Natalie Gamsu
Natalie Gamsu is a multi-talented performer on the international stage. She is a singer, actor and songwriter whose performances have been acclaimed in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Sydney and Johannesburg. Gamsu’s musical repertoire is exotic and eclectic, including material from the American Songbook, from Africa and the Middle East, powered by a voice that ‘bespeaks wisdom and passion’ (Backstage Magazine, New York). Her razor-edge satire is tempered by disarming, self-ironic humour.
Born in Namibia, Natalie Gamsu studied Drama at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. On graduating, she established a cult following on the South African cabaret circuit with the duo Strictempo, her own solo cabaret shows, and appearances with the a cappella group, Not The Midnight Mass.
Gamsu’s South African musical theatre credits include a Dalro Award-winning performance in Nunsense. She also starred in Blues In The Night, and then Candide, for which she won a VITA Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical.
On television, she appeared in several series of the SABC drama The Big Time, earning a Tonight award for Best Actress in a Television Series, and a VITA award for Best Supporting Actress.
From 1992, Natalie lived and worked in New York City. She made her Manhattan cabaret debut at the Greenwich Village cabaret room, Club 88, where she subsequently headlined six seasons.. She performed at the famous Oak Room (The Algonquin Hotel), The FireBird, Fez (under Time Café), The Russian Tea Room, The Ballroom, Bradstan Country Inn and the Mabel Mercer Cabaret Convention at Town Hall (NY), and in Chicago and Philadelphia. Other US cabaret appearances include The Cinegrill, Los Angeles, and The Express, Fresno.
She won the Backstage Bistro Award in 1994 for Outstanding Vocalist and was nominated for an MAC award for Outstanding Debut in the same year. She won a MAC Award for Outstanding Female Vocalist in 1997, and again in 2000.
In 1999, she played the title role in Fefu And Her Friends, written and directed by Maria Irene Forness, for Sante Fe Stages.
She made her UK debut in September 1996 at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London, in Gary Carter’s Acts And Revelations, and in 1997 completed a revival of the same show at the Dukes Theatre in Lancaster, England, where she also performed her one-woman show, Karizmatik, with cellist Kathryn Locke. Her association with Gary Carter continued in 2000, with Anger Is Not A Place I Like To Be, commissioned for the Fierce Festival, and performed at The Birmingham Repertory Theatre, and again in 2005 in The Masque of Water,
In 2003 Natalie made her Australian concert debut at the Paddington Uniting Church. She was a regular guest on The Muf-Tee Show, hosted on stage by Hayden Tee, and she has performed in clubs in Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth as well as at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Natalie co-wrote, produced and performed 2 Divas 1 Comeback with Joanna Weinberg, her Strictempo partner at The Bondi Pavilion and The Statement Lounge.
Her one-woman show Hallelujah To Her (2007), had a successful run at The Statement Lounge (Sydney), The Butterly Club (Melbourne) and Bradstan (NY). She followed this with a new show called Misfit (collaborating with composer Jonathan Cooper) which had a sellout run at El Rocco room in Sydney and the Melbourne Cabaret Festival.
Appearances in Australian musicals and theatre include Stephen Sondheim’s Putting It Together. She followed that with Sunday In The Park With George at the Q Theatre in Penrith in 2007. In August 2008 Natalie made her debut at the Sydney Theatre Company in Women Of Troy directed by Barrie Kosky. The show ran successfully in Sydney and at The Malthouse (Melbourne) and she was nominated for a Green Room award in the category of Best Ensemble.
Natalie sang with a 19 piece orchestra for Ken Unsworth’s installation A Ringing Glass at Cockatoo Island (2009) and was part of his latest piece The House of Blue Leaves at The Art Gallery Of NSW in August (2010).
In 2001, Natalie released her first CD, titled Weave (for which she received a MAC nomination for Best New Recording). Her new CD Misfit will be released this year. Natalie features in the American documentary Showbiz Is My Life with Julie Wilson and Baby Jane Dexter.
Natalie is thrilled to be performing in the brand new musical Dr. Zhivago, playing at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre.