Author's Note
The musical Who killed Jimmy Valentine? was written as a commission from the Volkswagen Musicactive Theatre company, whose task was to mount a musical every year in every province using the cream of high school students from local schools. When I was approached to direct yet another American show I suggested that I would rather write a piece about our reality in Cape Town than attempt yet another interpretation of American society.
Jimmy Valentine was born out of my fascination with crime stories and the popular whodunnit genre. I was drawn to the headlines of national and local newspapers, which remains a constant source of inspiration for my writing, and to the ongoing taxi-war in many of the major cities in South Africa. This is a unique South African phenomenon - a bitter rivalry over routes, where passengers cease to be regarded as people but are seen as mere "fares". Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and the evergreen West Side Story were certainly distant influences in the creative phase, but I was more drawn to creating a South African detective who would drive the story and be my central character. (An aside: Jake Mulligan appears as the hero in three subsequent novels, Who Killed Jimmy Valentine? and Hijack City, and The Eighth Man - he's come a long way from being the singing detective!)
I found the perfect collaborator in Allan Stephenson who jumped at the chance of writing "wall-to-wall" singing in what he likes to call an opera whodunnit. We worked hard at creating a musical texture that young people would love to sing and also music that would be challenging. Allan has scored it with a school orchestra in mind and has succeeded in creating a score that is dynamic and easily accessible.
My ambition for the musical was that it should be entertaining, fast moving, and spectacular and also reflect something of South African city life. I do hope you and your cast enjoy the ride!

Michael Williams
December 2000

General
This sung-through musical has 10 soloists (4F,6M) and requires a strong supporting cast of between 20-40 young people. The music is a contemporary mix of pop, rap, jazz, blues, gospel, opera, and is scored for piano, percussion, electric bass, drum kit and a synthesiser. The musical is also scored for a full orchestra. The backing track available is the fully orchestrated version. Running time: 115 minutes

The South African performance rights to "Who Killed Jimmy Valentine" available through Musicmakers. The international performance rights to "Who Killed Jimmy Valentine?" through Maverick Musicals.

Cast List
Detective Jack Mulligan - Driven, smooth, intelligent Detective
Jimmy Valentine - Talented, charismatic, enigmatic singer
Darlene Valentine - Timid, haunted
Ronnie Valentine - Temperamental, bitter, ambitious
Jackie Hanekom - Beautiful vamp, jealous, sassy
Ben Tetwa - Hard-working, honest, bitter
Nomsi Tetwa - Lovely, romantic, starry-eyed
Nkosinati Tetwa - Oldest brother, angry young man
Sipho Tetwa - Idealistic, younger brother
Scar - Cool, shifty, loud mouth
Kate Edwards (non-singing role) - Determined, professional, groomed
Officer - Efficient
2 x Master of Ceremony - Gregarious, outrageous, showy
CHORUS:
Valentine Choir, Starlight Dancers, Sipho's rapsters, Policemen and women, Spanish dancers

Musical Package

• 1 x Vocal/piano score
• Individual parts for synthesizer, electric bass, percussion, piano, chorus and soloists
• 1 x libretto of musical
• CD of the music of Jimmy Valentine
• 3 copies of Who Killed Jimmy Valentine? novel published by Oxford University Press
• Macrat Teacher Resource guide
• Full orchestration of musical available upon request
• Backing track available upon request