BWW Awards Special: South African Theatre Winners Celebrate the 2016 Regional BroadwayWorld South Africa Awards

It was no unlucky Friday the 13th for South Africa's theatre community when BroadwayWorld's Regional Managing Editor Christina Mancuso released the names of the of the winners of the 2016 BroadwayWorld South Africa Awards. The awards honour productions that opened between 1 October 2015 and 20 September 30 2016, with nominations put forward by BroadwayWorld readers, who then also voted to select the winners. With an enormous response to the announcement, with congratulations and thanks flooding social media, this special feature puts the winners in the spotlight.

When it came to musical theatre shows, South African audiences drew their nominations from more than a dozen productions that played all over the country, some at major theatres, others at fringe venues or on the festival circuit. Revivals of classic shows like I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE, JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT, SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET featured heavily across the board, while nominated shows taking the stage in South Africa for the first time included David Kramer's DISTRICT SIX - KANALA at The Fugard Theatre, Jonathan Roxmouth's I'M PLAYING YOUR SONG: THE MARVIN HAMLISCH STORY at Theatre on the Bay and Pieter Toerien's Montecasino Theatre, and John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask's HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH at Gate69.

Shows that included original music alongside established favourites included Nataniël's brand-new show, MANNEQUIN; Daneel van der Walt's first-class cabaret, DANI & THE LION; and Candice van Litsenborgh's tribute to June Carter Cash, FROM THE HEART. The comedy-cabaret DRAGGING 30 also drew a nod for its drag performer, Shenay O'Brien.

The pantomimes of the last season, SLEEPING BEAUTY and SNEEUWITJIE, as well as musicals aimed at young audiences, such as HEIDI and DISNEY'S PETER PAN JR, also garnered nominations.

The biggest winner of the year was SWEENEY TODD, which won six awards including Best Revival of a Musical. Steven Stead, who won Best Director of a Musical for his new production of the 1979 musical by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, commented on the win:

This is thrilling news indeed! I am so proud of our cast and creative team, and so grateful to the public for coming out in such numbers to enjoy our wicked magic lantern show. And for giving us the thumbs up by voting! It is a privilege to be acknowledged like this in a popular vote, especially for a piece which many have regarded as rarefied and of limited appeal. It just goes to show what I've always felt: Anyone can whistle Sondheim! And should! Often!

SWEENEY TODD also took home awards in four of the five performance categories. Jonathan Roxmouth, one of the most prolific performers in the South African musical theatre industry, was nominated twice as Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical this year, his second nomination being for I'M PLAYING YOUR SONG.

In addition to winning that award for his portrayal of "the demon barber of Fleet Street," Roxmouth also won the award for Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical for his performance as the Pharaoh in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT. He commented on his double win, giving some insight as to what it takes to play one of the most complex and challenging roles in the musical theatre canon:

What fantastic news! SWEENEY TODD took every last drop from me, so this recognition means so much to me. Pharaoh was like my rehab after Sweeney so to be recognised for that as well is such a wonderful double whammy. Thank you to BroadwayWorld South Africa and our audiences.

Charon Williams-Ros, whose Mrs Lovett won her the award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical, also alluded to Sondheim and Wheeler's multifaceted character writing in the piece:

I am delighted to win the BroadwayWorld award for Mrs Lovett. She is so layered and complex, I never tired of playing her. A huge thank you to my partner-in-crime, Jonathan Roxmouth - honestly a partnership made in heaven, and our inspired leader Steven Stead, whose brilliant, seamless direction is so often unseen.

Anne-Marie Clulow said that she was 'deeply grateful' to have won Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical for her role as the Beggar Woman, mentioning not only those who worked with her on the production but also her teachers

I would like to thank BroadwayWorld.com South Africa for affording the platform and opportunity for South African theatre productions to be recognised by the theatre-going public for their contributions to theatre. As this is a vote awarded by the public, I am hugely grateful to those audience members who took the time to vote, and even more importantly, that they support theatre and attend our shows.

I dedicate this award to Keith Galloway and Delia Sainsbury, my teachers. Keith who instilled a love for embodying a role truthfully, with deep reverence and respect, who taught me so very much about acting and authenticity on stage, whose teaching I drew on every single performance for this piece.

To my dearest director Steven Stead, thank you for entrusting this deep, dark and challenging part to me. I would also like to express my thanks to Charon Williams-Ros and Jonathan Roxmouth for weaving the energetic magic on stage every night that both inspired and held the space for the entire cast and crew to create this piece of theatre. To have been involved in this magic, both backstage and onstage, has been a highlight of my musical theatre life.

Finally, the company of SWEENEY TODD was awarded Best Ensemble Performance for their work on the show.

Roxmouth was not the only winner from the JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT camp, with audiences also having given Duane Alexander the nod for his choreography of the show. Upon hearing of his win, Alexander commented:

Thank you so much for this recognition. I had an absolute blast working on JOSEPH with an incredible creative team and a stellar cast, so to receive this award is a veritable cherry on top! My thanks to Pieter Toerien, and everyone involved in JOSEPH, the thousands of people who have supported the production and the wonderful choreographers I've had the pleasure of working with in my life from whom I've learnt so much. Finally, thank you to BroadwayWorld for providing the platform for these awards.

In the technical and design categories, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, which played the Teatro at Montecasino and the Artscape Opera House, won the awards for Best Lighting Design (Tim Mitchell) and Best Scenic Design (Simon Higlett). Madeleine Lötter, who designed the costumes for the new musical adaptation of HEIDI that premiered at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees this year, was awarded the prize for Best Costume Design. HEIDI, which featured a book by Francois Toerien and a score by Mynie Grové, Francois Toerien and Esther von Waltsleben, was also named Best Production of Theatre for Young Audiences.

