Kenny G is the big show
“guy groups” of the 1950s. The Plaids, a quartet of high school chums, personify the era. Killed on the brink of fame in a car crash, they return from the afterlife for a last shot at musical fame.
Among their numbers are Crazy Bout Ya, Baby, Scotland the Brave, Shangri-La and Love is Many aSplendored Thing. Rowan Bakker is the musical director.
There’s also music at the Market Theatre with Ketekang, a mix of music, drama, dance and poetry linking South Africa and the US.
Montecasino is also rocking. The superlative War Horse is at the Teatro and The Rocky Horror Show is back from Cape Town for the festive season at Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre. It sold out in Joburg earlier this year, sold out when it returned to Cape Town – and tickets are going fast.
Upstairs in the Studio there is a touch of comic drama in Perfect Nonsense, based on the works of PG Wodehouse, with Jonathan Roxmouth as Bertie Wooster and Graham Hopkins as his valet Jeeves. Robert Fridjhon also stars.
At the Soweto Theatre, The Way We Heal looks at African spiritualism and traditional healers.
At the Joburg Theatre the pantomime Peter Pan has opened, full of song and dance, stars and spectacle. With the holidays almost upon us, children’s theatres are becoming active. This year The Beauty and the Beast Jr is at the People’s Theatre. The National Children’s Theatre has The Wizard of Oz.
Jenny de Klerk is editor of Artslink. co.za For more information see www.artslink.co.za