Why Charlie Stemp is delighted to be back on the Chichester stage

Now he's back with Crazy For You, a show he promises will be every bit as infectiously joyous (July 11-September 4).

And so perfect for right now. The point is that it is partly about what happens when we get our arts and theatres back.

Charlie is playing theatre-mad Bobby Child who 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. There he finds the mortgage in question is on a dilapidated Victorian theatre and the owner’s daughter Polly is the girl of his dreams.

Desperate to prove his good faith and win her love, Bobby lights on the idea of putting on a show – complete with glamorous dancers from New York’s Follies – to save the theatre and renew the town.

“And you see what happens when we bring the arts back. Bobby wants to put on a show and bring the whole town alive again. The message is that if you have the arts you can not only create revenue but you also create beauty and happiness, and I think people need that happiness right now. You look at the news and it is really daunting. But come along to this and you will have a great time. You can see just what the arts can do for people, and the whole thing is just infectiously joyous.”

Half A Sixpence six years ago was Charlie’s first big leading role: “I went through 12 rounds of auditions, an unimaginable number of auditions. I've never heard of that before to that extent but I think it was just Cameron being very strong minded about what he wanted, someone who was young who could do all three, acting singing and dancing. And it was a fantastic the show that went down very well.

“I think I've been struggling to find something since then which has been at quite that same level. When you do something like that on a stage, when you don't leave the stage at all, it's like a fix. The adrenaline rush is just unbelievable and it's really hard to match that...

“However with this new show I think it's exactly the same level, that same level of standing on one leg juggling six plates and throwing four knives, just that buzz.

“And it is in a theatre that means so much to me. I've never felt so much at peace as when I come down to be in Chichester.

“This show, like Half A Sixpence, is going to be so incredibly energetic and it is lovely to have that balance of being in a city which is so beautiful and peaceful and in a theatre which is just so supportive and with an audience that really loves their theatre.

“In the West End people go there and it's like they are saying ‘Entertain me’ because they have paid so much money to be there but in Chichester you get a great sense that the audience just want you to do well and that the audience want to support you. There's a real community feeling.”