theatre Show: Bethany Dickson, who offered a masterclass in emotion as Miss Honey; Claire Taylor, who played the deliciously dreadful Mrs Wormwood with style; and Nompumelelo Mayiyane, whose presence as the endearing librarian, Mrs Phelps, left a lasting impression on local audiences.

Further acting nominations were garnered by Cameron Seear (Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Musical or Music Theatre Show) as Bruce Bogtrotter, the character that kicks off one of the flagship numbers of the show, “Revolting Children,” as well as Ryan de Villiers (Best Performance by a Lead Actor in a Musical or Music Theatre Show) for his astounding musical theatre debut as Miss Trunchbull and Kitty Harris (Best Performance by a Lead Actress in a Musical or Music Theatre Show) for her memorable turn as Matilda.

In the design categories, nods were given to Rob Howell (Best Costume Design and Best Set Design), Simon Baker (Best Sound Design) and Hugh Vanstone (Best Lighting Design).

Original South African works also earned their fair share of nominations, with Tsotsi the Musical receiving eight nominations, and Calling Us Home and Langarm three apiece. The lack of writing nominations for any of these new productions perhaps reflects the long journey ahead for local musical theatre pieces before they can hold their own as dramatic works in the South African theatre landscape.

Tsotsi the Musical, however, already has one award in the bag, with Janni Younge and Craig Leo having earned the single nomination in the Best Puppetry Design category. The strongly designed production will also compete for Best Costume Design (Noluthando Lobese Moropa), Best Sound Design (Marcel Bezuidenhout) and Best Set Design (Michael Mitchell and Neil Coppen). The balance of the nominations were for Kgomotso Matsunyane as Miriam and Thembisile Ntaka as Adedola (both for Best Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Musical or Music Theatre Show), Msizi Njapha as Boston (for Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Musical or Music Theatre Show) and Mxolisi (Zuluboy) Majozi as Tsotsi (for Best Performance by a Lead Actor in a Musical or Music Theatre Show).

The best hope for Calling Us Home winning an award is the luminous Lynelle Kenned (Best Performance by a Lead Actress in a Musical or Music Theatre Show), who played Grace in this second iteration of the production that debuted as Calling Me Home in Johannesburg. Conroy Scott (who played Ivan) and Musanete Sakupwanya (who played Nelson) received nominations for Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Musical or Music Theatre Show and Best Performance by a Lead Actor in a Musical or Music Theatre Show respectively.

The strongest contender from Langarm is Elton Landrew, the sole nominee from the show in the Best Performance by a Lead Actor in a Musical or Music Theatre Show category. His nuanced performance as Eddie mined David Kramer’s script and score for both comedy and pathos. In the category for Best Performance by a Lead Actress in a Musical or Music Theatre Show, Kim Louis, who played Dinah and returned to the professional stage following two decades out of the spotlight, will go head-to-head against Rushney Ferguson, who stepped into her first leading lady role as Angelina in the production.

Earning nominations as replacements in returning productions were Carmen Pretorius, as Maria in The Sound of Music, for Best Performance by a Lead Actress in a Musical or Music Theatre Show; Kevin Hack as Tony in West Side Story, for Best Performance by a Lead Actor in a Musical or Music Theatre Show. Dueling it out in the category for Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Musical or Music Theatre Show will be Daniel Mpilo Richards as Bernardo in West Side Story and Desmond Dube as Pop in King Kong.

A further musical theatre production, Fred Abrahamse and Marcel Meyer’s Alice in Wonderland, has been nominated in the category for Best Theatre Production for Children and Young People.

This year’s ceremony will take place on Sunday, 10 March at 17:30, promising to offer an evening celebrating Vintage theatre and wines. Mbongeni N. Mtshali will direct the ceremony, with José Dias serving as musical director. Africa Melane, returns to host the evening with a variety of co-presenters who have been recipients of the Innovation in Theatre and Encore Awards in the past decade. Winners are chosen from productions performed at professional theatre venues in and around Cape Town. The winners of the Lifetime Achievement and Innovation in Theatre awards will also be named at the ceremony.

