Joburg Theatre – A Bit of This A Bit of That

November 4, 2013November 4, 2013

Its Panto time! #AladdinPanto

Yesterday afternoon saw me once again at the {Joburg Theatre}. This time for the opening of Janice Honeyman’s yearly pantomime.

Aladdin!

I had so much fun. There was booing and hissing and cheering and clapping. There was glitter and lights and balloons and dancing and singing and much silliness all around.

Jeremy Mansfield as the evil Abanazar was suitably evil and over the top.

Christopher Jaftha is Aladdin and let me just tell you, as well as a solid voice the man has moves! He had the female portion of the audience in a flutter.

My main man Bongi Mthombeni plays Wishee-Washee, Aladdin’s baby brother and in my opinion he stole the show with his cheekiness and his amazing voice!

The cast was amazing, the costumes fantastic, the music spot on and the lighting was just phenomenal.

Here are a few more photos taken by Mariola Biela

August 24, 2013August 24, 2013

Warming up

On Wednesday I attended the warm up session for #StarlightExpressSA at Joburg Theatre.

I just have to say, these guys are amazing. An hour warmup on skates followed by a two hour show. Thee guys are animals. I was tired just watching them!

Warm up consisted of physical warm up as well as a vocal warm up.

Here are some pics.

We followed warmup with another performance. It’s the second time I’ve seen the actual production. Janice has made a few small changes and the performance has only benefited. If you haven’t seen the show yet I urge you to go see it. Only one more week left!

May 8, 2013May 9, 2013

Starlight Star Bright! #StarlightExpressSA

*I am not being paid to blog/tweet/talk about #StarlightExpressSA

Along with an awesome social media team, I have been invited to follow the journey of the South African production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic rock musical, {Starlight Express}!

Andrew, Wenchy, Jodene, Shelly, Me and Chevè - Photo by Mariola Biela — Andrew, Wenchy, Jodene, Shelly, Me and Chevè – Photo by Mariola Biela

And by follow the journey, I mean, skate lessons, rehearsals, costume fittings, set building, dress rehearsals, interviews with cast & crew and finally, opening night.

The most notable thing about the South African production is that, essentially, for the first time since Starlight made its debut in 1984, with the exception of the songs and music, the production is entirely new. New costumes, new choreography, new, all South African cast, new life!

Yesterday I was privileged to watch the cast in full costume for the first time, skating with lights, smoke machine and music.

Produced by {Joburg Theatre} CEO Bernard Jay and directed by acclaimed director, Janice Honeyman, the local production should be a site to behold!

To come along on the journey with me and the others on Twitter follow:

I will leave you with some of my impressions from yesterday!

Panorama - Rehearsal Stage — Panorama – Rehearsal Stage