Feeling good with the Blues

Published: 2009/10/10

SOMEWHERE over the years The Blues Brothers have lost the plot. Literally. The musical based on the 1980 cult movie has thrown away the story line completely. So if you’re expecting car smashes as cops chase some robbers who have formed a band to raise money for an orphanage, you’re not going to get it.

You’d struggle to fit that on the stage anyway, so all that’s left are the songs, the live band, some deadpan humour and the cool but slightly menacing attire of suits, hats and sunglasses .

And that’s all you need for a hugely entertaining show that’s simple but utterly captivating.

Johan Baird as Jake Blues and Alwyn Kotze as his brother Elwood are tremendous. Kotze wears his outfit with great aplomb, and is a slightly better dancer. Baird has his shirt hanging out and his top button casually undone, but has the more elegant voice. Yet when Kotze performs a fabulous version of Under the Boardwalk with only a bass guitar to accompany him, you realise their voices suit the different songs equally well.

Then they dance their exuberant elastic-legged dances and you can’t help laughing at the fabulous choreography by Quintus Jansen.

It’s slick and sassy with wacky duets performed perfectly in synch. This show is all about the music, and the six-piece band is as tight and professional as the brothers are loose-limbed and loveable. Kotze and Baird intersperse their songs with humour, and sometimes leave the stage free for the trio of Bluettes backing singers to shine.

Dapper Tshepi Magabo gives a beautifully engaging version of Minnie the Moocher, his white suit sparkling almost as much as his naughty eyes. Crushanda Forbes and sexy Lebo Keke are equally impressive, adding the female emotional quota that used to exist in the long-since discarded plot. It doesn’t matter that you don’t know why they suddenly launch into Think , or Respect . They just do, and like everything in this musical, they do it superbly.

Then everyone is back on stage to pump out classics like Gimme Some Lovin’ and Jailhouse Rock. The laugh-out-loud dancing and the sheer feel-good factor of it all is contagious. They may have lost the plot, but the whole audience lost their cares for the evening.

n The Blues Brothers runs at the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square, Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton, (011) 883-8606, until October 25, booking through Strictly Tickets or through the theatre’s box office, www.theatreonthesquare.co.za