Two Jewish faces in Saturday Night Fever

PETER FELDMAN

Pictures supplied by Corné Du Plessis @enrocpics

Jay comes from a religious Jewish background in London. His father wanted him to be a banker. Jay, 70, left school at 16 to pursue a career in the theatre, a move his father frowned upon. He also told everyone that his son was in banking. It was only when a picture on the front page of the Jewish Chronicle showing the local rabbi attending one of Jay’s produced plays, that his father finally recognised his son’s talent.

“He was so proud,” recalls Jay and from that day on things changed dramatically in the Jay household.

Today Jay is one of South Africa’s foremost producers who staged some of the country’s most successful productions when he was CEO of Joburg Theatre, a position he held for 14 years.

It’s almost two years since Jay resigned from that position to explore new areas of creativity. His latest project is the mounting of the new, reworked production of the immensely popular disco musical, Saturday Night Fever. It opens on September 16.

Jay describes it as South Africa’s first “non-replica” professional production, which, in theatre terminology, means one only has to stay faithful to the book and the score and one is permitted to add one’s own embellishments to the production.

Jay, who came to South Africa in the early ‘90s first to work at Percy Tucker’s Computicket and then at Attie van Wyk’s Big Concerts enterprise, always felt theatre was in his blood and he pursued his dream. Early on in his career he was told that the two key things about being a theatre producer are to never invest your own money in a production and to know when to pull a show when it’s doing badly.

In conceiving this production, its American writers returned to the original screenplay and edited it to give it more emotional depth. The Bee Gees’ famous music has also been rebooted.

Cape Town-based actress Nurit Graff is ‘amazed’ and excited at landing roles in the show. She plays two roles, Tony Monero’s grandmother and a Puerto Rican salsa dancer, and both allow her to show different facets of her talent.

Fitness is key and Graff, a gym teacher, does rigorous workouts every day.

“I attend dance classes twice a week. The show is high energy from beginning to end. I focus on strength and cardio workouts because not only do we dance but we sing as well.”

Graff has carved her niche in musicals and has already featured in classics such as Mama Mia, Dirty Dancing and West Side Story in which she won the Durban Mercury Award for best supporting actress. In Cape Town she was in The Sound of Music. She also joined Cape Town Opera for its UK tour with Showboat.

Graff has written two successful shows, a comedy, Brand Spanking Nu, and a revue called Dazzling Divas and also spends time doing choreography for corporate events and TV commercials. “I’m lucky because I’ve been kept fairly busy and these projects make a nice change from performing in musicals.”

After Saturday Night Fever she skips straight into Janice Honeyman’s pantomime, Robin Hood, and the Babes in the Wood at Joburg Theatre.

Gregg Homann, a Naledi Theatre Award winner, directs Saturday Night Fever which also features Daniel Buys as dancer Tony Manero (a role made famous by John Travolta) and Natasha van der Merwe as his love interest, Stephanie.