Belle Street Theatre are back at the Chichester Fringe

SussexWorld

Belle Street Theatre are delighted to be returning to the Chichester Fringe, this time with Hugh: The Musical, this time for the Fringe’s November dates.

Transcript

00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. Lovely

00:05 this afternoon to be speaking to Joanie and Susan, who together are Bell Street, and now

00:10 you are heading to the Chichester Fringe this November with Hugh the Musical. Now, Joanie,

00:17 how did that begin? What is Hugh the Musical?

00:20 So Hugh the Musical is an interactive, fringe-style, one-act comedy musical, which is kind of loosely

00:29 based on 90s rom-coms and a confused plot between two flatmates.

00:36 And Susan, there's a lovely explanation for why the word Hugh comes into this then, involving

00:41 Prosecco.

00:42 Well, as an events band, we have a lot of lovely gigs, festivals and different venues,

00:51 and at one festival in particular, we maybe had a couple of Proseccos after our gig, and

00:59 we're talking about how sometimes if you get your diction wrong, Hugh can slip into all

01:05 the songs, like 'I Will Always Love Hugh', 'It's All About Hugh', and this one came

01:12 particularly from 'Hugh Makes Me Feel Like A Natural Woman'. So it's very loose.

01:19 It's a tenuous link.

01:21 Right, but Joanie, we don't see Hugh, and there's something slightly sinister sounding

01:26 about him, isn't there?

01:28 Yes, well, the whole plot is based around a love letter that these two women receive

01:34 from Hugh, which actually, in some ways, could be looked at as incredibly romantic, but in

01:40 other ways could be seen as a little bit stalker-ish. So the musical is all about the performers

01:46 picking apart the plot of this slightly questionable romantic comedy.

01:50 And you say interactive, how does that work? What are you actually asking the audience

01:56 to do?

01:57 Well, the whole thing begins maybe not as everyone would expect. So an open mind is

02:05 always good to have. It's just we like to ask volunteers to come and be part of the

02:12 show.

02:13 Perhaps the chorus hasn't turned up, perhaps the special effects quite aren't there. So

02:18 we just need a hand here and there from a few good-humoured, open-minded volunteers.

02:25 And is it easy to find volunteers in a theatre? Doesn't everyone hide when you say we want

02:30 volunteers?

02:31 They have no choice.

02:32 And this all began in Shaftesbury, and you're saying that you're on the floor crying in

02:41 fear the day before you did it for the first time, but ended up with a massive hit and

02:46 a sellout. What happened, apart from it went right?

02:49 Well, we'd worked very hard on trying to create this story and the songs, and we'd given ourselves

02:56 a deadline to perform it at the Shaftesbury Fringe 2022. But we suddenly realised it wasn't

03:05 quite finished then, and what were we doing putting ourselves out there? Which is why

03:11 it became a work in progress. And since then, it has developed massively and almost to slightly

03:19 now.

03:20 And people have come back to see it three or four times, actually.

03:23 Is that generally what a work in progress is? It just means we're not quite ready yet?

03:27 Well, it's an excuse, isn't it? For it not to be perfect. That was our title, was a work

03:35 in progress. Hugh the Musical, a work in progress. And now we've kept that, but it's a little

03:39 bit turning in cheek. We know what we're doing now, but it gives a clue as to how you feel

03:45 the musical will go.

03:47 This sounds great. And why Chichester now? You were in Chichester before, weren't you?

03:52 Yes, we were. We went back when they had their Fringe earlier in the year, and they invited

03:58 us to come back. And so we're very honoured to come back. It's a brilliant team, brilliant

04:04 set up, and we're really excited to be part of the programme.

04:06 Fantastic. Well, I hope it goes brilliantly. Joni and Susan, Bell Street, lovely to speak

04:11 to you about Hugh the Music, which is coming to Chichester mid-November. Thanks ever so

04:16 much for your time, and have a great time in Chichester again. Thank you.

04:19 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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