Kate Normington

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Kate Normington
Kate Normington - Into the Woods (2019).png
Normington as "The Witch" in Pieter Toerien's Production of Into the Woods at the Pieter Toerien Theatre in 2019
Born
Johannesburg, South Africa
Alma materUniversity of Witwatersrand
Occupation(s)Actress, singer, songwriter
Years active1987–present

Kate Normington is a South African actress, singer, and songwriter. Normington first rose to national prominence playing Sister Mary Amnesia in the Alhambra Theatre's production of Nunsense in 1987, and has appeared on the West End and South African stage, and in local and international film and television productions.

Contents

Early life

Normington grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa and attended Pretoria Girls' High School and Marist Brothers Observatory (Sacred Heart College). She studied Speech and Drama at the University of the Witwatersrand, graduating in 1987. [1]

Career

Theatre

Career beginnings

After performing as a cabaret singer at Piaf in Johannesburg (alongside Didi Kriel), [2] Normington's first professional role was in Tarts, by Kevin Feather, at La Parisienne Theatre in Johannesburg. This was followed by her breakthrough role playing Sister Mary Amnesia in Tobie Cronje's production of Nunsense at the Alhambra Theatre in 1987, which garnered Normington her first Fleur du Cap Award for Best Actress in a Musical. [3] She followed this successful turn with the Trilogy of '87 at the Durban Playhouse, where she performed a triple role as Joanna in Sweeney Todd , Niki in Sweet Charity , and also appeared in Candide , in a cycle in which all three productions were staged on the same day, one after the other.

In 1989, Normington was cast as Guinevere in the State Theatre's production of Camelot , understudied by Gaynor Young. [4] The production became infamous when, replacing Normington in December, Young fell down an unguarded lift shaft while on stage, landing on concrete 5 storeys below and going into a coma for 5 weeks. [5]

Throughout the late '80s and early '90s, Normington was in several successful and high-profile shows across South Africa, including playing Josephine in Romance Romance , Eliza in My Fair Lady in 1990, [6] and Janet in The Rocky Horror Show in 1993; appearing in A Touch of Webber... A Taste of Rice, an original show by Richard Loring, in 1991; and playing Sheila in Janice Honeyman's production of Hair , one of the first in South Africa following its unbanning, at the Civic Theatre in 1994.

The West End and the UK

In 1993, Normington left for England to pursue her career on international stages. Her first job in London was in the West End production of Sunset Boulevard in its initial run in 1993, which featured Patti LuPone as Norma Desmond, in which Normington understudied the role of Betty Schaefer. After encountering some passport trouble, she was forced to return home to South Africa, appearing in Tell Me On A Sunday in 1994, before she was able to return to England. Upon her return, Normington returned to the cast of Sunset Boulevard at the Adelphi Theatre, understudying Betty Buckley, Elaine Paige, and Petula Clark for the role of Norma Desmond, appearing in the role on one occasion. [7]

After leaving Sunset Boulevard, Normington appeared in a regional production of Aspects of Love in Hampshire in 1996, playing Rose Vibert, and then played the Baker's Wife in Into the Woods in Leicester in 1997. [8]

In 1998, Normington returned to the West End as Grace Farrell in the revival of Annie at the Victoria Palace, continuing to play the role after the show went on tour in February 1999. She toured with the show for over a year until it ended in Oxford in 2000, after which she returned to South Africa.

Return to South Africa

She appeared as Miss Bell in Fame in 2002, and as "Soapstar" in Hazel Feldman and Pieter Toerien's production of Menopause - The Musical in 2004. [9] This was followed by a trio of award-winning performances, as Normington received a Naledi Award for her 2006 one-woman show Bombshells , her 2007 performance as Velma von Tussle in the Lyric Theatre production of Hairspray - also starring Mara Louw and Harry Sideropolous - and for her 2010 appearance as Tanya in Mamma Mia! . She also starred as Miss Darbus in the highly publicized production of High School Musical on Stage in 2008, which produced a star in Carmen Pretorius after a televised talent search program: High School Musical: Spotlight South Africa. [10]