Tickets for the ceremony are available at R250 per person. Bookings can be made at online at Computicket, by phone on 0861 915 8000, or in person at any Shoprite Checkers outlet as well as the Artscape Box Office on 021 410 9838 and Dial-a-Seat on 021 421 7695.

Time to go INTO THE WOODS at Theatre on the Bay

Posted on 13 Jan 2019 by David Fick

Pieter Toerien Productions and KickstArt Theatre will present James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods at Theatre on the Bay, starting 30 January. Proclaimed as a sleek and sexy beast of a musical, Into the Woods is by turns moody, magical, witty and wise, and promises to offer the exhilarating theatrical experience that audiences have come to expect from Sondheim, the co-creator of musical masterpieces such as Sweeney Todd and West Side Story.

Into the Woods follows the trials and adventures of a baker (Earl Gregory) and his wife (Jessica Sole), whose paths cross with a witch (Kate Normington) and a host of of well-known fairy-tale characters, including Cinderella (Haylea Heyns), Rapunzel (LJ Neilson), Jack (Graham Wicks) and Little Red Riding Hood (Megan Rigby) as they all go into the deep and dark woods on separate quests that intersect with sometimes amusing, sometimes alarming results.

But Into the Woods is no children’s tale. The musical is is a wicked and wonderful cautionary fairy tale for adults that will delight and haunt audiences as it explores what it means to be human, to long for something other, to wish for something more than what you have, and to deal with the inevitable loss and the terrible beauty that this journey through the world offers us.

The show features a dazzling score, with ravishing melodies and seductive rhythms. Boasting one of the cleverest and most complex set of lyrics ever written for musical theatre, this is Sondheim at his very best, offering South African audiences a very rare opportunity to revel in his wisdom and originality.

Directed by Steven Stead and designed by Greg King, the production will have musical supervision by Drew Rienstra, costume design by Neil Harris and lighting design by Tina le Roux. The company is rounded out by Dianne Simpson as Cinderella’s Stepmother and Granny, Sarah Richard as Florinda, Ashleigh Harvey as Lucinda, Candice Van Litsenborgh as Jack’s Mother, Zak Hendricks as The Wolf and Cinderella’s Prince, as Rapunzel, Nathan Kruger as Rapunzel’s Prince, Schoeman Smit as The Steward and Michael Richard as The Narrator and The Mysterious Man.

Into the Woods is booking through 2 March, with tickets ranging in price from R175 – R375 available at Computicket. Providing both intellectual and emotional satisfaction, Into the Woods has all the allure of the fairy tale. Both mysterious and whimsical, it tells of love, loss, desire, hope – and revenge. Although its roots are deeply planted in old folk tales, Into the Woods offers a rich harvest of ideas – the kind of production that appears only once in a blue moon.

Flagship NAF Musical Productions for 2019 On Sale

Posted on 10 Dec 2018 by David Fick

For the first time ever, audiences will have the chance in December to snap up early tickets to some of the flagship productions at the 2019 National Arts Festival in Makhanda, which will be held from 27 June to 7 July next year. Two of these have connections to the musical theatre scene, a new production by Brett Bailey and a programme to be performed by the Drakensberg Boys Choir.

Brett Bailey’s new work, Samson, promises to be a highly theatrical, visual and musical work with a sharp political sensibility. The piece markets itself as a lyrical, sharp-edged, apocalyptic dance-music-theatre piece, based on the popular Old Testament hero myth of loss, betrayal and rage, and interpreted on a rich visual canvas, with haunting choreography, soaring vocals and live electronica. It is set in a dystopian present in which a rapacious and supremacist master race feeds off the labour of the downtrodden masses.

