Broadcast veteran shares stories on stage
HOUGHTON - After a successful run last year, Malcolm Gooding will return to the stage at Foxwood Theatre this month in Going Gooding.
The veteran broadcaster’s one-man show had audiences rolling in the aisles and basking in radio nostalgia.
“If you looked forward to Squad Cars as the height of the week’s entertainment, knew what the next best thing to a Lexington was, thought BJ was a cool name for a prime inister, skiemed Scope was good literature, and set your watch to the beep beep beep of the English service news bulletin, then you are a child of the ’70s and ’80s,” said theatre manager Clive Rodel.
The show will take audiences on an uproarious ride through this bygone era, from the viewpoint of South Africa’s “voice supremo”.
Gooding’s broadcasting career intersected with the likes of Charles Fortune, Colin du Plessis, Pat Kerr and Brian O’Shaughnessy, and he will use his golden voice and his gift for mimicry to play these characters, among others, to deliver one hilarious punchline after another.
The play takes its name from his iconic radio show of the late ’60s and early ’70s, in which he introduced South Africa to the music of the youth revolution; bands like The Who, Santana, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Led Zeppelin.
History again beckoned in 1995 when Gooding called on then-president Nelson Mandela to present the Webb Ellis Trophy to Francois Pienaar.
“Going Gooding captures the essence of a lost era. It’s packed with laughs, sprinkled with nostalgia, and leavened with the wisdom that comes with perspective,” said Rodel.
The play will run at Foxwood Theatre from 17 until 19 January, from 24 until 26 January, and from 31 January until 2 February.
Details: 011 486 0935; www.foxwood.co.za; admin@foxwood.co.za
