Happy memories as Gay Soper returns to Chichester Festival Theatre

She toured here in Salad Days in 1995, but Crazy For You (July 11-September 4) is her first Chichester-produced show since The Mitford Girls in 1981 and, a year or so later, Jack and the Beanstalk, directed by Roger Redfarn who still lives near Chichester.

“Frankie Howerd and June Whitfield were in the panto, and I think I must have been rather nervous. I was feeling insecure and Roger said to me ‘I have got just one note for you.’

"He said ‘What is the name of this show?’ I said ‘Jack and the Beanstalk.’ He said ‘And what is the name of the role you are playing? I said ‘I'm playing Jack.’

"And Roger said ‘And that’s what make you the star of the show!”

It was the perfect encouragement.

She also loved working with Patrick Garland, director on The Mitford Girls: “He was such a sweet man. Everybody adored him. He was delightful to work with and we had a fabulous time on the show.”

And it looks like she will have a similarly fabulous time with Crazy For You.

“It is simply wonderful. So many of us have not had very much in the way of work over the last two years and to be back in a show – and such a fantastic show as this – is just brilliant, with all the music of Gershwin. I grew up on Gershwin.

"My father used to play Gershwin every night and to me it is just such beautiful music. And the cast is brilliant and other than Charlie Stemp and Carly Anderson who are the stars of the show, I would say the real stars of the show are all these girl dancers.

"They are all about six-foot tall and they have got legs that go on forever and they just do the most wonderful, fantastic dances!”

As for the pandemic: “Because I'm older and I don't have a mortgage anymore and I don't have masses of rent to pay, I was lucky I suppose. I did bits and pieces. I did a little movie in Bucharest and I did a little bit of workshops on Zoom but really I just managed to get by miraculously. But I missed it all terribly and the longer it went on, the worse it got. And the point is that most people tell you that if you are a theatre person you're all about being part of the community, part of a big company, part of a big family where everybody supports each other and is there for each other and you all become friends together. I really did miss it.

“But I think audiences are going to just love this. Audiences have been so starved of live entertainment. It's just not the same as watching something on television or in the cinema. You really want something that is live on stage in front of you. I do think (generally) there are going to be some problems getting people back (in the numbers they were before) which is what we're seeing in London, but Chichester has got a very, very loyal audience.”