10 Questions For: Jonathan Roxmouth

Jonathan Roxmouth is an award-winning actor, vocalist and musician. Many will recognise him as the lead in Pieter Toerien and KickstArt’s 2016 production of the musical thriller Sweeney Todd. Other career highlights include his role as the Phantom in Pieter Toerien and The Really Useful Group’s record-breaking return production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, his role as Danny Zuko in Pieter Toerien and David Ian’s Grease, and as the male lead, Tony, in the Fugard Theatre’s production of West Side Story at the Artscape in Cape Town, to name a few.

1.  How would you describe what you do for a living?

I am a theatre actor so I pretend to be a completely different person for a few hours – eight shows a week – and then they pay me.

2.  What is your most vivid childhood memory?
When my family stayed on a farm in the Magaliesburg my parents went to work and I was left alone with my nanny, Betty. Two men in balaclavas arrived and demanded that Betty meet them at the kitchen door. Betty got there only to see them running for their lives down the driveway. Our two geese, Inky and Ponky, were following suit, heads down and hissing. Best. 

3.  If you could invite any three people, dead or alive, for dinner, who would they be and why?
1. Stephen Fry – I think he is probably one of the most interesting people of our time.

2. David Merrick – Of all the Broadway producers, he was known as one of the mightiest.

3. Pieter-Dirk Uys – He is one of my biggest inspirations in our business today.

4. If you ever found yourself auditioning for a music reality TV show, what song would you sing and why?
No. I just wouldn’t. Music reality TV shows and karaoke are the main features of my nightmares. I cringe so hard that my body turns inside out.

5.  How would you complete this sentence?  
The South African cabinet should include a Minister of _____________________________.
Social Media.

6.  What would you say is the biggest misconception about you?

That I am precious and difficult about editing my own writing. I have no problem going all Solomon and cutting the baby in half.

7.  What is your (honest) opinion of Cape Town?
In the words of Tina Fey in 30 Rock, “I want to go to there’’.

8.  What's the greatest fear you've had to overcome to get where you are today?
That the people who come to theatre on free tickets have any influence on the work I produce or how it will be accepted by the people who actually pay.

9.   What's the one thing you'd like to achieve before you die?
I want to be the first South African actor to give an acceptance speech at the Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.

10.  Which well-known South African personality would you, without a doubt, be able to beat in a street fight and why?  
Alan Committie. He usually bursts into tears when he sees me.

Image Credit: Val Adamson

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ABOUT #CapeTownMag10Q:

CapeTownMagazine.com’s 10 Questions project gets to know some of the Mother City’s most creative and inspiring people. From television personalities and musicians to politicians and entrepreneurs, we find out more about well-known and up-and-coming Capetonians. You can follow #CapeTownMag10Q on Twitter and Facebook to track recent interviews or read more here about our other awesome 10 Questions candidates. 

A FEW OF OUR OTHER 10Q CANDIDATES:

10 Questions For Theatre Performer Grant Almirall

10 Questions For Filmaker Jolynn Minnaar

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