Lloyd Webber play for SA 2010
Lucille Davie
12 March 2008The Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton musical The Boys in the Photograph will be staged at the Civic Theatre as part of Johannesburg's 2010 Fifa World Cup offerings.
The musical will be put on at the Civic's Nelson Mandela Theatre from 23 May to 8 August 2010, as one of the parallel events the city is organising for the fans who are expected to converge on Johannesburg during the World Cup.
Originally called The Beautiful Game, the award-winning musical was first performed in London's West End in 2000. It focuses on a group of boys growing up in an atmosphere of religious intolerance and hatred in Belfast in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s. The plot centres on a football team, made up of Catholic and Protestant youngsters, with a Catholic coach.
Political and religious violence overwhelms the team - some become members of the IRA, in the process destroying their lives. The story has relevance to apartheid South Africa and the racial hatred that tore families apart.
In a formal event on Sunday evening, Joburg Executive Mayor Amos Masondo announced the musical as one of the events running parallel to the World Cup.
World-class offering
"This theatre event will provide an additional world-class offering to both soccer lovers and theatre goers," Masondo said. "It will further enhance global awareness of the rich culture of entertainment, build cross-cultural relations and foster nation building."
Multi-award winning playwright Lloyd Webber, now a baron, is rewriting the play together with comedian and author Elton because they felt that the musical did not achieve its full potential, they told Toronto's The Star newspaper in January.
"The beautiful game" was football great Pelé's description of the sport, and it led to the audience being confused about what to expect.
"People thought they were coming to see Andrew Lloyd Webber's soccer musical, and it's no more about soccer than My Fair Lady is about flower sellers," Elton told The Star. "It's about a team, a group of young people. They could be playing anything. It really doesn't matter what."
The rewritten musical will be put on in Toronto in April 2009 before it comes to South Africa.
Local cast
Bernard Jay, the chief executive of the Civic Theatre, said he saw the original musical in Hungary and was "delighted" to get it for the Civic. The musical would have an entirely local cast and casting would start soon.
"[Lloyd Webber] and [Elton] will be coming out here to teach kids how to play soccer on stage," Jay said.
Jay will produce the musical, with Simon James and Claire Pacariz as associate producers.
"This will deepen global recognition and ensure that South African artists continue to be part of performing award-winning productions at theatres abroad," Masondo said.
Lloyd Webber has written some of the world's most famous musicals, including The Phantom of the Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita and Cats. Elton has written and produced various episodes for the television series Blackadder, The Thin Blue Line and The Young Ones, as well as the novels Stark and Popcorn.
Source: City of Johannesburg
