Thespian Kate Normington tells an incredible tale of love and redemption in her inspiring new musical revue “Storm in a B Cup,” currently showcasing for a limited season at the Theatre On The Square, Sandton.
Conceptulised by Rowan and Drew Bakker, “Storm in a B Cup” is co-written and directed by Russ Savadier.
Accompanied on the piano by musical director Rowan Bakker, she takes the audience back to where it all began.
From her “West End” debut in Sunset Boulevard to the multitude of fabulous characters she’s played over the last three decades.
The multi-award-winning performer invites audiences to a humorous evening on the ups and downs of a life, “treading the boards in the magical world of musical theatre”.
Normington shares: “Storm in a B Cup is a funny and light-hearted retrospective going back to old shows I'd done, some tongue in cheek memories accompanied by beautiful songs.
“Sophisticated lyrics and melody reside in these tunes by stalwarts like Jule Stern, Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim and Kander and Ebb, with their wry musicality and haunting melody doing most of the work for us.
“These authors wrote about yearning, redemption, love and triumph, even in the most difficult of circumstances.”
Normington says she’s most looking forward to the audience's reaction to the production, which is always so gratifying.
“We have given them a different take and hope they will be revived in the hearts of the observers. I love the lighter funnier moments of the show and want the audience to share in the excitement of live theatre, where anything can and usually does happen,” said Normington.
With the art and theatre industry only getting back on its feet, after two years of challenges that came with the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic, we asked Normington to share some of her experiences.
“It (the pandemic) left us all abandoned, quite literally, except for odd pockets of activity here and there. Not much to build a character on.
“Although, having said that, much character building was achieved as a by-product of this awful scourge. I was in a privileged position of being supported but, if I hadn't been, my situation would have been impossible.
“A British minister exhorting artists to learn new skills to serve them in the pandemic left many of us outraged and saddened by the fact that the court jesters – who were responsible for keeping people's souls alive during some of the worst moments of the scourge – were suddenly relegated to the homeless and marginalised, deemed not to have marketable skills.
“There was a movement, daring Netflix and other entertainment platforms to shut down their services, to see how long the world lasted without the relief artists and musicians bring. It was an object lesson on both sides of the argument.
Normington first rose to fame playing Sister Mary Amnesia in “Nunsense” in 1987. Over the years, she starred in several successful and high-profile shows, including “Romance Romance”, “The Rocky Horror Show” and Janice Honeyman's production of “Hair”.
“Storm in a B Cup” is currently on at the Theatre On The Square until Saturday, April 30.
Tickets to the show cost R180 and are available at Computicket.