Settler's Perspective

‘Enthusiastic’ is too tame a word to describe the reaction of the packed audience to the show I attended last night.  They applauded the sets.  They applauded the costumes.  They applauded many of the individual numbers.  They were spellbound throughout the full two hours five minutes of the actual show.  Then, at the end, they had really got into the mood of applauding after so much practice, and the whole house stood up and made other loud approving sounds while they did so.

With my code id da dose still with me, I was prepared to take a jaundiced view of everything.  I didn’t really feel like going, and I thought that if I did I’d better not write a review because it was bound to be savage.  It was my bad mood and I wanted to keep it, so you can imagine how annoyed I was when it simply went away during the first magical moments and didn’t return.

That isn’t to say the show had no faults.  It must have had some … but I’m darned if I was able to spot any.   The ingeniously layered and revolving sets are miracles of design and spectacle.  Costumes are wonderful.  Acting is very good, and choreography – particularly in some really scary scenes and others of carefully organised chaos – is outstanding.  Singing is of a high standard, and the music and orchestral accompaniments have been perfectly blended.

This is quite probably the most ambitious show ever staged in Durban, and it is a great pity it won’t be travelling to other centres.  The rights were only obtained by KickstArt  from Disney  for the one city.  Anyway, everyone in the KZN area over December will be idjits if they miss the experience.