The winner of the award for Best Musical was VRG Theatrical and Gate69's HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH. Gate69's Brendan van Rhyn commented on the win Facebook, mentioning the impact that the production, which starred Paul du Toit and Genna Galloway under the direction of Elizma Badenhorst , had on its audiences:

What superb news to wake up to.... Congrats to everyone involved and a huge thank you to Gate69 and VRG Theatrical for giving this country something people will talk about for years to come. HEDWIG, you beauty!!!

In the categories for plays, the nominations were spread across a diverse range of shows, including original works (like Penelope Youngleson's SILLAGE and Philip Rademeyer's THE GRAVEYARD), South African premieres of international plays (like Joshua Harmon's BAD JEWS and Bruce Norris's CLYBOURNE PARK) and revivals of both local and international plays (such as Mbongeni Ngema, Percy Mtwa and Barney Simon's WOZA ALBERT! and Federico García Lorca's DIE HUIS VAN BERNARDA ALBA). Some categories were highly contested, with the public nominating up to twenty nominees in some cases.

It was a single production, however, that won four of the awards: the VNA Productions premiere season of PORSELEIN at the South African State Theatre. Tiaan Slabbert and Quintin Wils were named Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Play and Best Director of a Play respectively, while the play itself was awarded Best New Work (for the Brackenfell Drama Group) and Best Play. Wils was overwhelmed by PORSELEIN's achievements:

Thank you so incredibly much! I appreciate this recognition so much! I am actually absolutely speechless - especially for having won Best Director. I mean, I never thought that I could have won against the many great directors that I was nominated with. I have looked up to so many of them for years now, and even worked with some of them - they are all just truly such amazingly talented people! What an honour to even just be nominated with them - and now to win... I am speechless.

Commenting on the play's win as the Best New Work of the year, he continued:

The Best New Work award definitely belongs to the writers of the Brackenfell Drama Group. What an honour to have been able to work with such a richly workshopped script that gives actors and directors alike so many opportunities to work with it and craft a production that makes audiences view domestic violence in a totally different light than what they usually would think.

Wils also acknowledged the role of 'the brilliant cast and crew who believed in this production so much' in his comments on the Best Play Award, as well as on the roles of theatre producers, houses and audiences:

A huge thank you to Aubrey Sekhabi and Paul Grootboom from the South African State Theatre who believed in the production so much right from the very start. This production would not have been possible without their belief, as well as the cast and crews belief in the show. And of course, thank you so much to everybody who took the time to vote for us! Thank you for believing in us and in our work! We dearly appreciate your support, not only by voting but also for always coming out in numbers to support our work!

Slabbert, with whom Wils had previously worked in one of his edgy mobile thriller productions, also received high praise from his director:

I am so incredibly proud of Tiaan. He has worked extremely hard in this production for the various characters that he needed to portray. The work he did in it was astounding and I am excited about his career as an actor in our industry!

Two more actors were named as winners in the 2016 BroadwayWorld South Africa Awards. The categories for Best Actress in a Featured and Leading Role in a Play were also won by a single person this year: Claire-Louise Worby, who was awarded for her work in both CLYBOURNE PARK and COURT. Her heartfelt response to her win:

It is a real belly laugh joy and honour to have so many voices chirping in support of my work this year and I have seen some truly inspiring art being done in this city, I'm really flabbergasted. I have to thank the people who really put their faith in me this year - Candice van Litsenborgh and Richard Wright-Firth really gave me such a wonderfully fun, supportive and safe platform to get on stage. Without Canned Rice Productions, I would have really struggled to find my artistry this year. I also am so grateful to The Fugard Theatre for taking a chance on a newbie in town. Greg Karvellas was the director from heaven and I couldn't have been happier than I was working with him and the whole cast of CLYBOURNE PARK who were the most supportive and generous group of actors you could possibly ask for. So in short, I'm just really grateful for the opportunities as well as the generosity of those I worked with in the theatre community this year. Also, how wonderful to have such a great voice of support coming from so many people.

Winning for Best Actor in Leading Role in a production was Andre Odendaal, whose performance in DOP earned him wide critical acclaim. He noted how much 'the fact that these are public voters means'. With one of BroadwayWorld's goals being to showcase theatre work from around the world on an international platform, the role of audiences in this reader-driven awards presentation in honouring the shows that they have seen cannot be underestimated.

The final award of the year was presented to the Best Revival of a Play. This was won by Raminidam, the production company set up by Marthinus Basson and Chris Pienaar, for their production of c*ckAND BULL STORY, a play that was revitalised by Quentin Krog and Geon Nel's striking localised adaptation of Richard Crowe and Richard Zajdlic's original piece.

Following a record-breaking year for the BroadwayWorld Regional Awards, readers are invited to submit their nominations in October this year when the 2017 awards season opens. With musicals like FUNNY GIRL and KING KONG and plays like THE MOTHER and MARAT/SADE set to join shows that have already opened in the current season like THE FALL, WHEN SWALLOWS CRY and OH, BABY YOU'RE A WILD ONE, 2017 looks set to be an even busier year on theatre stages across the country.

The BroadwayWorld Regional Awards are presented in association with BroadwayHD, the exclusive Presenting Sponsor for this year's awards. Voters participating in this year's awards receive special offers and subscription opportunities to BroadwayHD, whose co-branding will extend through the voting and winners announcements. In June 2016, BroadwayHD made history with the live stream of Roundabout Theatre Company's SHE LOVES ME, marking the first-ever Broadway live stream. Last weekend, BroadwayHD live streamed Roundabout Theatre Company's HOLIDAY INN: THE NEW IRVING BERLIN MUSICAL.