The 2010s saw a series of smaller shows to go along with her customary large production musicals, as Normington performed in Nora Ephron's Love, Loss, and What I Wore in 2011, and appeared in Two in the Bush, a comedy sketch show she wrote and co-devised with Jaci de Villiers, at the Auto & General Theatre on the Square in 2014. [11] [12] Normington also starred in the Market Theatre's production of Pirandello's Six Characters In Search of an Author in 2015. [13]

Normington did not, however, take a break from big budget musicals in this time, starring as Fraulein Kost in 2012's Cabaret , Mother Superior in the Nelson Mandela Theatre's Sister Act in 2015, Mrs Brice in the Fugard Theatre's 2017 production of Funny Girl , as well as Mrs White in Marc Lottering's Aunty Merle: The Musical, and Liz Essendine in Present Laughter at the Theatre on the Bay. 2016 also saw Normington appear in her first pantomime at the Nelson Mandela Theatre, playing Aunt Silly in Janice Honeyman's Babes in the Woods.

More recently, Normington has had several star turns, as Mrs Shears and various other characters in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In the Night Time in 2018, as The Witch in PTP's Into the Woods in Cape Town and Johannesburg in 2019 (a role for which she was nominated for both Fleur du Cap and Naledi Awards), and as the Narrator in The Rocky Horror Show in 2020. In 2023 she plays Rachel Swart (and numerous other characters) in the stage adaption of Damon Galgut's The Promise in Cape Town and Johannesburg. [14]

Film and television

Normington has appeared in several films over the course of her career, starting with 1991's The Sheltering Desert , in which she appeared alongside Gavin Hood and Rupert Graves, [15] which was followed by Brendan Pollecutt's Hey Boy in 2003. She also appeared in a short from the NFVN, entitled The Last Doorman, as well as starring in Angus Buchan's Ordinary People in 2006. More recently, Normington appeared in the Netflix film The Last Days of American Crime , starring Edgar Ramirez. [16]

Normington has also had a long and varied television career, appearing in many popular South African programs, such as Scandal, Shado's, Hard Copy, 7de Laan , The Lab, Backstage, and The Res. She received a SAFTA nomination for her work on Tim Greene's Those Who Can't in 2017, [17] and played Pam Henshaw in SABC 3's High Rollers. Also in 2017, she gained critical acclaim for her appearance in Julia Anastosopoulos's Tali's Wedding Diary , as Michelle, the title character's mother. [18] Normington also appeared in three episodes of MNet's Still Breathing alongside Siv Ngesi, Michael Richard, and Dorothy Ann Gould. [19]

Music

Normington has also released two solo albums, Mother's Daughter - for which she wrote six original tracks [20] - and a recording of Tell Me On a Sunday, the first act of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song and Dance .