Performed with opera, choral singing, punchy animated video scenography, black humour, brooding swagger and the booming sub-bass of dub-step music, Samson is a young man with a heroic mission in an era of intolerance and polarisation. Channelling the fury of his oppressed people, he inflicts terror on the population that he holds accountable for their subjugation. As the body count mounts and war surges, Delilah – an ambivalent enemy agent – seduces and ritually castrates him. His brutal punishment in the detention facilities of the authorities spurs him to an act of suicidal devastation.

The internationally acclaimed works of Brett Bailey and Third World Bunfight often have a strong musical element to them. These include productions such as Ipi Zombi? and MedEia as well as a re-interpretation of the Giuseppe Verdi composed opera, Macbeth. Samson, which will head abroad following its season on the main festival, also features three Standard Bank Young Artist alumni: choreographer Vincent Mantsoe (Dance, 1996), Shane Cooper (Jazz, 2013) and Bailey himself (Theatre, 2001). This a fortunate stroke of serendipity is a fitting in a year that celebrates 35 years of Standard Bank’s sponsorship of these awards. Cooper will is create the score for Samson.

The internationally renowned yet proudly local Drakensberg Boys Choir will perform a selection of classical, African Gospel and choral pop music. This will be followed by their unique, semi-theatrical presentation of indigenous South African music, which centres around the theme of Water=Life, as well as their renditions of chart-topping pop songs and gospel numbers. The choir will incorporate songs and music from Xhamissa into their single-set programme as a concertante version.

The choir is a unique institution with a 51-year history, the calibre of their old boys speaking for itself. One alumnus, Terence Bridgett, has made several appearances in local musical theatre productions, playing the Pharoah in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, the Fox in Pinocchio, and Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar, also performing in Saturday Night Fever. Another former chorister, Dawid Boverhoff, has found himself in the role of musical director for shows like Heidi and Avenue Q.

Only one performance per show is available for early bookings: 27 June at 16:00 for Samson and 1 July at 18:00 for the Drakensberg Boys Choir Live in Concert. All other shows in these respective seasons will open for full bookings early in 2019. An excellent Christmas present or “just because”, these early bookings are a great reason to get planning for the 2019 National Arts Festival. For a bit of help with these plans, the National Arts Festival website has comprehensive information on how to get there and where to stay.

MATILDA THE MUSICAL to Play Cape Town this Festive Season

Posted on 25 Nov 2018 by David Fick

Pieter Toerien and GWB Entertainment’s highly anticipated production of Matilda the Musical will play the Artscape Opera House from 9 December to 13 January. Billed as perfect entertainment for the whole family, the musical is currently entering the final leg of its Johannesburg run, where it has played to capacity houses at the Teatro at Montecasino, prior to its transfer to the Mother City next month.

Based on the much-loved 1988 Roald Dahl novel, Matilda the Musical tells the tale of a precocious young girl who uses her extraordinary powers to overcome obstacles caused by her family and school, also helping her teacher to find her way in life. The musical features a book by Dennis Kelly, with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin.

The coveted title role of Matilda is shared by three uniquely talented young Capetonian girls: Lilla Fleischmann, Kitty Harris and Morgan Santo. The young starlets are accompanied by Cape Town actors Ryan de Villers as the gigantic holy terror, Miss Trunchbull, and Bethany Dickson as Matilda’s devoted teacher, Miss Honey. Stephen Jubber and Claire Taylor play Mr and Mrs Wormwood, Matilda’s awful parents, and the lovable librarian Mrs Phelps is played by Nompumelelo Mayiyane.

The adult company is comprised of Jasmin Colangelo, Katrina Dix, Sinead Donnelly, Michael Gardiner, Kent Jeycocke, Weslee Lauder, Carlo McFarlane, Kenneth Meyer, Daniel Parrott, Adrianna Patlaszynska, Jonathan Raath and Logan Timbre.

Playing the other pupils at Crunchem Hall Primary School are Jack Fokkens, Keeran Isaacs, Robyn Ivey, Joshua LeClair, Levi Maron, Ipeleng Merafe, Megan Saayman, Taylor Salgado, Cameron Seear and Zac Gabriel Werb.

