Richard Loring

Richard Loring (born 1945) [1] is an actor, singer, playmaker and theatre impressario.

Biography

Born in Guernsey in the Channel Islands, where he worked for a period for a subsidiary of Ford Motors while taking part in many professional productions at the Little Theatre, Guernsey. He also sang in the church choir as a young man.

In 1962, leaving a promising career in business, he flew to London to join the famous George Mitchell singers in the Ken Dodd Show in Manchester. Thereafter, followed a season of the Windsor Repertory company's the musical version of She Stoops to Conquer (called O Marry Me!), at the Royal Windsor Theatre, while he studied part-time at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In London’s West End he understudied Hero in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the Strand theatre, followed by a 3-year run (1500 performances) as Rolf in The Sound of Music at the Palace Theatre. Other roles include Septimus in Robert and Elizabeth, Detlef in The Student Prince at the Cambridge Theatre in 1968 and a role in Sir Richard Attenborough’s first film, Oh What a Lovely War!. (In this case he also worked on the production side with George Abbot, Harold Prince and Stephen Sondheim.)

In this period he was discovered and promoted by South African impressario Adam Leslie, and came out to South Africa in 1969 for a short run to play Tony in the Academy Theatre's production of The Boy Friend at the Brooke Theatre followed by Snowboy and Tony in West Side Story. He ended up staying in the country and making a successful career as a highly regarded singer, performer and producer.

Richard married Jeanette Loring in 1983 and they have two daughters, Samantha Loring and Natasha Loring, both in the entertainment industry.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

As performer

Stage

His many performances have included The Boyfriend in 1969, West Side Story at the Alexander Theatre in 1970, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in 1974, the American mini-musical Starting Here, Starting Now in 1978, Oh, Coward! in 1982, Little Shop of Horrors 1985 Tom Lehrer’s Tom Foolery at the André Huguenet Theatre in 1989.

Film

The film producer Emil Nofal saw Richard in his theatre roles and invited him to appear in The Winners (known as My Way overseas), which was given international distribution and has played in over 40 countries. Other film roles include The Baby Game, Bait for Heyns Films; Unser Mann and Omaruru for Karat Films, Germany; Vreemde Wêreld ("Strange World"); Diamond Mercenaries (playing opposite Telly Savalas); The Winners 2, ; and Magic is Alive, My Friends (Jan Scholtz, 1984).

TV

He starred in many television shows as well as co-presenting the highly successful award-winning Video Two magazine programme.

Music and recording

Richard’s cabarets have included top night spots in South Africa and the surrounding areas. Richard was also the first South African based singer to be invited to perform on the QE2.

On the recording side, Richard’s first single in 1966 was 16 going on 17 which resulted in a 15 year involvement with EMI International[2] under the Parlophone[3] label. The theme song from The Winners, Gina's Theme, was Richard’s first hit in South Africa and its follow-up Beautiful Children, topped the charts for 18 weeks.

As producer/director and impressario

It is perhaps as a producer that Richard is most strongly respected in his adopted country, South Africa. In 1983 he teamed up with Debbie Batzofin and drawing on their wide range of experience, they initially produced specialised entertainment and major events for corporate clients.

In 1989 he became the CEO of Richard Loring Productions, which went on to produce some of the more successful musicals of the next few decades, including**, A Touch of Webber...A Taste of Rice(1992), ***, Girl Talk (1998), Summer Holiday?* (200*), The Young Ones (2003), African Footprint (1999, which toured the world for years).

Batzofin and Loring also acquired a theatre space in Midrand in 1989, providing the Johannesburg audiences with a dinner/theatre venue, the Sound Stage Supper Theatre. Opening with We'll Meet Again. Nineteen years later they decided to close the venue as Loring was given a three year contract as Consultant/Producer at The Lyric Theatre in Gold Reef City Casino.

Some of his musical productions in this latter period have included Knights of Music (2009)[4], Midnight Hour (2010)[5]

As pedagogue

He was at one stage involved in an attempt to found a training school for theatre entrepreneurs and technicians at the Midrand Graduate Institute.

Memberships, charity work, etc.

Richard’s work has seen various charities benefit from putting together the first All Star soccer game at the Orlando Stadium in the ‘70’s to raising monies for the Theatre Benevolent Fund, Midrand Crisis Centre, Hospice and others. Richard has served as Charter President of Midrand Rotary, was Chairman of the Theatre Benevolent Fund, Chairman of the Theatre Managements of South Africa and is a Member of the Order of St Johns.

Awards, etc.

Stars for a Star Award, 1993.

ACT Lifetime Achievement Award.

Richard received a Naledi Award Lifetime Achievement in 2009.

Sources

Correspondence from Jeanette Loring (September, 2024)

http://www.richardloring.co.za/history.html

https://dwrdistribution.co.za/people/legends/debra-batzofin/

Theatre Lives, "Richard Loring"[6]

SACD 1973; 1975/76; 1978/79; 1980/81.

Percy Tucker 1997. Just the Ticket. My 50 Years in Show Business. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.

Various entries in the NELM catalogue.

https://www.richardloring.co.za/SundayIndependent%20_25%20Oct.pdf

The Citizen, 8 March 2010.

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