New musical version of The Prince and the Pauper on stage with Dynamo Youth Theatre

SussexWorld

West Ashling-based John Gleadall is delighted to bring to the stage his new musical version of The Prince and the Pauper, courtesy of Dynamo Youth Theatre.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers, lovely to

00:06speak again to John Gledell, and you are involved, deeply involved, you've written The Prince

00:12and the Pauper for Dynamo Youth Theatre, and it's coming up in Havant from January 8th

00:17to the 11th, and it's going well, but this is something that you've been wanting to do

00:21for a while. What was it about the story that made you want to bring it to the stage?

00:27As usual with Mark Twain stories, there's a lot of humour there, which really appeals to all age

00:33groups, but also in this particular show you have, it highlights societal differences in the Tudor

00:40world, and you've got a very interesting thing where you've got Henry VIII on one hand and the

00:46family of the pauper who live the lowest of the low in Offal Court off Pudding Lane on the other.

00:51And the ideal for the casting is to have a pair of identical twins, isn't it?

00:56Wouldn't that be marvellous? Wouldn't that be wonderful if you had identical talented twins

01:00who could sing and act and dance? Well, as it happens, that's exactly what we've got.

01:06We've got Barney and Asty who are absolutely fabulous, they're lovely, lovely boys,

01:10and they're working so hard, and they're setting a great example to the rest of the cast.

01:15Yeah, and big cast, isn't it? Big, big cast.

01:18Yes, we've got about 55 in at the moment, which is a big cast, and it can be hard to

01:24handle, but they're such nice kids and they're working so hard, it makes it a pleasure.

01:30And it must be lovely for you, having worked on this and

01:32meditated on this, pondered this for a while, to see it coming to fruition.

01:37It really is. It's been a mission. I started working on it with Greg, Greg Moss,

01:42where we've written a lot of things together, but what with his writing commitments,

01:46Greg had to drop out some time ago, so I've picked up the baton and carried on with it,

01:51and it's really come together now. I'm very pleased with some of the music,

01:54and the kids are responding well to the quite big challenges, musically and dramatically.

02:00And fantastic, once it's out there, the hope is that other people will pick it up,

02:05if you've got any plans, any hopes.

02:07We've got to use it, for sure.

02:09Brilliant, good. Well, I hope it goes brilliantly.

02:12Lovely to speak to you again. Take care.

02:14Thanks, Phil.

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