(Pic by Barry Meehan)
For me, Kirsty van der Linde (Madgin) was
the star of the show, showing considerable dynamism and presence on stage.
(Review by Keith Millar)
The latest offering by the Rockwood Theatre
at the Sibaya Casino, which features music from the last five decades, has the
feeling of something that has been cobbled together at the last minute. It is
under rehearsed, worn out, cliched and I am afraid to say, not very well
executed.
Like all Barnyard style shows, one cannot fault
it for energy. But in this case, the energy is poured into poor choreography,
some rather poor singing and a decidedly sub-standard technical effort.
However, it must be said that many in the
audience had come to party - and with plenty of pounding music, liquid
refreshments and good company they seemed to have a ball.
The show is long, in the region of three
hours including the interval, and features an eclectic selection of hit music
from the 1970’s up to today.
From the 70’s, amongst others, are You Should be Dancing and Staying Alive from the Bee Gees, Isn’t She Lovely from Stevie Wonder, Money, Money Money, Gimme Gimme and Voulez Vous from Abba and Queens Crazy
Little Thing.
Moving on to the 80’s, they feature the
likes of Lionel Ritchie with Dancing On
the Ceiling and All Night Long and
three Madonna songs, Material Girl, Papa
Don’t Preach and Like a Virgin.
Included from the 1990’s are songs which
were featured in movies such as Love Fool
from Romeo and Juliet, Kiss From A Rose from
Batman Forever and New Age Girl from Dumb and Dumber – as well as a segment on one hit wonders which
included What is Love, Who Let the Dogs
Out and Ice Ice.
From the 2000’s are songs like Since You’ve Been Gone from Kelly
Clarkson, How You Remind Me from
Nickelback and a trio of Lady Gaga’s songs, and from the 2010’s there’s the
likes of Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines
and Meghan Trainor’s Lips Are Moving.
The latter included a fast costume change act which was a bit of a failure.
Leading the cast for this show is Andrew
Webster, who also takes on the role of host. Webster who is something of a
veteran of the stage, having been performing for 28 years, still displays
plenty of energy. Others in the cast include Ofentse Mokhuane, Jemma
Badenhorst, Jessica De Wet and Christina Jenkins. The latter is an extremely
flexible dancer who provided plenty of splits and high kicks. However, one
could not help wondering why - because it happened at random times and did not
have much context to the narrative of the songs.
The backing band was made up of Callie
Thompson (keyboards), Dylan van der Linde (drums), Sheldon van Grimm (guitar)
and Tieron Donjeany (bass).
They were joined by Kirsty van der Linde
(Madgin) on sax. For me, she was the star of the show. She has grown a lot in
her performance career and, other than her obvious musical talent, she shows
considerable dynamism and presence on stage. She impressed with her performance
in Pick Up The Pieces and Baker Street from the 70’s and Mr Saxbeat from the 2010’s.
Let’s get back to the technical problems
experienced in the show. I have had the opportunity to sit both downstairs and
on the first balcony of the Rockwood Theatre. Downstairs I experienced no
problems with the sound and, in fact, found it quite good. Unfortunately, on
the balcony this is not the case. The overall sound quality has a strange muddy
quality and lacks presence. It is almost impossible to clearly hear what the vocalists
are singing about. I am sure it does not help the sound man that he is sitting
on this level.
To make matters worse on this occasion the
sound man missed several queues. Musicians would be in the spotlight playing
their hearts out, but we were unable to hear them in the mix.
Lighting also experienced problems.
Rockwood’s excellent fancy illuminations were used to good effect, but other
than a single follow spot and a couple of lights on the side of the stage,
there appears to be little to light on the singers and they were left to
perform in the semi-dark on occasion. Particularly when they rushed out into
the audience, which they did with monotonous regularity.
It is early days in the run of this
production so one can only hope that they come to terms with the problems,
tighten up, and in my opinion edit some of the weaker moments out of the show.
As it stands, my overall opinion is that this show offers nothing new and fresh
and is just “same old, same old!.
Best
of the Decades runs until January 27, 2019.
Thursday tickets cost R99 per person, Friday to Sunday tickets cost R130,
children U12 are free and pensioners will receive 50% discount on Sundays,
Terms and Conditions apply.
To reserve tickets contact 031 161 0000 or
visit www.rockwoodtheatre.co.za or the booking office at Sibaya Casino &
Entertainment Kingdom. – Keith Millar
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