A celebration of France and French composers at The Barn Theatre, Southwick

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Veronica Brooks is loving the prospect of playing the prima donna whose nose is put out of joint in Les Melodies Francais from SO Musical Theatre (November 7, 8 and 9, 7.30pm, The Barn Theatre, Southwick).

Les Melodies Francais is a new show devised and written by Simon Gray, featuring songs from musical theatre, opera and operetta. All the music has been chosen from works written by French composers or from shows where the action is set in France. Simon has woven them all together to create a new story.

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In a small square close to the opera house in Paris near the beginning of the 20th century, we meet a variety of people who pass through the area and, assisted by Gerard Lafleur, the owner and Maître D’ of Café Lafleur who introduces us to these characters, we catch a small glimpse of their lives and their stories.

We also meet a young singer, Jocelyne Delepierre, whose singing has attracted the attention of the manager of the opera house. As a result, she is given the chance to sing in the much-awaited opera gala – much to the displeasure of Angelique Dupont, the reigning prima donna.

Tickets are £18 and are available from www.ticketsource.co.uk/barn-theatre-southwick or call 0333 666 3366.

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“Simon has created the show,” Veronica says. “His knowledge of opera and musical theatre repertoire is like no one else’s that I know. It's amazing. He's put together these kinds of shows before. The group were planning to do an opera in November but the performing members were such that not all of them like opera and not all of them like musical theatre so Simon agreed to take some of each and blend them all together into the show. I take my hat off to Simon. He is very creative.

“So it starts off with lots of street vendors selling their wares for a scene from La Boheme and there is a girl that is selling songs and along come the some of the performers from the opera. They hear her singing and want her to audition for the opera which puts her nose out of joint for the prima donna soprano which is me, by the way!

“My character has been doing this for years and she is very good. She is very, very good and I'm feeling threatened by the new kid on the block. There is a theatre manager and two male opera singers and they have to do a lot of soothing of my ego, telling me how marvellous I am. I try to refuse to perform saying that everyone's coming to see the new discovery but they have to tell me that no, everyone is coming to see me!”

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Veronica has a long and happy track record of performance: “I don't do it for a living but I have played the lead in 30 or so operas locally. It is so lovely to have the option to do that and still partake of something that you love without the pressure of it being your livelihood. And I've got to play all the great roles that I would not have got to play professionally. I'm sure I wouldn't have done. I'm a big fish in a small pond in that respect. I have played Lady Macbeth and I have played Aida, and they've all been fantastic to do, the big roles.

“It's like if you are training for a run, you have got to enjoy the training as well but at the same time it would be pointless if you didn't have a big race at the end of it. I love studying the roles and working on the roles and developing them but in the same way it would be pointless without the performance. I really love developing the character and finding the character and I do enjoy the rehearsals but you need the performance at the end.”

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