Matilda the Musical premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s home in Stratford-upon-Avon, playing to sold-out audiences from November 2010 to January 2011. Capturing the imagination of young and old alike, the Royal Shakespeare Company transferred the production to London’s West End in October 2011 where the show continues to play to sold-out houses at the Cambridge Theatre. The production also played a season of 1 555 performances at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway.

The production reproduces Matthew Warchus’s orignal staging, as well as Peter Darling’s choreography, Rob Howell’s sets and costumes, Hugh Vanstone’s lighting and Simon Baker’s sound design. Additional music and musical supervision for the production are by Christopher Nightingale.

Tickets for the Cape Town season of Matilda the Musical are available online from Computicket or by phone via the the Artscape box office on 021 410 9838. Performances take place on Tuesdays through Sundays, with tickets ranging in price from R100 – R520. No children under five years of age will be admitted at evening performances.

LANGARM Takes to the Floor at The Fugard

Posted on 20 Nov 2018 by David Fick

Langarm, the latest musical created by the award-winning David Kramer, opens tonight at The Fugard Theatre for the festive season. With Kramer directing the production, musical direction and arrangements have been created for the production by Charl-Johan Lingenfelder. Grant van Ster choreographs.

A story of love and intrigue, Langarm is set in the world of Cape Town’s ballroom dance culture in the 1960s. When the recently widowed Dinah Levin invites her nephew Jeff to help her manage her late husband’s Canterbury Hotel, he meets Angelina, a lovely young ballroom dancer who asks him to partner her in The Swaziland Ballroom Championships. Seeing this as an opportunity to humiliate his ex-fiancé, who has just dumped him, Jeff agrees, even though he will risk arrest by flouting the laws of apartheid-era South Africa.

Currently booking through 31 January 2019, Langarm will be performed from Tuesdays to Saturdays at 20:00 with a matinee performance on Saturdays at 15:00. From Sunday 16 December, there will be an additional Sunday matinee at 15:00. There will be a Monday night performance at 20:00 on New Year’s Eve, 31 December 2018. Tickets ranging from R150 to R260 can be booked through the Fugard Theatre’s box office on 021 461 4554 or through the Fugard Theatre’s website.

Only One Week Left to Discover the Simple Secret of THE LITTLE PRINCE

Posted on 18 Nov 2018 by David Fick

The Johannesburg run of Van Rensburg Theatrical’s The Little Prince at Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Studio Theatre finishes its season on 25 November, leaving audiences in the city of gold only one week to discover the simple secrets of this new adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s classic novella.

Aimed at teenagers from 13 years old and upward, this musical adaptation of the much-loved tale of a pilot and a young alien prince features a book by Elizma Badenhorst and music and lyrics by Wessel Odendaal.

Leaving the safety of his own tiny planet to travel the universe, the little prince’s personal journey culminates in a voyage to Earth where he learns the oddities of adult behaviour through a series of extraordinary encounters. Van Rensburg Theatrical hopes that the production will be a great conversation starter for parents and their children about the meaning of life.

The Little Prince is performed by Caitlin Salgado, Nieke Lombard and Christelle van Graan and is told with the help and wonderment of shadow and Japanese Bunraku puppetry. Tickets are available through Computicket.

Musical Theatre Nominees Named for 2018 BroadwayWorld South Africa Awards

Posted on 12 Nov 2018 by David Fick

BroadwayWorld has announced the nominees for its 2018 regional awards programme. The awards are presented annually to productions running from the start of October of the previous year until the end of September of the current year, with nominees being reader-submitted and the winners decided by a public vote. Sponsored by BroadwayHD, the awards are open to different kinds of productions in several different categories.

