Lerato Mhlongo

THERE IS SOMETHING about Montecasino in Fourways, north of Johannesburg that makes you feel like the night is already going well before anything has even happened. So, on the opening night of the large-budget musical of Pretty Woman earlier this year in Johannesburg, my grin was already in place. The show’s first Joburg audience (after its season in Cape Town) was requested to wear a touch of red. Most tried. Some rather amusingly and tragically seemed to have not gotten the memo. Nevertheless, I ate the theme whole, and attended as a walking hot Doritos packet and proud of it.

I’ve never loved musical theatre, but my eyes were opened by this work and I genuinely  loved every minute of it. Every time a song was about to begin, I felt it before I heard it, and instead of dreading it, I was already vibing. The production won me. The night won me and I lapped up every moment. Bryan Adams’s song, Something About Her, sung by Christopher Jaftha as Edward Lewis, the male lead, topped the show.  He sang the song twice, once with a light and joyous emotion and then, later in the show, he sang it with such pain, that it made me focus on his voice. There wasn’t much going on onstage, which meant there was nowhere to look but at him. It was intended by the production, and it won me over, yet again.

Being won over by this work so many times in one evening, I was buzzing with it all the way home, but suddenly I realised what had slipped past. The enjoyment from the play made me overlook the fact that the production sells the same old story of a woman being buyable, a commodity. One of the top moments of the show is when Vivian Ward (Leah Mari), goes back to Rodeo Drive, where she had previously been scorned by shop assistants as not worthy. Those same shop assistants could not do enough for her, now that she looked the part. The audience loved it. I loved it. But sitting here now, I keep thinking that we were cheering for a woman who had to become someone else in order to be seen. And that someone else she became was paid for by a man.

The play never pretends that the arrangement between Vivian and Edward is anything other than what it is. She’s a prostitute; he’s a rich guy. It is a deal, and both of them know it. But knowing something and feeling it are two different things. When Vivian decides she does not belong in Edward’s world and tries to leave, Edward throws a stack of money on the bed. The audience gasped. I gasped. And even though the play recovers quickly, wrapping everything back up in confessions of love and a fairy tale ending, that moment stayed with me. You cannot unsee what a person really thinks of you, and in that moment, the play told us everything.

It needed to have full houses. It needed to have full houses because Chris Jaftha has the power to make your throat tight with a single note. It needed to have full houses because Tiaan Rautenbach is a damn good narrator. It needed to have full houses because that cast earned every gasp, every grin and every clap. Every minute of it, even the singalong at the end, was flawless. But don’t overlook that ominous message about sexism. It’s right there, in the story’s title.

Lerato Mhlongo is a third year Fine Arts student at the University of Johannesburg. She took part in an Arts Writing course during 2026 by Robyn Sassen.

Pretty Woman: The Musical is based on the eponymous film scripted by Garry Marshall and JF Lawton in 1990. Directed and choreographed by Rusty Mowery, it was produced by Hazel Feldman and Tony Feldman of Showtime Management and featured creative input by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance (music and lyrics); David Rockwell (original set); Gregg Barnes (original costumes); Josh Marquette (hair); Alistair Kilbee (technical direction); David Classen (sound); Kieran McGregor (lighting); Daniel Butcher-Geddes (musical direction); and Will van Dyke (musical supervision, orchestrations and arrangements). It was performed by Stuart Brown, Daniel Conradie, Gugu Dhlamini, Sandi Dlangalala, Dylan du Plessis, Thuto Lesedi Gaasenwe, Liyabuya Gongo, Christopher Jaftha, Michelle Juncker, Virtuous Kandemiri, Yethu Kibi, Yahto Kraft, Leah Mari, James McPhail, Danny Meaker, Bo Molefe, Chichi Nwoha, Jonathan Raath, Tiaan Rautenbach, Jordan Rogers, Ashley Scott, Bella Smith, Bradley Smith and Lesego van Niekerk, support by a live band led by Daniel Butcher-Geddes, with Luigi Cassaleggio, Luca de Bellis, Gerant Bojé, James Deacon and Kuba Silkiewicz. It was onstage at the Opera, Artscape Theatre complex in Cape Town during April 2026 and Teatro, Montecasino complex in Gauteng until the end of May 2026.