Represent Review: Steve Hofmeyr @ Emperor’s
Love him or hate him, Steve Hofmeyr is one of the country’s most successful artists and without a doubt has sweated and persevered through the years to maintain his position as Afrikaans music’s golden boy. Word has it he is also a serious blogger with a massive following (here) – we like the digital touch Steve. SO we sent off one of our Representah’s to check him out in a Kris Kristofferson tribute at Emperor’s Palace. Thanks to Werner for the review:
Steve Hofmeyr – Help me make it through the night.
Date and time : Wednesday, May 16, 2007 – Saturday, June 02, 2007
Cost : Tickets from R120
Property : Emperors Palace
Venue : Theatre of Marcellus
I recently had the wonderful opportunity of attending a Steve Hofmeyr performance at Emperor’s Palace. The production was based on Kris Kristofferson classics and was named “Help me make it through the night”. I’m extremely glad to report that as per usual, we were not disappointed. In fact, it just proved once again that South Africa is filled to the brim with incredible talent.
Steve transported us to an era where nothing but music mattered and did so with his usual charming and cool demeanor. During the performance he revived some of the Kris Kristofferson classics in such a way that even the original artist would have been proud. It turns out that I am in fact a closet Kris fan after all!
Steve explained that Kris was one of his fathers all time favorite performers and after the hour long performance, I think many people could see why. Kris is an incredible performer himself, but I think the part that impressed me most was his absolutely amazing life. He dated Janis Joplin for quite a while and as we all know, that was no mean feat. He was nominated for an Oscar and for a BAFTA award and has won a Golden Globe! He even landed a helicopter on Johnny Cash’s front lawn to get his attention!
Steve would have made this legend a very proud man with his absolutely superb performance. Steve is well known for his very distinctive voice and I’m sure that everyone that attended the night would agree that he would have been the number one pick to perform the Kris classics.
I found the entire production incredibly moving and once Steve explained the father connection it made a lot of sense – I wish that he had started the performance rather than ending it with his explanation, but it didn’t deter from the absolute pleasure in any way.
Something else that struck me about the night, was the star studded audience. It was almost like the who’s who of daytime soap operas of South Africa. Not being much of a ‘soapie’ fan myself, I was very quickly given a lesson in who sleeps with who (in the soapies of course) while I’m at work, by my wife. I am proud to say that I at least recognized Kurt Darren!
If you have the chance to see this limited performance, grab it with both hands. It is really worth its weight in gold and I will strongly recommend it to anyone that has a love for this kind of classic.
Steve, you well and truly rock!
