Get YOUR Best of Boogie with Ganarama Productions – a 10 year celebration of bringing retro music to Cape Town!


When last have YOU been to a leqqa (we say “leqqa” with a qaaf, die regte tajweed!) musical show, where not only was there a strictly pre-millenial old school playlist, but also where the audience was up on their feet and jolling to every single track for the entire second act?!

 Wednesday night this week at the Artscape Theatre’s Opera House is our response! The Best of Boogie show by Ganarama Productions, led by Rafiek Mammon and Gary Naidoo, celebrates their 10 year anniversary of bringing 80’s and 90’s music to Cape Town, and Cultsha Kennis was qwaai enough to be invited to the opening night of this show!



It was just ‘n paar ure right before Best of Boogie, when we finished watched Pose, a Netflix series that celebrates the Afro-American transsexual community in 1980’s New York, and the fashion, music and ballroom culture that existed outside of mainstream culture during that decade. So you can imagine the butterflies of excitement we had for Best of Boogie after Pose filled our kop with Madonna’s Vogue, a ballroom category where Mother Elektra poses as Marie Antoinette and various performances of 80’s favourites like Stewie Wonder’s Love Is In Need of Love Today and Prince’s Sometimes It Snows in April.  


Rafiek Mammon is not only one of two steering members of their production company, but is also a production mentor for the execution of the drama productions which will be born out of the Rising Stars/Jong Sterre playwrights collaboration programme with Suidoosterfees and the Jakes Gerwel Foundation for 2020. Ja, julle’t reg geraai – the same festival where the drama production, Opening Miela’s Box, written by the author of Cultsha Kennis, will be also featured! Qwaai man!  


Anyone who knows Gary and Rafiek will know note what a dynamic duo they are – in short they are just gehard. Only a mal collaboration like this one can produce an Abba performance with “Shukran For The Music!” (tramakassie would’ve been even better) and an interactive scene where Islamia College represents their school at the athletics, moet ‘n athlete wat ‘n burqah dra in plaas van ‘n shorts en sweater! 

 ‘Ose oe was vasgeglue van begin tot einde! Kudos to the MC’s Hajji Fatghieya (anner mense sal vat, maar ek sal gee, ja!) and Boeta Rajee, two characters from Ganarama Productions’ Let’s Mxit show. We were impressed not just with their MC skills, but also with Boeta Rajee’s senerading skills under the streetlights! The stage lighting, done by Faheem Bardien, was gevaarlik and fantastically complimented the set and costumes of the performers. The production had a band of 6 members: lead guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and sexy-phone. A fantastic range of female and male performers, with incredible vocal and performative versatility, enacted the greats of those decades, a few which included Tina Turner (Gary, your Tina impersonation was fabulous, darling!), James Brown, Michael Jackson and Bob Marley!

In a performance of Bohemian Rhapsody, with a vocal accompaniment by members of the Cape Cultural Collective’s Rosa Choir (ja, Cultsha Kennis se choir familie van 2015!), the lead guitarist of the band instantly won our hearts and stamp of approval – not any guitarist can pull off that Brian May solo! In the second act, a leqqa funk theme with ‘n paar jitse songs was introduced, along with a South African theme featuring Brenda Fassie’s Weekend Special and Vulindlela, Miriam Makeba’s Pata Pata and The Click Song and Burn Out by Sipho Mabuse – en ander songs wat ‘osie nou kan onthou nie, maar ‘os het allie woore en dans moves geken!  

The Rosa Choir’s short appearance was led by the choir’s director, Tersia Harley, ‘n qwaai meisie who is not only a music teacher in Cape Town but also happens to be a talented vocalist herself, and she joined the rest of the show’s performances on back-up vocals. 

Best of Boogie brought voice to why it is important that music not only bring people together, but simply must keep people together in musical appreciation, especially during an age where music is not the same anymore, and the karaoke days and variety shows – for us in Cape Town it was Protégé, The Boyz and JAG who brought those songs to life – are slowly being forgotten. Thank you to Rafiek Mammon of Ganarama Productions for giving Cultsha Kennis an opportunity to attend and review this show. A special shout out to Zubayr Charles, fellow playwright and graduate of the David Kramer Masterclasses, for attending the show with us and spreading the #BestofBoogie word. The show is playing every night until Sunday 17th – buy your tickets at Computicket!
Fluit, fluit ‘os storie is uit!

Read more on Ganarama Productions: http://www.ganaramaproductions.com/page2.html






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