Broadway star lured home for bit

07 May 2017 - 02:00 By DEBBIE REYNOLDS
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Amra-Faye Wright is performing in a revue at the Wild Coast.
Amra-Faye Wright is performing in a revue at the Wild Coast.
Image: MOEKETSI MOTICOE

She counts famous singers and actors as some of her closest friends, but Broadway star Amra-Faye Wright has never forgotten her South African heritage.

For 16 years she's lit up stages around the world with her sexy show-stopping rendition of Velma Kelly in the hit musical Chicago and worked with some of the world's best, including Usher, Mel B, Brooke Shields, Melanie Griffith, Huey Lewis, Christie Brinkley and Lynda "Wonder Woman" Carter.

"It was actually Huey and Lynda who helped me get my green card by declaring: 'America needs Amra-Faye Wright'," she said with a laugh.

With three billboards on New York's Times Square and 12 years on Broadway, the US agrees. But it's been a challenging journey for the East London farm girl whose first stage role was as a Sun City dancer.

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"I was a classically trained dancer, but wanted to see if I had the ability to work professionally, so I left the tomato farm for showbiz at the relatively mature age of 27," she said.

Years later, believing that she had lived her dream at home, she auditioned for a musical extravaganza in Monte Carlo and was booked as a back-up dancer for Whitney Houston, MC Hammer and Donna Summer.

She auditioned for a cabaret at Casino de Monte-Carlo, got the role and worked there for two years, "living in a villa and hobnobbing with Prince Albert and his pals".

From Europe's cabaret stages and cruise ships, her dream of playing Velma in Chicago was realised when she was booked for the British touring production and then Hazel Feldman's South African show.

"Chicago's New York producers came to see the show in Cape Town and immediately booked me for London's West End, followed by Broadway," said Wright.

"I hopped between the shows in London and New York from 2005 to 2009, but after 25 years of not having a home base, I decided that America was where I needed to settle."

She lives in Maplewood, New Jersey - a 30-minute commute to New York's Penn Station - with her husband, South African drummer Heinrich Kruse, and their two French bulldogs, Stewart and Frankie.

She grabs every opportunity to visit her family in South Africa and is here for an autobiographical music revue at the Wild Coast.

David Gouldie, the director who brought her to South Africa for the local show, said he was excited to have her back in the country.

"She is such an inspiration to the local musical theatre industry, proving that South Africans can make it on the world's stages. I am thrilled to celebrate Amra-Faye and bring her home for another standing ovation."

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