Theatre

YearProductionRoleVenueNotes
1986TartsLa Parisienne
1987 Nunsense Sister Mary Amnesia Alhambra Theatre/Theatre on the Bay Fleur du Cap Award
1987 Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street JoannaDurban Playhouse
1987 Sweet Charity NikiDurban Playhouse
1987 Candide EnsembleDurban Playouse
1989 Camelot Guinevere State Theatre
1990 My Fair Lady ElizaState TheatreVita Award
1991A Touch of Webber... A Taste of Rice
1992 Romance Romance JosephineNatal Playhouse
1993 The Rocky Horror Show JanetThe Victory Theatre
1993 Grease Sandy Baxter Theatre
1993 Sunset Boulevard Ensemble/Betty Schaefer Understudy Adelphi Theatre West End
1994 Hair Sheila Civic Theatre
1995 Crazy For You IreneState Theatre
1995 Tell Me On a Sunday EmmaThe Sound Stage
1995 Sunset Boulevard Company/Norma Desmond UnderstudyAdelphi TheatreWest End
1996 Aspects of Love Rose VibertThe Haymarket Theatre - Hampshire
1996 Into the Woods The Baker's WifeThe Haymarket Theatre - Leicester
1999 Annie Grace Farrell Victoria Palace Theatre West End
2002 Fame Miss BellCivic Theatre [21]
2004 Blithe Spirit Mrs Bradman
2004 Menopause The Musical Soap StarTheatre on the Bay
2004 King Lear Goneril Tesson Theatre [22] [23]
2004The Shadrack AffairBarbaraBaxter Theatre [24]
2006 Bombshells Naledi Award
2007 Hairspray Velma von TusselLyric TheatreNaledi Award
2008 High School Musical on Stage Miss DarbusMontecasino Teatro
2010 Mamma Mia! Tanya Artscape Theatre Centre/Montecasino Teatro [25] Naledi Award
2011 Love, Loss, and What I Wore Theatre on the Bay [26]
2011 Ester Queen VashtiState Theatre [27]
2012 Cabaret Fraulein KostPieter Toerien Theatre/Theatre on the BayFleur du Cap Nomination
2013Dirty DancingMarjorie HousemanArtscape Theatre Centre
2014Two in the BushAuto & General Theatre on the SquareAlso created and wrote [28]
2015 Sister Act Mother Superior Joburg Theatre Naledi Award nomination
2015 Six Characters In Search of an Author Lead Actress Market Theatre
2016Robin Hood and the Babes in the WoodSilly SylvianaJoburg TheatreNaledi Award nomination
2017 Funny Girl Mrs Brice Fugard Theatre Fleur du Cap Nomination
2018 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time Mrs ShearsPieter Toerien Theatre/Theatre on the Bay
2019 Into the Woods The WitchPieter Toerien Theatre/Theatre on the BayFleur du Cap and Naledi Award nominations
2020 The Rocky Horror Show The NarratorMontecasino Teatro
2023 The Promise Rachel Swart District Six Homecoming Centre, Cape Town
Market Theatre, Johannesburg
[29]

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRoleNotes
1991 The Sheltering Desert Brigitte Muller
1991Hot PursuitSamantha Jubost
2003Hey BoyLeslie
2008 Coronation Street: Out of Africa Pamela Teal
2009DiamondsDenmont LawyerTV movie
2012 Angus Buchan's Ordinary People Eileen Cloete
2014The Last DoormanMarlene KrauseNFVF Short
2018Three Way JunctionFran
2020 The Last Days of American Crime News Anchor

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
2005Hard CopyJulia
2006Shado'sSavannah
2006The LabChrista
2007Jacob's CrossMs Klausen
2008On the CouchLizzie
2009SocietySociety
2012-2015Those Who Can'tDesiree Young
2013Loitering in JoziGuest
2016High RollersPam
2016Sober CompanionTina's Mother
2017Taryn & SharonLeanne Maddox
2017Tali's Wedding DiaryMichelle
2020Still BreathingLiza
Scandal
The ResShirl
BackstageBobby's Mom
7de Laan [30]

Discography

Awards and nominations

Theatre

YearAwardCategoryNominated WorkResult
1988 Fleur du Cap AwardBest Supporting Actress in a MusicalNunsenseWon
VitaAward for ComedyWon
1992VitaBest Lead ActressMy Fair LadyNominated
2006 Naledi Theatre Awards Best ActressBombshellsWon
2007Best Supporting Actress in a MusicalHairsprayWon
2010Best Supporting Actress in a MusicalMamma Mia!Won
2012Fleur du Cap AwardBest Supporting Actress in a MusicalCabaretNominated
2015Naledi Theatre AwardsBest Supporting Actress in a MusicalSister ActNominated
2016Best Supporting Actress in a MusicalRobin Hood and the Babes in the WoodNominated
2017Fleur du Cap AwardBest Supporting Actress in a MusicalFunny GirlNominated
2020Naledi Theatre AwardsBest Actress in a MusicalInto the WoodsPending
Fleur du Cap AwardBest Actress in a MusicalPending [31]
Best Supporting Actress in a MusicalThe Rocky Horror ShowPending

Television

YearAwardCategoryNominated WorkResult
2017SAFTABest Supporting Actress: ComedyThose Who Can'tNominated

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