Herbert Kretzmer
Herbert Kretzmer (19**-) Actor, lyricist and theatre critic.
Contents
Biography
Born in Kroonstad,
He worked as the Drama critic for the Sunday Express in Johannesburg in the late 1940s and 1950s (under the name of Herbert Kentish) and writing occasional lyrics for musicals.
Later settled in London and worked for the Daily Express and the , going on to to reach fame as a lyricist, with musical pieces like Our Man Crichton (1964) and most notably the libretto for the musical Les Misérables for Cameron Mackintosh in 1985 - coming to South Africa with the international company in 1996.
He passed away in 2020.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
He was a member of the Johannesburg REPS, appearing in plays such as Romeo and Juliet (Pretoria Opera House and the Wits Great Hall, 1949). He also composed five songs for the Leon Gluckman staged revue Xmas Box (1949).
Sources
Percy Tucker. 1997. Just The Ticket! My 50 Years in South African Show Business. Johannesburg:
Programme of Les Misérables, as performed in Cape Town in 1996.
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Sources
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