(Director Ralph Lawson
& Playhouse Company CEO & Artistic Director Linda Bukhosini discuss costumes
for the show)
The Playhouse
Company has announced the cast for its festive season staging of The
Sound of Music, which opens in the Playhouse Opera on November 24 and
runs until December 30. This fresh, sparkling, new production will be directed
by award-winning theatre director and actor, Ralph Lawson.
The heart-warming
production features music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II,
book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, as suggested by The Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp.
Popular stage and
television actor, Craig Urbani, will play Captain von Trapp, the Austrian naval
captain who employs Maria Rainer to look after his children after the death of
his wife. Musical theatre audiences will remember Urbani well for his
performance in the lead role in the smash hit The Buddy Holly Story in South Africa and on London’s West End.
After spending many years performing in Britain, Australia, Denmark, Singapore,
New Zealand, France and Spain, he returned home in 2005 and has since featured
in television’s Binnelanders, Isidingo,
The Wild and many others. He has also played other lead roles in theatrical
productions locally and abroad, including The
Rocky Horror Show, Thoroughly Modern
Millie, Chicago, Grease, Fame, Annie and others. He has most recently
performed in a one-man show called Morecambe
for Pieter Toerien, as well as in eTV’s new series, Ashes to Ashes, and in Mzansi Magic’s It’s Complicated. He won a Vita Award and a DALRO Award for his
performances in Buddy and in Hair in South Africa; was nominated for
a Laurence Olivier Award in London’s West End, and won a SAFTA for his
portrayal of Alec Mathews in SABC’s Isidingo.
The young, musical
and tomboyish Maria who becomes a governess to Von Trapp’s seven children and
who brings a new love of life and music into the home will be played by one of
South Africa’s most dynamic and multi-talented entertainers, Lynelle Kenned.
Well known to television viewers as runner-up in Top Billing’s presenter search and now as a presenter of Pasella, Kenned is a graduate of the
University of Cape Town’s Opera School, and won the prestigious 2015 Fleur du
Cap Award for Best Performance by a Lead Actress in a Musical for her role as
Maria in Artscape’s West Side Story,
directed by Matthew Wild, as well as a Fleur du Cap nomination in the same year
for her performance in Orpheus in Africa.
A current member of The South African Sopranos, Kenned is also well known for
around South Africa for not only her stage work, but also for her work as a
voice-over artist, vocal coach, MC and motivational speaker.
The kindly,
understanding Mother Abbess will be played by opera-trained singer, Arline
Jaftha, who last impressed Durban audiences in The Playhouse Company’s Easter
Concert in March. Jaftha is the Staff Soloist of the Cape Town Opera Company,
with whom she has thrilled audiences across the globe. Britain’s Telegraph
newspaper raved about her
performance in Porgy and Bess,
describing her “heartfelt, big-voiced Serena” as “shattering”. A
highlight of her career was singing at the opening of the Wales Millennium Centre for the
Queen of England. Other roles have included Gianetta in L'elisir d'amore, Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen and Frasquita
in Carmen.
Two of
KwaZulu-Natal’s most popular actors, Liesl Coppin and Frank Graham, will also
appear in this much-loved family musical. Liesl Coppin is set to play Elsa
Schrader, a baroness of taste and elegance. Coppin is a multi-award winning
actress and vocalist who has appeared in productions such as Oliver!, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello,
Glitter Girls, Richard Loring’s original cast of Girl Talk (Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria and Malaysia), The Memory of Water, Crimes of the Heart,
Winnie the Pooh, Noises Off, Robin Hood and the Babes of the Wood, Cabaret,
Beauty and the Beast, Jack & the Beanstalk, Into the Woods, Abnormal Loads and
Glitter Girls. Awards she has won
include the following Mercury Durban Theatre Awards: Best Performer in a
Musical Revue for Glitter Girls and
Best Musical Revue for Glitter Girls
in 2014; Best Female Performer in Children's Theatre for Jack & the Beanstalk in 2013; Best Performer in a Musical Revue
for Burlesque and Best Supporting
Actress in a Musical for Beauty and the
Beast in 2012; and Theatre Personality of the Year in 2009.
