Enjoy another Night at the Movies with Chichester's CAOS
Night At The Movies 2! will be the entertainment as CAOS Musical Productions take to the stage at Westbourne House School, Chichester from June 1-3 (tickets on caosmp.eventbrite.co.uk).
They first did a Night At The Movies show in October 2019, just a few months before the pandemic: “It was a sell-out and very successful and so we decided to go back to the idea,” says Dan Farmiloe who is directing this time. “The audience really loved it so we thought we would do some more. The idea is basically iconic tunes from the blockbuster movies. When we did the first one we had songs from Ghostbusters and Mary Poppins, from Mamma Mia and Les Mis, from Oliver! and from A Star Is Born. For this one we've got songs from Dirty Dancing and some James Bond theme songs, The Bodyguard, Back To The Future, Chicago and The Muppets and also Batman and Sister Act.
“There are five of us in the creative team and we joined together early March to start putting this together. We had a big ideas playlist and we chose the songs from about 100, thinking about songs that we've never done before and also songs that we thought the audience would like.”
Key to structuring it, inevitably, was picking the right songs to open and close each half. Back In Time and Burning Love will be the closers at the end of the show; the first half will close with Time Of My Life: “There are 34 of us involved in this. We did a Magic of the Musicals last July when we had about 25 so this is a nice increase on that and it's about the same number we had for the first Night At The Movies we did. We've got a lot of new members that have joined us and we had some people staying on from when we did The Addams Family which is good.”
It comes as proof of just how well the company has recovered from the pandemic: “The pandemic was a shock to us as it was to everyone. We were in middle of Calamity Jane when the pandemic struck. The show had to be cancelled. We were about halfway through rehearsals but it just had to go because of theatre bookings and other commitments. But we did do two virtual shows during the pandemic which was super successful for us. It was about keeping morale high for our membership and also keeping the bank happy. We still had to pay insurance and so on. That didn't stop during the pandemic. But mainly it was about keeping the membership happy and keeping morale up and just entertaining people at a time when we all needed it.
“And now we are growing as a company which is lovely. We had a bit of a lull after the pandemic when people were not as keen to get involved face to face but then in 2022 that changed and people wanted to get back out there in person. And so the society has continued to grow. I would say that we're back to where we were before the pandemic. We are always improving and we're always learning. We've got a young committee. And I would say the majority of the committee is under 35. We’re young and energetic as a company.”