:: The Sunbirds: A very cool musical
15 December 2006

The newspaper style review

The Sunbirds is a story from Africa. A village that kept the sunbirds its source of light loses them to an evil sorceress, Sibaguru, plunging it into perpetual darkness. Warriors from the village are sent to track down sibaguru and retrieve the valuable sunbirds. A young man decides without the blessings of the elders to go seek the sunbirds and he is followed by his female friend that also happens to be betrothed to the head of the warrior scouting part. The young couple have a head start on the warriors and they go around Africa in search of the sunbirds.

With the spirit of Africa guiding them, they travel through Ethiopia, Egypt, Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria before ending at the Victoria Falls. The musical is a beautiful piece of work. Great music. Beautiful costumes. A young cast that does an admirable job portraying various characters. And singing and dancing their way into your heart. My personal favourite and many in the audience had to be the Warrior king who threatens to kill them before eventually giving them valuable advice that helps them on their journey. Also doing a stand up job is the Ethiopian Queen who dazzles as she leads them on their way.

Many of the characters fall in the stereotypes that Kenyans have of other countries. The Southern African is surely King Goodwill Zweletini he of the reed dance and many wives. The Congolese King asks one to show their dancing prowess in the Lingala dances. The Egyptian queen is introduced as her subjects whisper “Osiris! Osiris!” The Kenyan king is a revered Maasai leader. These are stereotypes that mean that the Kenyan audience will relate to the work in question. Would it work with other audiences outside of Africa? I have serious doubts. This is clearly an African Musical for African audiences.

Much has been said of the age of the composer of this new musical. The lad is 19. What is more remarkable about his age in relation to this work is the maturity of the score. This is no fruity loops presentation. It has been accompanied by a mini orchestra with piano and violins; the works. In the next few years he should by all intents and purposes be competing with Tim Rice and Mbongeni Ngoma for theatre space at Broadway or the London West. Danson Kyavi Kiundi. Remember the name.

The Bandit review
I wasn't in the best mood really. I was coming down with a cold the day of the musicals and I really suck when I'm sick. Then I had to get off the bus at the wrong stop when heading to Braeburn theatre. As I was going up the hill, I heard a trampling and was nearly run over by a sheep. I kid you not. A honest to God kondoo came from one of those houses on the hill and nearly ran me over. I had to jump out of the way of the sheep that had this farmer looking dude in hot pursuit. The Sheep ran onto the street packed with cars and it was amazing no one was running over the wooly animal considering that it was peak time.

By the time I got into the Braeburn. I was still high on the adrenaline of nearly being sheepsmacked (as opposed to gobsmacked). I immediately picked my ticket from the lovely lass at the reception. I really have to get me into theatre (my modelling career is definitely has little chance). The theatre always has such pretty girls unlike say... who am I kidding, every place in Nairobi is babeville. Kyavi who wrote the Sunbirds came to say hi (thanks for the ticket by the way). I told him about the sheep infested Gitanga Road and he slowly shook his head as if to say, "Jaymo and his crazy stories". Ah well. He then took off to avoid this dude raving on about sheep in the big city.

It was at times like these that I realise that Nairobi is designed in groups of people with similar interests. The guys in this group all have money. I felt like that Ukoo Fulani line "una stand out kama mzungu kwa church ya mungiki". I made the best of this situation by heading to the bar where there was Amarula on Offer. Did I forget to mention that “the sunbirds” was sponsored by Amarula? Let me tell you then... This was the gala for the Sunbirds I was attending (but do I say) and the event was having a cocktail before the we went in to see the musical. The cocktail had free Amarula. Yes. The words free and Amarula in the same sentence. Lets just consider it for a while.... So I grabbed me a glass and went into the background to observe this money crowd. In there I started recognising a few faces. There was this rugby dude from college days. They used to call him Toti. I think his real name is Felix Ochieng. And there was Angela Mwandanda from all girl group Tattuu. Apart from being the groups lead singer, she is the only one that refuses to produce offspring thus making them Sittaa.

I also saw the owner of the beautiful legs from that Mtandariko several months ago. Her name is Njoki Muhoho and this time she was wearing calf length cream trousers. Sob. There was Joy Owango who made her name with the going out guide in from TZ last sighted making a presentation on media in Tanzania. And Michael Oyier from TV land and USIU Alumni chair.

In the back there was my Pauline and few off her pals. One of them, Sophie, was Ugandan and she mentioned the she found it very weird that men in Kenya hug unlike back in her motherland. Wow. I never noticed that before. We also had a nice argument about Casino Royale which I loved and Pauline thought sucked.

