Ryan back in home county for Crazy For You at Chichester Festival Theatre

Ryan Jupp is relishing his first big show back in his home area, Crazy For You on the Chichester Festival Theatre stage from July 11-September 4.
second from right - pic by Graham Michaelsecond from right - pic by Graham Michael
second from right - pic by Graham Michael

Originally from Littlehampton, Ryan will be swing in the show.

“I'm like a boomerang! I'm always coming back to Littlehampton!

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“I lived there until I moved to London for drama school back in 2013. I went to Mountview and graduated in 2016 so I had a few years of doing various things before everything went to hell!

“From the age of eight I attended the local dance school Dance Industry Studios and I did a few years there and started to do competitions. I did the festival in Chichester and I did Godalming Festival. I took to tap dance from a very young age. I just loved making a noise. My parents can vouch for that! I bought a drum kit. I just loved being loud.

“And fortunately the principal at the college took to me and thought that I had natural musical talent and rhythm and so I started doing some amateur groups as well.”

But maybe the big turning point was seeing The Lion King in the West End when he was ten years old: “I remember the magic of it and the costumes and I just turned to my parents and said ‘This is what I am going to do!’ and they have been incredibly supportive ever since, just saying that you should follow your dreams and just be positive and happy.

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"Knowing that I wanted to do it, I went to private singing lessons and back in 2006 my first time singing in front of an audience was in Oliver! with Littlehampton Musical Comedy Society.

“This is my first show back in the area. I've done a lot of stuff on cruise ships and I performed at the Royal Albert Hall and I was the lead in Top Hat the musical but this feels really special to be doing Crazy For You for its 30th birthday. I didn't know a lot about the show before apart from the music and obviously you know a lot of the songs already. They are all Gershwin classics that you grew up listening to. I just didn't know that much about the show itself but it is such wonderful music and for me I think it's a show that just gives you everything that you want in a theatre – every emotion, comedy, the love interest and the old music hall thing of mistaken identity and you've also got huge production numbers.

“Everyone has just been through such a tough couple of years but this is absolutely the right show for now. Just come along to the theatre and have a great feel-good time. It expresses every emotion. People will love it.”

In the show, theatre-mad Bobby Child is torn between his show-business dreams and his rich, demanding New York fiancée and rich, demanding New York mother who want him to run the family bank. On his mother’s insistence, he reluctantly heads west for the bygone mining town of Deadrock, Nevada, to foreclose on a mortgage...