The fictional story takes place in the late 1950s and it is about Conrad Birdie, a rock and roll superstar, his agent and song-writer, Albert Peterson and his (Albert) secretary, Rosie Alvarez. Talented R'n b artist Brando Keabilwe plays Conrad Birdie, while Taff Williams plays Albert Patterson.
When Conrad is drafted into the army, Rosie (Nanayaa Awuah-Moyo) pressurises her on-off lover Albert to close down the business and become an English teacher. Rosie also convinces Albert to make Conrad go on a road show before going into the army.
The farewell tour takes Birdie to the town of Sweet Apple, Ohio, where young Kim McAfee has been selected to kiss the superstar. Normality in the lives of the conservative residents of the town is disrupted. Mr McAfee (Joseph Matome), because of generation gap, does not understand why his children are excited about the coming of Birdie.
The people of Sweet Apple treat the singer like a demi-god and there is general euphoria in the hick town. Teenage girls become starry-eyed and dream of being kissed by their idol. Some love-struck teenagers are on the verge of losing sanity and swear to sing 'We Love You Birdie' 10, 000 times, which is an almost impossible task. When the mayor of the town welcomes Birdie to the town someone convinces him (Birdie) to sing a song for the multitudes of fans gathered at the welcoming ceremony. The superstar obliges and as he belts out a song all the girls - and women scream hysterically and fall prostrate on the ground.
The musical, which is loosely based on the larger-than-life of Elvis Presley is light-hearted in approach and among other things pokes fun at issues like racial prejudice.
Albert's mother, Mrs. Peterson, is not happy that her son is dating a 'Spanish', Rosie who is of different racia1 origin. At first the woman tries to manipulate her son by feigning a heart attack and saying that Albert will be the cause of her early death. When her tricks do not work, she brings a seductive young white woman by the name of Alma Lou to woo him away and for sometime it looks like Mrs. Peterson's trick would work. However, at the end of the show, Rosie and Albert are reunited and sing of their love for each other in the song, Rosie. The 50-strong Botswana cast did a splendid job and it is clear that thanks to the efforts of the self-taught director Stuart who has in the past brought other musicals like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Annie.
Stuart and his team did a good job and gave their audience their money's worth. Tremendous effort was put in the building of the set. The lighting and the costumes were simply breathtaking.
The success of the show demonstrates that theatre is growing by leaps and bounds in Botswana and corporate businesses like Debswana (who contributed P 250,000 towards the production of the musical) should be commended for nurturing the arts in the country.
