"Afrikaner Glossary" in KAT AND THE KINGS

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    KAT AND THE KINGS is a new Broadway musical that will open tomorrow
(Thursday) and be reviewed in your Friday newspapers.  It's a transfer from
Cape Town via London, where it won the 1999 Laurence Olivier Award for Best
New Musical.
   I saw it a few days early--in "previews."
   The show is about some kids in the 1950s forming a singing group (like the
Four Seasons, the Teenagers, et al.), set against the background of the
apartheid regime.  Nelson Mandela saw it and praised the authors to the skies.
   It is a good show.  It is entertaining.  It didn't strike me as a Broadway
musical, however--perhaps it's a Las Vegas revue.  It's almost all songs
(about 40 of 'em), with very little drama.  For what it is, it's well done.
It's impossible not to enjoy it.
   It reminded me of a South African FOREVER PLAID (a very successful
show--as an Off-Broadway musical and a road show).  The songs and the concept
are like SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE (a revue based on the 1950s songs of Lieber and
Stoller).  The _very_ brief racial drama reminded me of DINAH WAS and
DREAMGIRLS.  They form a group, they buy new outfits, they learn how to
dance, they cut a record, they split up--stop me if you've heard this
plotline before.
    The songs were wonderful--too wonderful.  I felt like rising from my
seat:  "EXCUSE ME!  MISTER SONGWRITER PERSON!  IS THAT A RIPOFF OR AN
HOMAGE??"
    "O.K. Bazaars" was part of the curtain design.
    The following was put in the PLAYBILL:

AN AFRIKANER GLOSSARY ("KAT AND THE KINGS" PLAYBILL, pg. 26)

WORD        PRONUNCIATION     TRANSLATION
kwela                                          African music
Ou              oh                             guy
Ouens         owens                       guys
Broer           brew                         brother/friend
My blah       may blah                   best friend
Chommies   chommy                    friends
Goose         goose                        girl
Goosa         goose-sah                  girl
Lightie         lightey                       young person
BJ              BeeJay                       yokel/greenhorn
Boland        Boorland                     rural area
Skollie        skolly                          lout//ruffian
Ou pel        oh pal                          old friend
Lekker        lecker                          terrific
Morgan's Pomade                          Hair gel
Jarmans                                        Men's shoes (brand name)
Dop                                               booze
Zol                                                a joint
Langa                                            A township in Cape Town
Nyanga                                          A township in Cape Town
Guguleta                                        A township in Cape Town
Walmer Estate                               A residential area above District
6,
                                                     which was reserved for
Coloured people.