Worthing Musical Comedy Society offer compilation show

There will be songs from shows including Joseph, Gypsy, Carousel, The Book of Mormon, Wicked, Six and Sweeney Todd with performances on Thursday at 5.30pm; Friday at 7.30pm; and Saturday at 2.30pm and 7.30pm.

Directing will be Mandy Beadnell who is relishing the challenge: “The advantages of doing this sort of show are numerous. We don't have to have a set to concern ourselves with which relieves us of all sorts of things. We don't have to worry about how it will all fit on the stage and about the entrances and the exits and also there are considerably less costs that we are incurring though obviously it is still very expensive. But it's far simpler for the teching. It removes a lot of the hassles but the great thing is that it gives us a chance to work with the company on a completely different sets of songs, songs that we might not do because they are from musicals that are not necessarily big sellers or songs that are actually fabulous songs but that as amateurs we would not be able to do. There are all sorts of regulations controlling things but we are able to do the songs in a concert context and the lovely thing is that it is a great chance to be really quite varied in our programme.

“I did Guys And Dolls with the company 18 months or so ago and that has a certain kind of audience. It has a certain kind of flavour but in this you can offer the chance to be in the spotlight to so many different people. When you're casting a show like Guys And Dolls obviously you have to have the same person as Adelaide singing Adelaide throughout. Obviously. But with this, it is really interesting because you can increase the opportunities. And it is really interesting to see how the cast react. We had a lovely moment last night when somebody quite unexpectedly went for a solo spot and absolutely smashed it. The reaction was great. People were cheering and clapping and that's not the kind of opportunity that you can often give. At the last count I had 43 people in the cast and I'm really going for it. In some numbers we have the entire company performing at the same time but it does mean, as I say, we can have a very varied programme and I think people really enjoying it.

“It's a very different experience doing a book show because there would be times when you would be concentrating on the dialogue. With this it is 100 per cent production throughout and it's very hard on the musical director and the assistant musical director. By the very nature of the songs that you're choosing, these are songs that are large and complex because the simpler ones wouldn't work so well so it is actually very demanding on them as well. And then you have to try to stitch it together. It is quite a regular thing that companies do but there really does need to be an element of linking so that it does all hold together. You trial some things and they work and then you trial some other things and they don't work so well so really the stitching and the linking is something we have to work on.”

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