By Bongani Majola
NEW YORK CITY'S Broadway is legendary for some of the world's greatest musicals, including South Africa's own Sarafina. Everyone knows something about the classics from Broadway and it is the recollection of these hits that mark the Spirit of Broadway, showing at the Nelson Mandela Theatre at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre.
Broadway classics performed by a 34-member cast of singers and dancers, five lead singers and an accompanying band, include Razzle Dazzle from the Chicago musical, What a Feeling from Fame, the melancholic Empty Chairs at Empty Tables from Les Miserables and the hilarious Sweet Transvestite from the Rocky Horror Show.
Producer David King lifts all the classics from a foregone past and presents them in an invigorating blend of music and dance against an almost realistic backdrop of the famous Broadway Street in New York.
The choreography is breathtaking, with elaborate costumes that make one imagine the frantic antics of the backstage change rooms as the performers storm in and out of the stage with remarkable precision. Clearly there's a lot of work that takes place backstage and it shows.
"Coming up with the right cast to recreate the styles and atmosphere of Broadway," says King in his introduction of the show, "took several days of auditions and rehearsals and in the end we got performers with an extra sparkle and star quality".
The Spirit of Broadway is laden with international stars, mostly from the UK, one from the US and a host of locally brewed talent. In this regard, South Africa's own Ntambo Sepeng and Taryn Sudding stand out as lead singers, complemented by UK's Kelly Potter, Mathew Shaw and Steven Serlin, the versatile singer who also dances surprisingly well.
The two-hour show is on until 8 June and tickets are available at Computicket from R134.
