Society returns with its first full musical in over two years
Becky Backham is the choreographer for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels – The Musical, the first full-scale show from Chichester’s CAOS Musical Productions in nearly two-anda-half years.
But she admits she got a little jealousoftheperformersandwill be joining them on stage for the bignumberTheMoreWeDance.
They take to the stage with the show at Westbourne House School from next Wednesday (October 27) to Saturday (October 30)(tickets caoschichester.squarespace.com) – their first big show since Half A Sixpence at Bognor’s Regis Centre in June 2019.
“Initially I was saying I wasn’t going to be in it, that Iwantedtobeabletobewatching and tweaking. But I couldn’t resist – and I will be on stage for the one number,” Becky says.
It’s all part of the joy of being back. “I have never seen this show before so really I was working completely from scratch with the choreography.
I just thought that that would be a good point to start from. I have got no influences from watching other companies’ videos.
“You just get a feel for the music and go with the feel of it.
“The More We Dance has got quite a salsa vibe so that’s the style we have gone for, and you have got the usual classic musical theatre numbers, and there is your average musical theatre jazz hands and you have got a little bit of the slower work withtheduetsandthesongsthat are more ballroom influenced.”
Becky is delighted with the way CAOS has managed to navigatethelockdowns:“Initially there was a lot of online stuff going on, just meeting over the internet every week.
“We were doing quizzes and things just so that everyone stayed in contact.
“And as things started to lift we did a few online things, like Walking On Sunshine in the summer, just really trying to keep everyone in the loop.”
Now, obviously, the hope is that CAOS can truly get back to live performances.
“I started with CAOS when they did Boogie Nights in 2018.
“I had done shows since when I was very small. We lived over Eastbourne way and I was involved in quite a few things over there. And when we moved this way I was focusing on my career and so didn’t do shows for quite a long time.
“I am a physiotherapist and once I qualified and started my job I didn’t have time for the amdram stuff as well, and when it got to the point where I was happy with what I was doing jobwise, I started looking around for local companies and found CAOS and looked at what they had done previously.
“I just love singing and dancing. It’s just something I have always done. My parents were both into theatre, and I was dancing since the age of about three. I did consider it professionally for a while when I left college and I didn’t know what I wanted to do.
“But it is a really hard business to get into.
“I thought if I could carry on doing it as a hobby and also pursue my career, that would be best.”