Preview: The Good News Cabaret, Roland Perold and Godfrey Johnson at three venues in the Cape, April 2023

Preview: The Good News Cabaret, featuring Roland Perold and Godfrey Johnson at three venues in the Cape, April 2023

Over the festive season, December 2022, Godfrey Johnson and Roland Perold delighted audiences in Durban with their show: The Good News Cabaret. The three week season in Durbs, was enthusiastically received, with rave reviews and appreciative audiences. It has been a while since we have been treated to a cabaret by these artists who have excelled across disciplines in the live theatre sector. An iteration of The Good News Cabaret, a start-up tester season, was presented in late 2018 at the Alexander Bar in Cape Town (which closed during the pandemic). The Good News Cabaret, in a post pandemic landscape is very different to its first incarnation, says Johnson and Perold. In his extensive career, the classically trained Johnson [piano], has been nominated for seven Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards. In 2007, he won a FDC, for Kissed By Brel. Roland Perold has numerous degrees in music – including a M.Mus (with distinction) from Bath Spa University in the UK. In 2016, Perold won the Writers’ Guild of South Africa’s MUSE Award for his musical, The Pitch. Johnson and Perold are elated to reunite, for this revival of The Good News Cabaret. The cabaret comes after their previous collaboration, Coward & Cole, in 2012. Read on for more info about The Good News Cabaret – the April 2023 edition- in three venues in the Cape:

About The Good News Cabaret

Two of cabaret’s most consummate, accomplished and quirky performers, Godfrey Johnson and Roland Perold, reunite around the piano to bring their tantalising show. Having left Durban audiences in stitches over a three week festive season engagement, in 2022. Critics and audiences were unanimous in praise for the duo’s comedic timing and freshness of material writing: “…the show is a madcap march of good fun and quirky humour… off the wall!” Keith Millar, ArtsmArt.

Johnson and Perold are well known for their cabaret work. Both sing and play piano simultaneously and bring their uncompromising talents and unique musical arrangements to the stage. “The Good News Cabaret features carefully selected comedy material and a few oldies; who doesn’t like the 80s, after all?” says Perold. “We’re here to have some fun and make people laugh”.

Billy Suter from SoSuterBill writes: “Both performers, also witty songwriters, exude a certain level of sophistication while retaining a mischievous spark.” Johnson continues: “We live in a crazy world but luckily we can still laugh at ourselves, or at least we should! That’s where song writing, art, music and laughter come together to help us get through it all”.  

Their song-list includes an array of cutting-edge new material as well as standards by composers like Noël Coward, Tom Lehrer, Rodgers & Hart, and more. Johnson and Perold have managed to extract the zing present in these writers’ work under Paul Griffiths’ watchful eye, who directs.  

Both Johnson and Perold are also established songwriters. Amongst his many claims to fame, Perold won the Writers’ Guild of South Africa’s MUSE Award for his musical, The Pitch. The classically trained Johnson’s many accomplishments include composing the music for Pieter Dirk Uys’ musical Die van Aardes van Grootoor. The audience can look forward to some original ditties, says Johnson: “With the state of the world there is so much to talk about, we can’t resist.”

Godfrey Johnson

Johnson (a classically trained pianist) has performed over 20 one-man shows locally and internationally. He has worked extensively as a musician, director and composer and is a stalwart on the cabaret scene. Johnson has been nominated for seven Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards. The most recent FDC nomination was for his solo performance in Vaslav -based on the diaries of the great dancer, Vaslav Nijinsky. In 2007, Johnson won a Fleur du Cap Theatre Award and for Best Performance in a Cabaret for his work in Kissed by Brel.

Roland Perold

Perold who is based in Durban, is a multi-skilled performer, producer and cabaret artist, with 12 years of experience, working across disciplines– including revues, cabarets, plays, musicals and pantomimes. He has a B.Mus from UKZN, a Licentiate in Musical Theatre (with distinction) from Trinity College, facilitated by the Waterfront Theatre School and an M.Mus (with distinction) from Bath Spa University, UK.

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