
Theatre Review: The Color Purple – Purple Patch, Or Bursting Through The Glass Celie

Interview: Sebe Leotlela – Purple Pro, Or Getting To The Nub Of Nettie

Theatre Review: Pinocchio – Anything But Wooden, Or A Real Boy In An Unreal World

Dance Review: Snow White The Ballet – Fairytale Refreshed, Or Grimmly Satisfying
By BRUCE DENNILL Snow White: The Ballet / Joburg Ballet / Artistic Director: Iain Macdonald / The Mandela, Joburg Theatre, Braamfontein, Johannesburg Joburg Ballet’s latest production is an original one. Though the story of Snow White (originally a…

Interview: Shana Dewey – Dewey-Eyed Splendour, Or S’No Reason To Doubt
By BRUCE DENNILL Joburg Ballet soloist Shana Dewey started with the company, then the South African Ballet Theatre, when she joined company’s Junior Academy as a 13-year-old. That allowed for the odd appearance in a peripheral role in one…

Theatre Review: King Kong – Athletic Angst, Or Of Poetry And Pugilism
By BRUCE DENNILL King Kong / Directed by Jonathan Munby / Joburg Theatre, Braamfontein, Johannesburg The phrase “long-awaited” is generally over-used in publicity bilge in a pointless attempt, perhaps, to convince readers that their lives have been oddly…

Interview: Alice Gillham – Build It And They Will Come, Or Expectations Displaced
By BRUCE DENNILL Composer, producer and playwright Alice Gillham’s new musical Calling Me Home recently completed its first run – a brief installation at the Joburg Theatre in Braamfontein, where it met with mixed reviews. The piece was initially…

Theatre Review: Calling Me Home – If Musicals Be The Food Of Love, Or Home Is Where The Art Is
By BRUCE DENNILL Calling Me Home / Directed by Magdalene Minnaar / Mandela, Joburg Theatre, Braamfontein, Johannesburg Large budget, large scale, large vision … and large risk. Calling Me Home is a new, original South African musical, joining…

Theatre Review: Live Jukebox – Spontaneous Spotlight, Or Invasion Of The Melody Snatchers
By BRUCE DENNILL Live Jukebox / Directed by Kristy Suttner / The Fringe, Joburg Theatre, Braamfontein, Johannesburg Interactive theatre shows are not as common as they once were, with even the likes of the Joburg Follies being distant…

Theatre Review: West Side Story – Somewhere, Somehow, They’ve Made A New Kind Of Theatre
By BRUCE DENNILL West Side Story / Directed by Matthew Wild / Mandela, Joburg Theatre, Braamfontein, Johannesburg There’s a good deal of nostalgia involved in watching West Side Story. It’s unavoidable. It’s a 60-year-old stage musical based on…

Theatre Review: Robin Hood And The Babes In The Wood – Plenty Under The Hood, Or Adding Sophistication To Silliness
By BRUCE DENNILL Robin Hood And The Babes In The Wood / Directed by Janice Honeyman / Joburg Theatre, Braamfontein, Johannesburg Search “pantomime” on this blog and you’ll find some banter about how – to paraphrase – it’s…

Theatre Review: Acceptance – Problematic Perception, Or Enlightened Through Endurance
By BRUCE DENNILL Acceptance / Directed by Simona Mazza / The Fringe, Joburg Theatre, Braamfontein, Johannesburg The subject matter that inspired this original work is heartbreaking, macabre and troublingly revealing. It takes as it’s core theme the 2014…

Dance Review: Impact No. 1 – Collected Choreography, Or Three-Sway Alliance
By BRUCE DENNILL Impact No. 1 / Tshwane Dance Theatre, Cape Dance Company and Moving Into Dance Mophatong / Joburg Theatre, Braamfontein, Johannesburg When it is possible to see a full-scale contemporary dance programme on one of South…

Dance Review: Romeo & Juliet – More Is More, Or Of Energy, Colour And Dead Teenagers
By BRUCE DENNILL Romeo & Juliet / Joburg Ballet / Artistic Director Iain Macdonald / Joburg Theatre Joburg Ballet’s newly adopted strategy of having more productions in a year, each running for shorter periods, is bearing fruit. With…

Opera Review: One Flute Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Or Queen Of The Nicht
By BRUCE DENNILL The Magic Flute / Directed by Christoph Dammann / Mandela at Joburg Theatre, Braamfontein, Johannesburg Mozart’s final opera is a complex beast, while also being a daft Disney fairytale antecedent that goes through long sections…

Dance Review: Giselle – Dead Can Dance, Or Giving Everyone The Wilis
By BRUCE DENNILL Giselle / Joburg Ballet, principals Shannon Glover and Juan Carlos Osma / Joburg Theatre, Braamfontein, Johannesburg There’s that point at which you realise as a teen or even a middle-aged reader that the fairytales you…