Frank Graham will
play loyal Von Trapp family friend, Max Detweiler. Graham has been involved in
the entertainment world for nearly 50 years as an actor in radio, television,
film and stage. On stage he has appeared in a number of productions for The
Playhouse Company, ranging from Shakespeare to pantomime, musical comedy to
farce, and garnering him two theatre awards. He also works as a comedian and
MC, and for the last 45 years has worked highly successfully as a voice artist,
recording hundreds of radio and TV spots and other voice-overs.
Two more Durban
favourites, Adam Doré, and Shelley McLean, will play Franz, the Von Trapp
butler who is also a loyal Nazi, and Sister Sophia, respectively. Doré, who has
over 10 years of professional theatrical experience as well as three academic
degrees, has pursued his acting career in many fields, from edu-tainment such
as The Playhouse Company’s adaptation of When
Rain Clouds Gather and their hit musical West Side Story, to Shakespeare’s Othello. He has most recently been seen in Shrek! The Musical at the Lyric Theatre in Johannesburg. He also
works in corporate theatre, as an MC and copywriter, and has appeared in
various television commericals. He appeared in the international movie release
of the local film White Gold and his
joint production company, The Actors Unemployed Company (The AUC) has mounted a
number of touring and award-winning productions, including Birdman, for which he was awarded Best Solo Performance at the 2012
Mercury Durban Theatre Awards, and Super
Mokoena, for which he was nominated for Best Comedic Performance in 2014.
Thandulwazi Ncube will play the nun Sister Margaretta. This Durban
soprano has studied music in both South Africa and the United States, and has
since featured in various productions both nationally and internationally,
including Confessions of Zeno, The Magic
Flute by Mozart, Bizet’s Carmen, Hansel and Gretel, Elisir d’amore,
Handel’s Messiah, Nelson Mass and uShaka kasenzangakhona by Mzilikazi
Khumalo. She has worked with the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic in Durban,
Bloemfontein, and in Cape Town. When not performing, Ncube works as a special
needs teacher.
Erin Fourie will
play Sister Berthe, and Alison Cassels plays Frau Schmidt, the domineering
housekeeper.
Chantel Adendorff
will play Liesl, the eldest of the Von Trapp children, while her suitor, Rolf
Gruber, will be played by Rory Booth. Michael Gritten has the role of Herr
Zeller, a stern and unsmiling Nazi, while Brian Payne will play the role of the
other Nazi. Alternating in the roles of the other Von Trapp children will be
Alex van Schalkwyk and Zach Coreia as Friedrich, Fazlyn Naidoo and Milla Di
Paolo as Louisa, Swazi Thabethe and Sarah Sparks as Brigitta, Kyran Taylor and
Ethan Abrahams as Kurt, Shweta Ramsaroop and Lara Wessels as Marta, and
finally, Leah Laurenz and Leah Parry as Gretl.
Leagan Peffer,
Julia Hosmer, Kristi-Leigh Gresse, Monde Marafana and Sandile Mkhize of The
Playhouse Dance Residency/Phakama Dance Theatre will form part of the ensemble,
with the rest made up of members of the Playhouse Actors Studio and Playhouse
Chorale.
Booking is open at
Computicket outlets nationwide, and tickets started selling a year in advance,
so book now for the timeless classic that every family should share. Tickets R150,
R180, R200 and R225 each if pre-booked, and R170, R200, R220 and R245 at the
door one hour before the show. Students and pensioners receive a discount of
30% off the highest ticket price.
Block bookings
discounts are as follows: 10% discount for 10 to 19 people; 20% discount for 19
to 49 tickets; and 30% discount on 50 or more tickets. To make a block booking,
call 031 369 9405 or 031 369 9460.
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