Broadway in South Africa 2010: Day 8, Concert at Montecasino

Blog series chronicling the experience of 'Broadway in South Africa' during their 2010 trip to South Africa.

Day 8 - Concert at Montecasino

Monday, January 18, 2010

We did double duty this morning so it was the first time our group wasn't together as a whole. Jared, our music director, and I went to Montecasino Theatre to start tech and rehearsal for our concert while the rest of the group went to Theo Twala Primary School. I was really bummed that I didn't get to go because it was one of the most memorable and moving visits of our last trip. For those of you who have followed us since the beginning or have been at any of our performances or benefit concerts, you know the story of Babazile and Sibusiso. (If you don't, you can read about last year's visit to Theo Twala here: ) So I was sad that I couldn't go back this time around, but directing a concert in a gorgeous South African Theatre is a pretty great way to spend a day so I was just as lucky to be there. I'll let someone else write about Theo Twala--here was my day:

Jared and I got to the theatre and the tech crew (all of whom volunteers their time and services for the day) were focusing lights and setting up sound. (Thank you to ProSound for donating all of the equipment for our show.) Jared wrote charts for piano, bass, guitar, and drums and Rowan Bakker, who is a fabulous music director in South Africa who we met and hung out with lat time, rehearsed the band before we got here. Etienne on drums and Llewellyn on bass played our concert last year and we had Neil on guitar. The band was ROCKING OUT. The singers came to the theatre directly from Theo Twala and we did sound check and rehearsal onstage. The body mics we used were the ones from CATS, which closed the week before, so all of the mic packs were labeled Jon-Erik had "Grizabella"and Tracy's was "Old Deuteronomy." I got three of Johannesburg's musical theatre stars to perform so that it really was a cross-cultural exchange (part of the BSA mission). We had Carly Graeme who was Ozzy Osbourne in We Will Rock You, Sibu Radebe, who won two 2009 Naledi Awards (the South African Tonys) for Beauty and the Beast, and Tracey-Lee Oliver of Knights of Music. They all sang their faces off! Wait until you hear Tracey-Lee's "Close Every Door." JUST. WAIT.

The concert sold out in four hours after we listed it on computicket.com so the place was packed. We even had to add chairs in the aisles to squeeze people in. I'll put up some clips of the concert when I have five minutes to edit some footage together. Mark Rayment, who I met a couple of years ago when he was Scar in the South Africa company of The Lion King, was our host (they say "presenter") for the night. We did a mix of Broadway songs (Adam sang "Being Alive," Lilli did "Waiting for Life," Frankie, Jon-Erik, and Chris did a dance suite from On The Town) and some of the songs written for our concert (the above-mentioned "Babazile" by Jeremy Schonfeld and "Sibusiso" by Michael John LaChiusa). We closed with the BSA and South African singers together on "Seasons of Love." Because we're not just about showing up and singing some show tunes--we're creating a partnership between artists from New York and artists from South Africa with a common goal to use our talents to create positive change in the world.

Afterwards we all--American and South African singers--went do La Scala, a beautiful restaurant around the corner from the theatre. There were about 20 of us total and we spent hours talking about theatre, politics, Apartheid, education. It's the type of dialogue you can't get from a museum. As Anderson Cooper says, "You can't just read about it and think you know the world. You have to experience it." We also had an impromptu visit from Lebo M, who couldn't make the concert but came by to say hello. (If you don't know who Lebo is, here's a handy Wikipedia link for you: He has been a great supporter of ours since the beginning.) Thanks to Skype and Facebook, we can continue the conversations as easily as if we lived around the corner.

-Jen

Special thanks to producer Pieter Toerin for donating his Montecasino Theatre for our use tonight.

Broadway in South Africa is a cooperative nonprofit venture created by professional working actors, dancers, signers, directors, musicians and producers from New York City - all brought together by the desire to affect change in the world through art, and learn from the potential of bridging two different cultures artistically.

For more information on Broadway in South Africa, please click here.

 

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