Kramer ‘kids’ – Izobell, Abrahams, Adams boys – hit home with an online special

David Kramer, with two of his “theatre kids”, Alistair Izobell and Loukmaan Adams. The “theatre kids” have put together an online tribute to their mentor to be screened tomorrow on his 74th birthday.

25 June 2025

Singer David Kramer’s “theatre kids” – Alistair Izobell, Jody Abrahams, Loukmaan and Emo Adams – will be celebrating the birthday of their “stage” father with a very special online tribute this Friday, on the singer’s 74^th birthday.

The show will also feature Nur Abrahams and a host of other performers including Carmen Maarmen, Zolani Mohala, the SA Youth Choir, Die Betjies van Betsfonetin, Rushney Ferguson, and Xoliswa Tom, all of whom came into Kramer’s orbit.

The show will stay online, available for viewing, for 72 hours, and then, according to Alistair, “it will be gone”.

Alistair, Jody and the Adams brothers, for those who are still not aware, were part of the hit production, District 6 The Musical, put together by Kramer and the late Taliep Petersen. They were there at the beginning in 1987 and joined after by Nur.

Alistair summed it up perfectly: “Hy’s ons se Pa. It’s as simple as that. I can’t explain it anymore other than his being to us like a father for the last four decades. For me it’s a man who is very central in my life and has been for 40 years.”

The tribute comes at a very poignant time for them. Kramer’s health has been cause for concern for a while now and his participation has been confined to simply being an audience member. “David hasn’t been in the greatest of health but that is not my story to tell,” Alistair said. “He won’t feature as a birthday surprise. This is the point of this exercise: for him to sit and watch his theatre kids celebrate his work. He revelled in sitting there and having no involvement with this tribute and his smile was one of the broadest smiles I’ve seen in all the time we’ve known. Just his theatre kids.”

The show was staged live at Artscape for one night in April and was a sellout with fans clamouring for more shows. Any chance of an extended run was out of the question because the venue was booked out with other shows, Alistair said.

Instead, they opted for an online show which will be pretty close to the stage version. “It’s not going to be the full-length 2hr version. We want to take some of the best nuggets and put it together and showcase that because there are lots of songs to showcase. The show is 100 per cent David’s songs.

Any talk of Kramer and his connection to the Cape Flats community naturally turns to the breakthrough hit, District 6 The Musical and his collaboration with Taliep Petersen. It premiered in 1987, had a good run but has never really been revisited. A generation has grown up having heard about it but never having had the opportunity of possibly seeing a revamped version.

Nur Abrahams will be part of the David Kramer Tribute.

Alistair has interesting views on it. Whilst acknowledging D6 The Musical status, he is somewhat ambivalent about re-hashing it. “I think that sometimes as a creator you want to let go of something or park it so that you are respectful towards the work that you wrote,” he said. “Of course, it would be easy to revamp it and revive it but is there relevance right now? I don’t know and I can’t speak on behalf of David but yes, we could revive it but is it relevant where we are moving to today? There are so many other important conversations that is pertinent to today’s youth. I think as a creative sometimes you just want to be remembered for the rest of your body of work.”

Next year marks 20 years since the untimely death of Taliep Petersen. Alistair says there is no talk at this stage of presenting something to mark the occasion. “We did something on the 10^th anniversary of his death, Emo put on something at Grand West. Whether something happens next year, I don’t know.”

But Alistair was at pains to stress that Kramer’s contribution went far beyond District 6 The Musical. “He has created so many other magnificent pieces of work from Orpheus in Africa, Kat And The Kings, Koos Sass, Some like it Vrot . . . all wonderful ghoema.

“This is more than a birthday, it is a tribute to a legend, someone who has contributed massively to the discography of South African music but also to the music of the people of colour and reminded us of that where our music comes from stamped the fact that we do have a culture, we do have an identity. It took David and Taliep in the ’80s to remind many of us of that and our footprint is important. So I particularly want to celebrate him because of his enormous impact he has made in my life in the four decades I have known him.

“I wanted to celebrate him, and not posthumously as we most times do to the legendary people or any artists who have contributed to our lives and to the soundtrack of our lives.

“I got my entire life catapulted out of the economic gates of Mitchells Plain by virtue of the work that he and Taliep had produced. They were part of what would eventually become a great journey of the arts for me. I wanted him to sit in an audience and not be directing and being on stage. I wanted him to be in the audience watching the people that he had contributed to and that we had a close journey with; a man who had been very secretive and very aloof albeit that he has a massive public profile. We’ve had the great gift of having very very close relations with David since we were nine years old.

“It is a huge artistic contribution he has made in my life. He made me understand that my story is important. He was also there to guide one and navigate this industry. And then on a personal level with my struggles with depression.”

Alistair’s message to the fans? “Get your family and friends over for a dop en ‘n tjop. It’s R250 for a viewing. It’ll cost just $25 if you are in Oz or Canada and £10 if you’re in the UK. If you have 10 people you are only paying R25 to watch. I just wanted it to be accessible to people and celebrate with us on his birthday on Friday. It’s an opportunity to watch it in the comfort of your home. You’re not going to be able to see it again.”