| What: Colleen The Musical When: November 27, 2025 to February 7, 2026 Where: The Pam Golding Theatre, Baxter Theatre, Cape Town Bookings: Webtickets Writer: Marc Lottering Director: Lara Foot Cast: Includes Marc Lottering, Carlo Daniels, David Chevers, Jill Levenberg,, Sizwesandili Mnisi, Kate Normington, Anzio September, Sasha Duffy, Damian Jacobs, Sasha Nkonyana and Amy Rosslind Band: Lee Ludolph (lead guitar), Jud Petersen (sax), Craig Potgieter (bass guitar), Yvan Potts (1st keyboard)., Daniel Titus (2nd keyboard) Musical director: Charl Johan Lingenfelder Choreographer: Grant van Ster Set designer: Patrick Curtis Lighting designer: Franky Steyn Costume designer: Graca Oliveira Digital content creator: Kieran McGregor |
I love, loved, loved Marc Lottering’s Colleen the Musical. The brilliant Lottering has written and stars in the musical, bringing to life on stage, his beloved character Colleen the permanent casual who works in a supermarket. He has written the songs and music. Phenomenal. Director Lara Foot has seamlessly woven together story and song into a tour de force comedic musical feast. The ensemble cast is a knockout. The dance (choreographer Grant van Ster) is breathtaking. Impressive dance feats from Lottering. His dance includes crowd surfing moves – back flipped – insanely amazing. The onstage band is a wow (musical direction by Charl Johan Lingenfelder).
Colleen the Musical follows Lottering’s hit trilogy of Aunty Merle musicals. Colleen has her own story and the characters belong to her story, not to Aunty Merle’s family tribulations, if you are wondering if Colleen is a continuation of Aunty Merle.
I have been on a high since attending the opening of Colleen, an evening with rapturous applause throughout, an ovation, followed by Siya Kolisi going on stage to wish Lottering happy birthday. The show is a tonic for the silly season, an upper, energising, fun and entertaining but clever, insightful and inspiring.
So here is the thing, Colleen the Musical is full of surprises. There is a big surprise and a lovely surprise at the end in the wedding scene of Bronwynn, Colleen’s work colleague. The same way as one is asked at the end of Agatha Christie thrillers, not to spoil the plot for others who will be watching, the same goes for Colleen the Musical – please do not spoil the delicious surprise. It feels like a festive season gift by Marc Lottering to us, his fans. And it is an inspired plotting device.
Following in the spirit of the upbeat positivity of the Aunty Merle musicals, Collen is feel-good entertainment. Colleen transcends her fears and becomes brave, embracing love and friendship. The call-out is for of us to embrace and accept each other – across divides of gender, sexuality and what-what. There is a wryness and tenderness as the relationships unfurl on stage, beautifully layered and textured by song and physical comedy, powered with dramatic punch. Within the fun is Lottering’s signature interrogation of prejudices, through clowning, keenly observed comedy and subverting of stereotypes
I was enthralled by the glorious set design by Patrick Curtis. I expected a supermarket setting, cluttered with Saffer brands – tins of All Gold, Mrs Ball’s Blatjang, Omo, Black Cat Peanut butter – a kitsch melange of Saffa supermarket chic. Curtis has created a wondrous minimalist white streamlined set. Stacks of shelves with objects shift, rigged by lighting become a striking foil for the colourful protagonists. A chic white aesthetic holds space for the protagonists to live their best lives, without being upstaged by brands. It is ingenious.
The stacks of shelves flip around to reveal setting s- the canteen, outside etc. I love the way the stacks of shelves are physically moved around, rather than being on a automated revolve. There is a sense of labour in moving the parts around, which pings fir me in terms of the story, of labour in a supermarket. This is not an online, AI powered shopping setting. There are no bots. It is theatre.
The backdrops, beyond the grocery shelves are colourful, but are minimalist and cartoon-like, reminiscent of Pop Art, pinging for me of Roy Lichtenstein’s pointillism. Images on the screen (Kieran McGregor, digital content creator) dangle, suspended in space. The minimalist shelves, shift according to light, context and action. They bring in a liminality to the story, a sense of magic realism as Colleen’s story plays out. Before our eyes, Colleen transfigures from ‘character’ to protagonist. She transcends being a cut-out character who is just there for us to laugh at. The cartoon like backdrop sharpens the focus of her humanity, with the brilliant Lottering teasing out physical and emotional layers of Colleen, beyond just being a character that he does in stand-up comedy. The entire cast dig deep into the protagonists – beyond just characters who are there to make us laugh.
The development of Colleen spans a first act of 80 minutes and second act of 65 minutes, plus a 15 minute interval. I was captivated and did not want it to finish. Colleen the Musical is a magic box. On that note, keep your eyes peeled for the sensational Joker in the Pack, in the 2nd half featuring Randall (Carlo Daniels) and the company. This scene is a dazzler of dance and magic, with Daniels’ sublime dance vocabulary.
Watching Colleen the Musical and it struck me how for many the notion of shopping in real time has become ol’ school with the surge of online shopping. Sixty seconds and you have your shopping. Okay, there is a delivery person to connect with briefly but online is without layers of human connection that one gets in a physical supermarket. This circles back to my comment about the AI/bot factor of online shopping. A physical supermarket with people like Colleen, Bronwynn and Randall is about connection. Lottering has taken that as a lens to project the theatre of human context, in a South African landscape, sure, with Saffa/Cape Flats accents, but which taps into universal desires to connect; to transcend fear and difference, make goodness out of badness and ultimately find love.
✳ Marc Lottering stars in Colleen The Musical, November 27, 2025 to February 7, 2026, Baxter, Cape Town. Pic: Supplied.
