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T H E a T R E B U Z Z 4 8 T H E a T R E B U Z Z THEATRE ON THE BAY The Next 48hOURS • #THEATREBUZZ48 # # ‘Stage By Stage’ PIETER TOERIEN PRODUCTIONS T March 16 to March 21 Everyone has a favourite song from a musical somewhere. This is a show FULL initially started ‘Stage By Stage’ with of those. a few backing tracks and anecdotes H in Pretoria a few years back and I was Your biggest inspiration in life... I taken aback at how much people love Underdogs that get on top. this material. It seems that people relate to this ‘traditional’ material so much The most nervous you’ve ever been on E more as time goes by and we become so stage... embroiled in the big bad world just over The second preview of The Phantom of the horizon. the Opera in Cape Town in 2011. A That said, I wasn’t interested in just singing songs from the musicals. I Jonathan Roxmouth “Last night a show changed my life.” worked on the show in a few more out Which show? of town runs until it really became clear Peter and the Starcatcher on Broadway. T that backing tracks - no matter how rehearsing ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ a as we explored the range of theatre good - shatter the illusion of intimate few years back I met a répétiteur named music. Everything from the expected If you could be anyone else for 24 musical theatre like this. I went to seen Jessica De Koker and we clicked imme- like ‘The Music of the Night’ from ‘The hours... Bryn Terfel in Johannesburg and this diately after I cracked during the high Phantom of the Opera’ and ‘Bring Him Stephen Fry. R burly man walked out onto a stage with note in ‘The Music of the Night’. Home’ from ‘Les Misérables’ to ‘Solilo- nothing but a piano, an accompanist I called her up and asked if she was quy’ from ‘Carousel’ and ‘Beauty School Drinks are on me. What are you hav- and an armful of great music. interested in joining me and my ears are Dropout’ from ‘Grease’. ing? E As I sat there witnessing such hon- still ringing from the scream of “YES!” This has shaped up to be a show Double Jameson’s and soda please. est musicality I began to watch the on the other end of the phone. made up of songs I have sung, songs I audience who, like me, were utterly It turns out she has also been rearing am singing and songs they will never let Easiest way to your heart... entranced and engrossed because they to get back to this material and so we me sing…my favourite being the latter. Eye contact. B were hearing the lyrics almost for the began what has been a totally different One man shows are notoriously ex- Favourite place in the world... first time without amplification and -ef process of rehearsal. hausting and lonely, but so far I feel I Any sidewalk in Manhattan. fects getting in the way. I figured that if Additionally, I needed a fresh direc- am keeping great company with this u an acoustic setup was good enough for tor to help form this glorified Cabaret songbook. Book(s)/movie(s) you read/watch over the world’s finest Baritone then it was Repertoire into a proper evening at the and over again... good enough for me. theatre. Having just worked with him on - By Jonathan Roxmouth ‘Midnight in Paris’ - simply for Adrian I re-examined the selection of songs ‘Call Me Lee’, I knew Weslee Lauder was Brody as (Salvador) Dalí. Z and introduced material that cry out the one for me. Describe yourself in 140 characters. for a ‘bare’ accompaniment so that the He, like me, is totally in love with Insatiable stickler for detail in a world You’ve been reincarnated as a pizza... songs can speak for themselves. For this, Musical Theatre and he brought an in- defined by the lack thereof. Begrudging which toppings should we expect? however, I needed a musician that I had sight that one rarely finds among con- banter with secret carb-based fantasies. Feta, Bacon, Red Peppers, Mozzarella Z a great relationship with and in whom temporary theatricals these days. Limits are ridicu and Tabasco Sauce. 4 I could place implicit trust. When I was We laughed and cried ourselves sick ‘Stage By Stage’ is going to rock why? 8 ‘Pythonesque’ Monica beach for the “Glamour Edi- Q&A with director tion” of Vole Breeders Monthly, wearing Alan Swerdlow a fetching banana-hammock Speedo in lovely shades of taupe and baby-poo. Why should people go and book for ‘Py- We suspect that Russel Savadier thonesque’ right now? (wanted in seventeen and a half inde- ARTSCAPE Because if they don’t, a giant foot might pendent, sovereign nations for crimes descend from the sky and squash them against nature) is really a pseudonym ADE Launch flat! Simultaneously, a rampaging Mon- and is actually a photographic repro- • golian horde will redecorate their sitting duction. rooms in chintz and fur (both in shades And Robert Fridjhon isn’t, but has Highschool Drama of taupe and baby-poo) and they will a PhD in Centrifugal Gastronomy from Graham Hopkins & Theo Landey in also be cloned for use in strange experi- the Tim Noakes Memorial Hospital and Festival a past production of ‘Pythonesque’ ments determining the effect of Lycra Chinese Laundry. on the libido. So let that be a warning! Alan Swerdlow • March 25 to April 11 Is there a particular skit you’re es- ‘Vaselinetjie’ Can you recall your first experience of pecially excited to share with audi- The legend continues being exposed to the works of Monty What is your favourite Python skit? ences? Playwright Roy Smiles’ brilliant and ir- Python? Oh, it has to be the classic one (in shades Yes, but since it involves a rotisserie, 16 reverent trilogy on comedy history ends Yes - when I was but a tender tot and of taupe and baby-poo) that involves a hand-reared wombats (in lovely shades fittingly with his ingenious comic review, my nurse-maid had taken me to the lo- pet shop and a parrot that has shuffled of taupe and baby-poo), first-class air ‘Pythonesque’. Having conjured up the cal park in the hope of losing me for- off this mortal coil. But then again, it travel for the entire company and tubes spirit of The Goons in “Ying Tong – A ever among the rhododendrons, I was might not be, since I haven’t quite mas- of lubrication, we are not yet sure that BAXTER Walk with the Goons”, and resurrected approached by a sinister figure who tered this Logical Positivism thing... Pieter Toerien is going to allow it. the ground-breaking satire of Beyond whipped open his greasy mackintosh the Fringe and Pete and Dud in “Good (in shades of taupe and baby-poo) pub- Tell us a little about the no doubt fine Lastly, how would you describe the ‘Blue/Orange’ Evening”, Smiles completes the trilogy licly exposing his very large collection fellows who are in the show. comedy of Monty Python to someone • with PYTHONESQUE, a play commis- of Monty Python LPs. Needless to say, I Graham Hopkins once read aloud, from who has never experienced it before, Zabalaza Festival sioned by Pieter Toerien that was first was traumatised and instantly changed beginning to end, an expurgated copy and might be on the fence on whether seen at Theatre on the Bay in 2009. In my career path from Boy Wonder nu- of ‘The Origin of the Species’ by Charles they want to book? • a season before the production travels clear physicist to deputy assistant to Darwin in the original Sanskrit whilst Very funny (and in matching shades of to Los Angeles, you can follow the story the assistant stage manager and stage- stark naked. Young Theo Landey was taupe and baby-poo). ‘Lionboy’ of the Oxford and Cambridge gradu- sweeper photographed last year on the Santa ates John Cleese, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, Eric Idle and the previously-American Terry Gilliam, who in 1969 formed one of the best loved comedy troupes ever – Monty Python’s Flying Circus. FUGARD Alan Swerdlow, who most recently di- rected the acclaimed ‘Constellations’, re- turns in the director’s chair, with Graham ‘CABARET’ Hopkins and Theo Landey in the driv- ing seat and Robert Fridjhon and Russel Savadier in the back, singing road-trip songs. 6 March - 12 March 2015 www.48hours.co.za The Next 48hOURS 5.
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