The sounds of ABBA filled The Baxter Theatre from Wednesday 25 January 2023 as the fabulous Miss Cathy Specific took to the stage in a family-friendly production. With the Johannesburg based Mzanzi Ballet Group, the story of Cinderella came to life.
Dirk Badenhorst’s Johannesburg-based Mzanzi Ballet, closed with their last show at The Baxter on Saturday 28 January. This spectacular show, ‘The ABBA Show – A Cinderella Story’, is a modern telling of the classic tale of Cinderella, set to the timeless music of ABBA and innovative and hip choreography by Angela Revie and Michael Revie.
Featuring special guest, the entertaining and popular Cathy Specific Brendan Van Rhyn as the Fairy Godmother, the production proved to be entertaining. No Mzansi Ballet show is complete without a cast of world-class dancers such as Angela Revie, Aviwe November, Veronica Louw, Marlon Frometa Ballester (National Ballet Of Cuba), Shana Dewey (former dancer with Joburg Ballet), Paulo De Jesus Gonzalez Gonzalez, Javier Monier Jouve and amongst others. Costumes and set designed by David Hutt.
The stage was welcome treat of colour, activity and gorgeous costumes. The interactive production and cast brought a fun element to the ever-popular story of Cinderella. Theatre goers was left in awe with all the talented activity on stage. The fine art form of ballet showed us a modern twist of talent, dedication and hard work.
“This was undoubtedly the HAPPIEST evening at the theatre for the more than 20 000 audience members who got the chance to feast their eyes on our every move over the last 9 months. To those who never saw us, sadly that’s not good enough. To those who managed to gather friends and make a celebration of it, we applaud you; to those who couldn’t even get one person to join them, the mind boggles. Ballet, ABBA, a Drag Queen, audience participation, live singing… you name it there was something for everyone – even the purists, who simply need to get off their high horse and chill because boy oh boy, it’s a far way down. Mzansi Ballet, till we meet again, soon.” -Cathy Specific-
This was a long-awaited collaboration between Cathy Specific and Dirk Badenhorst and we hope to welcome more productions like this from these powerful and skilled artists to our South African stages.
#MzanziBalletSchool #BaxterTheatre #CathySpecific
Annette Havenga – Happening News SA ©