By BRUCE DENNILL
Striking A Chord / Musical direction by Johan Heystek / Theatre On The Square, Sandton, Johannesburg
The Covid lockdown was not good for much, but it did provide the impetus for many creative people to share their talents with online audiences, as much because that enabled some sort of connection with the outside world as because there were no physical platforms on which to perform.
Father and daughter Adrian and Emma-Jean Galliard – the former a tenor, university drama graduate and actor in musicals, the latter then an 11-year-old with a startlingly acrobatic voice – uploaded a video of their takes on The Prayer and Time To Say Goodbye, going viral (the good time) in a way they had never expected to. Off the back of the profile gained online, they have put together touring stage shows, with Striking A Chord, originally launched in 2023, the most recent.
This latest run sees the duo take the stage having undertaken further vocal training (an ongoing labour of love for all serious singers), and the results are evident in the richness of tone, confidence in interesting harmonies and, particularly on Emma-Jean’s (now 16) part, an even greater vocal agility than she displayed early on.
Still there are the goofy, affectionate interactions of two performers who are also a confident teenager and her doting dad. Also still there is Johan Heystek’s restrained accompaniment, thoughtfully arranged to offer colour and guidance – particularly when playing compositions taken from popular musicals – without ever distracting from the vocalists’ efforts.
The Galliards do well, in terms of body positions and the way they interact, to minimise potential awkwardness when singing duets that contain romantic themes (chosen for their undeniable power and being good fits for the duo’s vocal styles). Heystek’s arrangements often bring together very different pieces – Bring Him Home and Pie Jesu, in one memorable instance – in intriguing ways. And a standard-heavy setlist means repeated grunts of appreciation as each new intro begins.
To some degree, this is a performance that feels like one, with both singers’ movement (individually and relative to each other) and scripted inter-song storytelling frequently clearly front of mind rather than being the framework for a more relaxed, natural onstage presence. As an entertaining and wholesome (an under-rated facet in modern media generally) presentation of much-loved music, though, it works well, and Emma-Jean is on course, in terms of her talent and look, to develop into something really special – perhaps along the lines of pop-classical crossover artist Amy Manford, who tours with Andrea Bocelli (whose son and granddaughter Adrian and Emma-Jean were mistaken for online!).