ACT 1

Kat Diamond arrives to start work as a shoeshine. As he lights a cigarette, a Cavalla King, he remembers his past: Behind him we see four teenagers dressed in fifties suits who begin to sing. Kat introduces us to his younger self and the friends of his youth: Ballie, Magoo and Bingo. The boys are all crazy about music and dream of forming a harmony group. But first they choose a name: The Cavalla Kings.

Dreams turn into reality when Magoo’s sister Lucy Dixon appears on the scene. She teaches them to harmonise and grooms them as performers. One afternoon at the Tafelberg Hotel they are invited to sing. A white talent scout called Smitty is impressed and gives Lucy his card. A few days later Lucy receives a letter from Mr Smitty: they have their first professional booking.

ACT 2

Two years have passed and The Cavalla Kings are the top harmony group in Capetown. Smitty gets them a gig at a “Whites Only” club in the city which is raided. Smitty and Lucy start dating, a crime under the immorality act … Smitty books them into a recording studio to record their first single, which becomes a big hit. Ballie announces he wants to get married. Magoo, Kat and Bingo try to talk him out of it, but he is in love. Smitty gets them a booking at the Claridges Hotel in Durban. When they arrive, they discover they have to work as bell boys during the day and sleep in the servants quarters because they are coloureds.

Their cabaret is hugely successful and the management want to book them for another three months, but Ballie’s wife wants him home, and Lucy and Smitty have decided to get married which means they will have to leave the country. Magoo, who doesn’t see any future for himself in South Africa, will follow them to Canada. This ends the short career of The Cavalla Kings.