Joining the mononym club is a good career move for singers. Cher, Madonna, Prince … they are all icons, right? So remember this name: Thndo.
Many of us already know her as runner-up Thando Sikwila on 2022 TV series The Voice.
After The Voice this exciting singer-songwriter dropped a vowel to signify a new career phase – and to avoid confusion with African singers sharing the same name.
Now as Thndo, the Zimbabwean-born, Melbourne-based 30-year-old is set to reach an even wider audience as part of a new Australian touring production of the iconic musical Rent. After premiering in Brisbane in January it will travel to Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth and Canberra.
Thndo will play Harvard-educated lawyer Joanne in the multi award-winning stage musical about a bohemian community of young New York artists struggling with illness and poverty, yet determined to seize the day.
Ironically, creator Jonathan Larson died tragically without seeing his show become a phenomenon.
Loosely based on Puccini opera La Boheme, Rent is the story of young and impoverished artists living in New York’s Lower Manhattan East Village, in the shadow of the HIV-AIDS crisis.
It first played as a workshop production at the New York Theatre Workshop in 1993. Now Rent is poised to promote a new generation of talented artists 25 years after the original Australian production introduced a young Rodger Corser to audiences and revealed to theatre goers another side to pop star Christine Anu.
Thndo has previously appeared in stage musicals The Color Purple and Dreamgirls in 2015 and 2016. Since then she has focused on a solo career, telling her own stories on stage. Now Thndo has embraced a new opportunity to collaborate.
While formal rehearsals of Rent don’t start till January 2, she already knows her part – reflecting how very happy Thndo is to be in the show.
“I’m stoked,” she declares. “I’ve been obsessed and all I’ve been listening to is the soundtrack and reading through the script!
“It’s such an incredible thing to be in a roomful of creatives who have dedicated their lives to their craft in a different medium. I have so much respect for people who are able to tell the stories of others. I’m going to learn a lot from everybody in this cast.”
She’s already started that process with two of them: The Voice 2023 finalist Calista Nelmes, who’ll portray Joanne’s girlfriend, performance artist Maureen; and Hamilton alumnus Martha Berhane, who will play the wild and reckless exotic dancer Mimi.
“Whenever Calista and I would get together we’d be quoting lines at each other and singing the duets,” Thndo says. “It’s been a fun way of learning the show.”
From Berhane, Thndo sought insights gleaned from years of experience.
“I wanted to know how to connect my stories to those of my character – honouring Joanne’s story and all the things that make her who she is – without making it about me,” she says. “Martha gave me so much wisdom that is definitely going to help.”
Realising that she and Joanne have “much more in common that I could have imagined” has made preparing for the role more exciting than daunting. Thndo now understands why the casting team had focused on having “deep conversations” with the auditioning performers, getting to know them “as people”.
“Everyone is a perfect match with their parts,” Thndo declares. “It felt really eerie when I met everybody and realised that.
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“There’s definitely an authenticity about what everyone’s going to bring to their roles that is going to make this very different to any version of Rent anyone has seen before.
“I think it’s going to be incredibly special. So I’m really excited for people to experience that.”
Rent plays the Playhouse, QPAC, January 27-February 11
rentmusical.au
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