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Olivier Winner Kat & Kings Returns for London XmasDate: 1 May 2003
The South African musical Kat and the Kings will return to the UK for a Christmas engagement at north London's Tricycle Theatre, where it premiered in 1997 ahead of Olivier Award-winning West End and international success. The limited season will run from 10 December 2003 to 8 February 2004. Booking has already opened.
Based on the real life memories of the show's original star, Sallie Daniels, Kat and the Kings offers a glimpse of the 'Cape Coloured' , or mixed race, community of Cape Town through the story of a talented but 'non-white' young band that couldn't compete with apartheid. It's set in 1957 when the dance halls of South Africa were rocking with the raunchy sounds of doo-wop and rock 'n' roll.
When it received its UK premiere at the Tricycle in 1997, Kat and the Kings was the first South African musical to open in London since the advent of black majority rule in its native country. (Since then, other major South African hits to arrive on these shores have included Umoja and The Mysteries.) It returned for a second-sell-out season at the Tricycle before transferring to the West End's Vaudeville Theatre for an extended run.
At the 1999 Laurence Olivier Awards, the musical - written by David Kramer (who also directs) and Taliep Peterson - scooped the prizes for Best New Musical as well as Best Actor in a Musical which, uniquely, was awarded to the entire South African cast, who beat off stiff competition that year from the likes of Oklahoma!'s Hugh Jackman. Following its West End run, Kat and the Kings transferred to Broadway and toured internationally.
Currently at the Tricycle, Kerry Lee Crabbe's adaptation of Harold Pinter's novel The Dwarfs continues until 31 May 2003.
- by Terri Paddock
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