Orpheus McAdoo, David Kramer’s stirring musical about the African-American Virginia Jubilee Singers who dazzled the Cape in the 1890s, returns to Artscape this spring.
Fresh from its acclaimed 2024 premiere, the revival runs from Tuesday 21 October to Sunday 2 November 2025.
Expect spine-tingling choral power as Cape Town Opera House soloist Conroy Scott again leads the cast as Orpheus. Together with fellow CTO soloist Brittany Smith as Mattie Allen they anchor a company that blends operatic voices with stage presence for a richly theatrical sound.
Kramer is one of South Africa’s best-loved stage icons, best known for his evocative musicals, and in Orpheus McAdoo he threads traditional spirituals through ragtime, early American folk and South African influences in telling the true story of Orpheus McAdoo and his Virginia Jubilee Singers, a choir of African-American performers who toured South Africa in the 1890s and took the Cape by storm.
The story charts how McAdoo and his troupe navigated fame, prejudice and the pressure of respectability in colonial-era South Africa; a history lesson told through harmony and song.
This latest outing for Kramer's captivating musical assembles an all-star theatre cast behind the scenes too: Kurt Haupt (Musical Director) brings fresh choral polish, with arrangements by Dawid Boverhoff, movement by Fiona du Plooy, sets and costumes by Julian David and Maritha Visagie, and lighting by Kieran Cattel.
The ensemble reprises fan-favourite turns from Jody Abrahams, Alexis Petersen, Elton Landrew, Natalie Robbie and Eldon van der Merwe, while Zolani Shangase joins as Ernest Logan.
Need to know
Where: Artscape Theatre
When: 21 October - 2 November 2025
Tickets: from R200–R550, with group and student discounts via Webtickets
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