Theatre Review: Bye Bye Baby – No Jersey Boys, Or Pullover The Other One
By BRUCE DENNILL Bye Bye Baby / Musical director: Marc Ryzer / The Mandela, Joburg Theatre, Braamfontein Frankie Valli & The 4 Seasons are a more or less impossible act to follow. There’s Valli’s voice, which is unique…

Theatre Review: Queen – It’s A Kinda Magic: Royal Variable Performance, Or Mercurial Personalities
By BRUCE DENNILL Queen: It’s A Kinda Magic / Starring Giles Taylor / Mandela, Joburg Theatre, Braamfontein, Johannesburg The stated aim of Queen: It’s A Kinda Magic is to be “ the theatrical creation of the very best…

Theatre Review: Sleeping Beauty – Focus Pocus, Or Fairy Wail
By BRUCE DENNILL Sleeping Beauty: The Pantomime Of Your Dreams / Directed by Janice Honeyman / Mandela, Joburg Theatre, Johannesburg Pantomime: “A theatrical entertainment, mainly for children, which involves music, topical jokes, and slapstick comedy and is based…

Theatre Review: The Full Morty – Memento Morty, Or Mirth And The Male Mind
By BRUCE DENNILL The Full Morty / Directed by Kristy Suttner-Stride / The Fringe, Joburg Theatre, Johannesburg Nowadays, most comedians tend to offer more than just a mumble into a microphone, particularly in one-man shows where there is…

Theatre Review: Sister Act – Divine Design, Or Nun So Bold
By BRUCE DENNILL Sister Act / Joburg Theatre / Directed by Janice Honeyman The technical team behind Sister Act clearly took a lot of pleasure in their work, as the production features some invigoratingly fresh visual ideas, including…

Dance Review: Geneva Ballet’s Romeo & Juliette – The Geneva Unconvention, Or Moved By Love
By BRUCE DENNILL Geneva Ballet / Romeo & Juliette / Choreographed by Joelle Bouvier / Joburg Theatre, Johannesburg Geneva Ballet have made something of a speciality of overhauling classical works in such a way that lovers of both…

Dance Review: Slave To The Rhythm, Or Walkin’ ‘Bout A Revolution
By BRUCE DENNILL A Spartacus Of Africa / Choreographed by Veronica Paeper and David Krugel / Joburg Theatre, Johannesburg The story of the Thracian – Thrace was an area overlapping parts of modern Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece –…

Theatre Review: Pleasing Idol Chatter, Or Stories Supersede Singing
By DARISE FOSTER Let’s Get It On – The Life And Music Of Marvin Gaye / Joburg Theatre / Starring Lloyd Cele / Directed by Simon Myers After achieving success following his stint on Season 6 of South…

Concert Review: Coming Of Age In Stuttering Style, Or Music Appreciation Class En Masse
By BRUCE DENNILL 21 Songs For 21 Years Of Democracy / Joburg Theatre / Musical director Victor Masondo There will always be a reason to celebrate the anniversary of something, though celebrating the Struggle when Nkandla looms, Eskom…

Theatre Review: Underwhelmed By The King, Or Below The Belt
By DARISE FOSTER The opening night of the Elvis The Show, With Nathan Belt was … eventful. The good news: Belt has an incredible voice. The bad news: I didn’t feel like I got what I came for. The show…

Music Interview: Belinda Davids – Of Davids’ Line, Or Houston, We Have No Problem
By BRUCE DENNILL Singer and actress Belinda Davids has the sort of problem most performers only hope to deal with. As the title character and focal point of the tribute production The Greatest Love Of All – The Whitney…

Theatre Review: Tribeautiful, Or Whitney Once More, With Passion
By BRUCE DENNILL The Greatest Love Of All: The Whitney Houston Show / Directed by Johnny Van Grinsven / The Mandela, Joburg Theatre Tribute shows are often unfairly regarded as staged karaoke, which underplays the effort that goes…

Theatre Review: An Introduction To Magic, Or Let’s See How This (Peter) Pans Out
By BRUCE DENNILL Peter Pan: The Pantomime / Joburg Theatre / Directed by Janice Honeyman JM Barrie wouldn’t have a clue what was going on at if he were to walk into the Joburg Theatre during the 2014…

Dance: Vuyani Dance Company – To Infinity … And Beyond!
By TAMMY BALLANTYNE It’s rare to find a dance company these days reaching a milestone as momentous as 15 years of existence. Especially one espousing an Afro-infused contemporary dance technique. It is virtually impossible to find funding for companies…