By ‘Dayo Showemimo
Celebrated actor and TV host, Bimbo Manuel and promising actor, Gideon Okeke are among the stars to file out for the second season of Saro the Musical, a broadway show produced by Bolanle Austen-Peters Productions.
A year ago, the show sought to redefine the musical drama experience in Nigeria, stunning the audience with music, electric dances and other dramatic elements.
The Chief Executive Officer of the troupe, Bolanle Austen-Peters, who is also the founder of Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos, says the play, which returns as Saro the Musical 2, will offer more sensation when it opens at the MUSON Centre, Lagos from December 23 to 28, 2014.
According to her, ‘In 12 months, we have grown as a group. The script has slightly been modified, while the cast too has considerably changed. The story is still that of the four young boys migrating to Lagos in search of fortune, but the experience they have in the city has also been altered.’
The project gulped about N80m last year, with the producer saying she did not break even in the strict financial sense of it. This year, she is making it tighter with a N50m budget and believes it is going to be a profitable drive. Already, Access Bank, Etisalat and AfricaMagic are offering support for the creative drive.
Austen-Peters adds that the experience the group gained last year has been ploughed back into the current show, saying the coming of Bimbo Manuel and Gideon Okeke has been a blessing.