By BRUCE DENNILL
Jonathan Roxmouth’s Key Change / Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre, Fourways, Johannesburg
Key Change is not a new show, being the multi-hyphenate performer’s 2023 musical memoir that unsurprisingly merited a revival based on its initial popularity. But with its appeal helped – guaranteed, even – by both Jonathan Roxmouth’s reputation and the happy familiarity the Montecasino Theatre audience will have with the production, it’s interesting to see how it lands in a slightly different context.
One (admittedly niche) cultural note is the return of Key Change at the same time as the arrival of an excellent two-part documentary on the life of Billy Joel. Joel, unsurprisingly, makes a couple of appearances in the setlist for this show, which is subtitled “My Favourite Pianists”, so he’s clearly on Roxmouth’s radar, and arriving at the theatre having just watched the documentary, it’s easier than usual to draw direct parallels between the two. And here’s the thing: it’s a sideways journey, not a backwards step. Roxmouth’s piano playing has all the dexterity and virtuosity of the fabled American’s – about as high a compliment as it’s possible to give in popular music – and there are further similarities in the dry, cheerfully cynical drollness delivered between songs too.
That ability to combine extraordinary talent with carefully polished wit and mannerisms (raised eyebrows, winks, pouts, knowing nods and more) and make it all look effortless is at the heart of this kind of show and it’s brilliantly done in Key Change. And above and beyond the technical excellence – Roxmouth’s theatre-honed vocals are superb too – the ideas in terms of how to deliver the music are fantastic, and tough to achieve.
There are number of medleys during the show, honouring pianists from Beethoven to Jerry Lee Lewis with equal aplomb, and featuring a common link: all feature a level of complexity far above what’s needed to simply entertain. This means that every journey through a composer’s catalogue, the prevalent styles in a particular musical era or a particular genre (love songs, say) is not only enjoyable on a basic good-music-played-by-good-musicians level but noteworthy for the creative, compound arrangements and the collective chops required to make them fly.
The medleys are the spikes in pacing and dynamics during the show and the energy does dip a little between them, but Roxmouth’s storytelling, is slick, smart and regularly uproariously funny (as when he relates a story about being a pubescent school recital headliner) and keeps things ticking over.
This is expert showmanship given scale by a good band (Lindzi Moore’s cello is a delicious X factor) and a concept that cannot date – Beethoven, Mozart, Jim Steinman, David Foster, Nina Simone and the vast scope of players in between them who are all included here have left behind them material that simply doesn’t age. If you’re simply someone who likes a good tune, there’s plenty here for you. If you are aware of and care for real musical craftsmanship, there is much, much more.