Lyric Theatre introduces its Knights of Music stars

Richard Loring and Bryan Schimmel have announced the cast of rising stars and established talents who will be taking to the stage in their upcoming theatrical musical show entitled Knights of Music, opening at The Lyric Theatre on 14th October, 2009.
Knights of Music is a tribute to the legendary knights of the 21st Century who transformed the face of musical theatre - Sir Cameron Macintosh, Sir Tim Rice, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sir Elton John and Sir Brian May.
The show will feature memorable and sensational Broadway and West End songs such as I Dreamed a Dream (Les Miserables); I am the Starlight Starlight Express); Who Wants to Live Forever (We Will Rock You); One Night In Bangkok (Chess); and many more.
The cast and band features a long list of performers that have starred in major musical productions in South Africa and the rest of the world:

CAST: Front Line vocalists
Carly Graeme, female lead
Carly, a graduate of the Guildford School of Acting (UK), has appeared in UK productions of A Winter's Tale, Pilgrim's Progress, The Beggars Opera, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, Flora the Red Menace, Don Giovanni, City of Angels, Kiss Me Kate and Babes in the Wood. She returned to South Africa in 2003 and has since appeared in Cinderella, The Sound of Music, Life@Centrestage, Grease and more.

Thokozani Nzima, male lead
Thokozani studied at the Ochrim School of Music where he obtained his Diploma in Popular Music. While studying he performed in musical theatre productions such as Kings and Queens of Music, Soweto Story, Rent, Diamonds and Dust, and The Full Monty.

Tracey-Lee Oliver, female lead
Oliver appeared in the highly acclaimed Motown Magic show at Gold Reef City's Lyric theatre this past April and May. She has worked with many industry heavyweights including Tyrone Watkins’ Strictly Come Dancing and was a lead singer in the 2007 Benefit Concert Positive Rocks.

Shaun V, male lead
Shaun V has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the entertainment industry since leaving Hi-5 and going solo in January 2006. Highlights of his career include being a part of the South African production of We Will Rock You as understudy to the lead Galileo and performing the lead role of Roger in Rent. Shaun V reprised his role in We Will Rock You with the South African cast on their tour to Asia in 2008. This is Shaun’s second Richard Loring production, having starred in Oh Boy as a member of Hi-5.

Ruth Brown, female cover
Ruth graduated in 2000 from the Technikon Pretoria with a diploma in musical theatre. Her theatre credits include: Saturday Night Fever at the Lyric Theatre; the Pieter Toerien production of Hair; Fabulously Copacabana directed by Keith Smith, Blondes; and various Richard Loring productions like African Footprint, Girl Talk Nite Out, and That'll Be the Day - The Legend of Buddy Holly. She has also performed in various Barnyard Theatre productions.

Kyle Matthews, male cover
22-year old Kyle studied Musical Theatre at Tshwane University of Technology. His previous non-professional productions include Cabaret, Ragtime, I Love You, You're Perfect Now Change and most recently, his first professional show, The Rocky Horror Show.

BAND
Rowan Bakker, musical director/piano
Rowan is a 26-year old, musical director, arranger, song writer, pianist and performer, having made his Musical Theatre debut at the age of 20 at The Sound Stage in The Young Ones.. He recently completed a successful run of Disney's Beauty and the Beast as assistant musical director, and conductor. Bakker also worked on the South African production of We Will Rock You as assistant musical director and then went on to lead the international tour as musical director in Asia.

Ryno Zeelie, guitar
Ryno's musical theatre debut was Sun City's Let There Be Rock. Since then, he has played in numerous shows including Rent, High School Musical, Snow White, We Will Rock You and Footloose. He is also the owner of Figure of 8 Productions, a successful studio and songwriting company.

Etienne Oosthuysen, drums
Etienne has been performing in the theatre since 2007 with credits including The Buddy Holly Story and Janice Honeyman's Peter Pan. In 2008 he was the percussionist for the Asian tour of We Will Rock You and the drummer for Disney's High School Musical Live on Stage in South Africa and on tour to Shanghai. A Touch of Webber – Taste of Rice was one of the shows he saw as a youngster that inspired him to become a musician.

Llewellyn John, bass
Llewellyn has been an active professional bass player for the last seven years, appearing in Disney, Broadway, West End and locally produced theatre shows in South Africa and abroad.

John Manamela, keyboard
John studied jazz at the University of Venda and then enrolled at Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria for a three year music diploma course from which he will soon graduate.
Knights of Music will run at the Lyric Theatre at Gold Reef City from October 14 to November8, 2009: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8.30pm; Friday matinees at 2.30pm and& Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3pm.

Tickets are from R130 to R205. Bookings for all shows and performances at Computicket or at The Lyric box office at 011-248-5000. Contact their entertainment consultants for the various show/meal options at 011-248-8957 or email sales@grcc.co.za

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Ruth Norris with the Knights ice sculpture.