Charl Blignaut: On stage in Pretoria
In 1997, South Africa’s leading concert promoter Attie van Wyk announced that he and showbiz afficionado Bernard Jay would be establishing a new company, In-Concert Theatre. They would be looking to inject a dash of star quality on to the local stage by importing international stars to perform in well-known works, supported by a local cast.
Sure enough, before you could say “I’m no poofter”, Jason Donovan was flown in, singing, dancing and generally being an all-round nice guy in The Fantasticks.
He was to be followed by a string of imported stars, but that Jay apparently couldn’t secure one for the stage version of that all-round nice 1960s movie, Summer Holiday, has proved unexpectedly useful. Jason was fine, but local audiences, it seems, are even happier with a local star.
Not even Cliff Richard could have elicited such rapturous applause and seat-wetting whimpers as when husky-voiced homestud Steve Hofmeyer popped craftily from beneath an umbrella to announce his presence on the opening night of Summer Holiday’s Pretoria run.
Step aside Jason Donovan; our Steve’s no pansy. He’s every Pretoria poppie’s wet dream. When in one scene he strips down to his white underpants, I swear I saw wisps of smoke drift upward from the hairstyle in front of me, mere seconds away from spontaneous combustion.
The point is that however naff, nostalgic and cutesy – and Summer Holiday, albeit slick and popular, is all of those things – local audiences identify most passionately with local content.
Perhaps In-Concert could take note. Why are we always only offered imports? And dated ones at that. Grease, Oklahoma, Rocky Horror and that perpetual damn technicolour coat.
Of course these shows have their place, but if we’re going to insist on the tried and tested then where are the revivals and adaptations of our own old gems, like King Kong or Jim Comes to Jo’burg? Or, for that matter, where are the new internationals? Where are the Sondheims?
Across town, Richard Loring’s new musical Girl Talk pays tribute to The Spice Girls, Madonna, The Supremes … Not one local band.
Do our “leading” producers not find it ironic that this week in London David Kramer’s Kat and the Kings is packed out, while back home we have to deal with some British yob on a summer holiday whose sense of humour peaks at confusing the Louvre with the loo?
Of course, Pretoria found this hugely funny and Summer Holiday is sure to be a hit. After all, that’s what the people want to see. But is it really, Mr Jay? How can they order something different if it’s not on the menu?