The musical theatre nominees, per category are as follows:

Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical

Ashleigh Harvey (Avenue Q)
Emma Kingston (Evita)
Didintle Khunou (The Color Purple)
Carmen Pretorius (The Sound of Music)
Jessica Sole (Camelot)
Claire Taylor (Rock of Ages)

Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical

Lyle Buxton (Camelot)
Kevin Hack (West Side Story)
Jonathan Roxmouth (Evita)
Jonathan Roxmouth (Great Balls of Fire)
Jonathan Roxmouth (Lenny, Andrew, Steve and Me)
Steven Stead (Camelot)

Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical

Anne-Marie Clulow (Camelot)
Isabella Jane (Evita)
Zandile Madliwa (Aunty Merle – The Musical)
Tankiso Mamabolo (Aunty Merle – The Musical)
Mpumelelo Mayiyane (Rock of Ages)
Natasha van der Merwe (Rock of Ages)

Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical

Robert Finlayson (Evita)
Michael Fullard (West Side Story)
Anton Luitingh (Evita)
Michael McMeeking (The Sound of Music)
Schoeman Smit (Rock of Ages)
Craig Urbani (Great Balls of Fire)

Best Director of a Musical

Neil Coppen and Khayelihle Dom Gumede (Tsotsi: The Musical)
Janice Honeyman (The Colour Purple)
Timothy le Roux (Avenue Q)
Harold Prince (Evita)
Steven Stead (Camelot)
John van Grinsven (Tina – Simply the Best)

Best Revival of a Musical

Buddy – the Buddy Holly Story
Camelot
Evita

Best Musical

Avenue Q
The Color Purple
Rock of Ages
Snip/Tucked
Tina – Simply the Best
Tsotsi: The Musical

Further musical theatre nominees can be seen in the categories for Best Choreography (Janine Bennewith for Camelot, CAMELOT (Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre), Weslee Swain Lauder for Rock of Ages, Thandazile Radebe for Tsotsi – the Musical and Grant van Ster for Aunty Merle – the Musical), Best Ensemble Performance (Camelot and Rock of Ages) and Best New Work (Great Balls of Fire).

Congratulations to all of the nominees!

Should you wish to cast your vote for your favourites, visit BroadwayWorld South Africa before 31 December and select your favourites in each category. The winners will be announced in January.

Pinelands Players to Welcome Artscape Audiences to the 60s with HAIRSPRAY

Posted on 6 Nov 2018 by David Fick

The Pinelands Players will kick off its 71^st year of community theatre with its biggest production ever. The popular am-dram troupe is very excited to be producing Hairspray in 2019. Based on the cult John Waters film, the musical adaptation features a book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan and a score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman.

Originally founded as St Stephens Pinelands Repertory Society in 1948, the Pinelands Players have produced 143 plays, 43 musicals, 22 pantomimes, 12 supper theatres and nine Gilbert and Sullivan operettas in venues such as St Stephens Hall, The Little Theatre, the Artscape Arena and the Pinelands Town Hall.

The society’s goal has always been to ensure a healthy balance between new, unseasoned talent and experienced performers in order to develop performing skills, transfer knowledge and experience, and mitigate risk. Hairspray will feature a large cast of more than fifty performers, with many young and highly talented newcomers joining familiar faces in stage. Over the course of the run, four performances will feature understudies in principal roles.

Hairspray is set in Baltimore during the Civil Rights Movement. Tracy Turnblad, a quirky, plus-sized teenager with a plus-sized hairdo has a big dream to dance on the national television sensation, The Corny Collins Show. Her successful audition transforms her into a local celebrity, but she faces discrimination because of her weight, her choice in friends and her hairdo. Tracy becomes determined to use her influence to push for social change and racial integration in the show.

With memorable songs such as “Good Morning, Baltimore” and “You Can’t Stop The Beat,” the show is a feel-good comedy with a timeless message that everyone should be treated equally regardless of social, cultural and physical differences. Hairspray is the winner of eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Score, as well as four Laurence Olivier Awards, including Best New Musical. A film version, starring Nikki Blonsky, John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Queen Latifah, James Marsden and Christopher Walker, was released in 2007.

Neil Leachman will direct Hairspray, also serving as the production’s musical director. Although this is his first outing in these roles with the Pinelands Players, Leachman is no stranger to the am-dram circuit, having directed You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown in 2016 and The Producers earlier this year. Laura Bosman and Jared Schaedler will choreograph the production.

