Backstage cast reunite

THE legendary cast of then-popular soapie Backstage recently reunited on e.tv’s morning show, and went down memory lane on some of their iconic moments that left viewers with their jaw on the floor.

Actors Lorcia Cooper-Khumalo, Loyiso Mangena and Charl Timotheus joined host Pabi Moloi on the popular talk show.

Speaking about the reunion SAFTA award-winning actress Lorcia Cooper-Khumalo who played Charmaine on the show says that it was a dream come true to be able to reunite the original cast.

“What an incredible moment to be reunited with the other cast members, and watching ourselves be so young and where we are in our lives you would have never imagined where we’d be,” she said.

“It’s a beautiful trip down memory lane and it’s just really inspired me again to remember where my career started.”“That’s the thing about the vision for any kind of creativity, and I do think that Mfundi Vundla had that. He knew to the last beat what he wanted the show to represent, and why he chose every person to be there. It was necessary that he was looking for a person who trained for the longest or people already knew out there. He had an eye for what he wanted to create and for me, it is part of the reason for the show’s longevity and for how big it was. It could have gone for longer but it didn’t because even if you think you can take over what someone else has created, you are not the original visionary behind it. You can never make it excel the same way,” she said.

Lorcia said with Clint Brink, they were the first people to speak coloured Afrikaans on national television.

Charl said working with the likes of Baby Cele-Maloka was an honour as he had learnt about them in film school, so sharing a set felt like a full circle month.

Backstage was a youth-targeted soapie, with the story set at fictional Vulindlela College – a performing arts institution for the youth in Joburg. The series originally aired from 1 May 2000 to 6 July 2007.

In other news – King Monada accused of stealing another song

Rising producer Mr Six21 DJ Dance claims that award-winning musician King Monada is jealous of him. This is after King Monada removed his name from a song they worked on together titled Kgopotse Ex Yaka.

The pair dropped the song together last month and Monada released the music video for the song last week and excluded Mr Six21’s name from the song. Learn more