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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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 –…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…