I also went through the various stands of the sponsors (I was now feeling lonely like Kiraitu). First was the Telkom stand. I asked them about this Telkom Wireless that I keep seeing in the papers and signs and all. Alex Kioko's and is team from Kenpat who are Telkom Wireless resellers at the Stanley hotel building on Standard Street went on to explain to me how it works. Telkom Wireless is based on CDMA technology (not unlike Flashcom and Popote). So if one wants to get in one bought a Rium card which is the equivalent of a sim card for KShs1,000. One had to buy a hand set to put this Rium card and they go for various prices starting from Ksh7,500. They had several mobile handsets of offer at their stand with Nokia and Huawei sticking in the mind. By the way please forget using your current GSM mobile handset. CDMA is completely different technology and you have to get its equivalent handset.

Telkom Wireless has several advantages. The line is considered to be a landline by Telkom. So calls to and from its network are charged at local rates. The number you get is 020 followed by six numbers just like a normal land line. The upside being that for the first time, you can now have a landline on your business card dear briefcase operator and get all the attendant benefits - respect from corporates, inspire fear in your enemies, inspire lust in all potential mates - all at the princely price of Kshs8,500. Not a bad deal if you ask me. And the best part? Internet for Kshs3 per minute. Nice. You also top up with normal Telkom cards. Even better.

There was also the resolution health stand ably manned sorry personned by Maureen Ondatto. She explained the different health coverage for individuals and corporates. She was nice. As you plan your New Year health plans try and give her a call wont you?

Kenya Wine Agency Limited (KWAL) was another sponsor on hand. Here they had come with the Amarula brand. I had a chance to speak to a couple of their executives. I recalled that in 2004, they had done a partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). The plan was that Amarula would sponsor ad space in the local media showcasing what KWS Was all about. They had done a great launch at the Nairobi Nation Park near where Moi had burnt those elephant tusks in 1989. So my question was had they gotten a return on investment on their sponsorship of the KWS? The answer was a resounding yes from the KWAL team. In fact they were so pleased with the partnership that they were now involved even more with KWS. They were even helping in the rebranding of various KWS parks. I am so pleased to hear this. The execs who were extremely friendly also gave me a pretty interesting drink to try. Two parts Amarula and one part viceroy. I will give it a try yawa!

Just before 7pm, the cocktail came to a stop. There were a few speeches to be given. They started with Kyavi, the composer who welcomed us to enjoy the show. He also told us of a rather interesting story. Kwame Nkrumah President of the first African country to become independent was once interviewed by the BBC. He refused to answer any of their questions for the one hour period. However at the end he ended by stating that "he dared to have hope for Africa". Nice. Also speaking was Sterling Q CEO Paul Oyier who HAD to acknowledge the sponsor (you could tell he really didn’t want to but had no choice in the matter). And there was the KWAL CEO on hand too as a major sponsor. A special guest speaker was Mbongeni Ngema. Yup Mr. Sarafina himself. The man who Leleti Khumalo wakes up to every morning (except maybe during the Sunbirds period he he). He was pretty complimentary of Sterling Q (these guys are doing a sterling job after all). And he also said that the Sunbirds production was also quite good.

As the talking was going on, I was by the bar (duh!). They were serving some red cocktails next to the Amarula. The bar man tells me it’s a bloody Mary and I immediately grab a glass. I know this is kidogo shady to admit but I had never before that night drank a bloody Mary. I have read about his drink, seen movies and TV with references to it and this was the first time I was coming in contact with this cocktail. So I looked at this red liquid in a glass and took a sip. Ahem... yes. I don't know if this is the way a bloody Mary is meant to taste. But. Well... It was bitter as hell. Honest. So as dudes were going into the hall speeches over I was going in as I was determined to finish this bitter tasting swill. Iwent all the way into the hall only to find that I was the only one still drinking. Luckily, someone was kind enough to kick my glass and pour rest of the bloody Mary and put me out of my misery. I shouldn’t have tasted Amarula before that Bloody Mary roho safi. That will teach me.

The Braeburn hall is quite cosy. How many can fit there? A thousand? I wasn’t counting chairs so please forgive the numbers if they are way off. The play started with adverts of the various sponsors for the musical. And then they played a tape of Leleti Khumalo reading a prepared statement on the show and welcoming us to enjoy. Totally radical dude!

I highly recommend watching a Sterling Q production. Uta Ji-enjoy!

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