The Stariest Cast Ever For This Year's Joburg Theatre Pantomime Cinderella
Producers, Joburg Theatre, and Bernard Jay will bring Cinderella, known as the fairy godmother of all pantomimes, back to the stage of The Mandela at Joburg Theatre from October 28th to December 20th 2020. And this year’s cast is packed full of star names to thrill each of the anticipated 60,000 theatre patrons who will see the panto.
Once Upon A Time a girl named Cinderella lived with her two ugly stepsisters. Poor Cinderella had to work hard all day long so the others could rest. One day, big news came to town. The King and Queen were going to have a Ball! It was time for Prince Charming to find a bride…..
In writer / director Janice Honeyman’s story of Cinderella, you know that the show will be packed with an abundance of comedy, stunning sets, hundreds of beautiful costumes and, of course, the spectacular panto moment when Cinderella is transformed from rags to riches and whisked off to the Ball – with the help of a little dusting of fairy godmother magic.
Favourite panto star Desmond Dube (Hotel Rwanda, Mandela’s Gun, The Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, #karektas) returns for his seventh Janice Honeyman panto, with Ben Voss (Green Mamba, Beauty Ramapelepele, Spud, Benny Bush-Whacker) starring with Desmond as the two Ugly Sisters. Desmond and Ben won the hearts – and hilarity – of panto audiences when they appeared together in 2018’s Snow White.
Hugely popular South African actress Connie Chiume – best known for her starring role as Mamokete Khuse in the etv soapie Rhythm City - will make her pantomime debut in 2020 as the Fairy Godmother. Whilst all-round entertainer, Idols SA finalist and nice guy Bongi Mthombeni finally comes back home - after travelling and working all across the globe - to play the iconic role of Buttons in his sixth panto season at Joburg Theatre, having played Prince Charming in Cinderella in his stage debut in 2011.
Triple-threat theatre performer Kiruna-Lind Devar also returns to pantoland to play the title role, after starring as Meg in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera internationally for the past year. South African Music Award (SAMA) winner in 2017 for Best Pop Album and six times Ghoema Award winner as the lead singer/songwriter in the band Adam, Kyle Grant makes his panto debut in Cinderella as Prince Charming, taking a short break from his successful solo music career to return to theatre for the first time since 2014. Multi-award winning film, television and stage actor Graham Hopkins (Warrior, Leonardo, Eye in the Sky, The Lab, Barney Barnato) returns once again to panto to play the comic character role of Baron Horace Hard-Up.
Also featured in the cast of Cinderella this year are (in alphabetical order) Jonathan Blaine Shore, Cameron Botha, Clive Gilson, Tarryn Heard, Dolly Louw, Venolia Manale, Arno Meyer, Noni Mkhonto, Tshepiso ‘Perci’ Moeketsi, Brian Ngobese, Justin Swartz, Carmen Tromp and Dezlenne Ulster-Weale.
The pantomime is written and directed by Janice Honeyman, with musical direction by Dale-Ray Scheepers, choreography by Nicol Sheraton and lighting design by Graham McLusky.
Tickets for Cinderella are on sale now from R240 through www.joburgtheatre.com or by calling 0861 670 670. Many of the seventy-two scheduled performances are already sold out!