Hairspray runs at the Artscape Theatre from 2 – 16 February on Tuesdays through Sundays. Tickets, which range in price from R185 and R225, are available through Computicket.

10 Days Left to Snap Up The Fugard’s KINKY BOOTS Early Birds Special

Posted on 21 Oct 2018 by David Fick

Eric Abraham and the Fugard Theatre will present a brand new, original production of Kinky Boots, the smash-hit musical by Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper. With performances set to run from 11 June 2019, The Fugard is offering musical theatre lovers the chance to snap up a fabulous early bird ticket special until 31 October 2018.

This early bird special, which is exclusively available by contacting The Fugard Theatre’s box office by phone on 021 461 4554 or by email, enables audiences to purchase four premium priced tickets, regularly priced at R470 per ticket, at only R300 per ticket for performances after 27 June 2019.

Winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Score, Kinky Boots tells the story of Charlie Price, who has reluctantly inherited his father’s shoe factory, Price & Son, which is on the verge of bankruptcy. Trying to live up to his father’s legacy and save his family business, Charlie finds inspiration in the form of Lola, a fabulous entertainer in need of some sturdy stilettos. As they work to turn the factory around, this unlikely pair find that they have more in common than they ever dreamed possible, and discover that when you change your mind about someone, you can change your whole world.

The Fugard Theatre’s Kinky Boots is brought to Cape Town audiences by the same creative team behind the Fugard Theatre productions of The Rocky Horror Show, Cabaret, Funny Girl and West Side Story. Direction is by Matthew Wild, with musical direction by Charl-Johan Lingenfelder and choreography by Louisa Talbot.

Joanna Weinberg to Unpack PANDORA’S BAG at the Baxter’s Golden Arrow This Week

Posted on 21 Oct 2018 by David Fick

Actress, songwriter and cabaret artist Joanna Weinberg will return to South Africa after many years to perform her entertaining hit solo cabaret, Pandora’s Bag, at the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio for a limited season, starting this week.

A graduate of the University of Cape Town’s drama department, Weinberg was born in London and raised in South Africa before moving to Sydney in Australia. Coming from a family of classical musicians, she has many years of experience in creating and performing theatre, music, cabaret and musical theatre and has created five albums of original songs, two of which are original cast albums of her musicals.

Pandora’s Bag is comic solo cabaret show with keyboard, accordion and handbags. The show is inspired by bags and the women who wear them, covering subject matter like old bags, laundry bags and bag porn. The audience is encouraged to show and tell their own bag stories for a chance to win a prize, while a volunteer bag model will also be selected from the audience, giving theatrical extroverts a chance to shine. Of the production’s run in the Mother City, she says:

I’m so thrilled to be performing in Cape Town again, which is where I began my career. With October being breast cancer awareness month, I felt that this would be a timely show which celebrates both women and the handbag as metaphor for and extension of the female body. I would like to point out that men also love this show, as they have their own baggage.

Weinberg has written thirteen original one-woman shows, including the critically acclaimed Piano Diaries, which is available on iTunes. Much of her theatre training and background is evident in many of the songs with a masterful way of crafting lyrics. Her award winning musical, Lifeforce: the Mother of all Journeys, played the Sydney Fringe in 2013 and her soccer-parent musical, Every Single Saturday, toured New South Wales in 2011. Some of her other original shows include Baroness Bianka’s Bloodsongs, 12 Shoes and Sinksongs, which was the inspiration for a feature film, Goddess, which had a worldwide release in 2012. Her work has been performed in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and South Africa.

Pandora’s Bag runs at the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio from 23 October to 3 November at 20:15 nightly with Saturday matinees at 17:00. Ticket prices ranges from R160 to R180, with a rate of R130 for block-bookings of ten or more people. Booking is through Webtickets.

South African Musical Theatre Archive

Archiving the Past, Present and Future of Musical Theatre in South Africa