The Music Man at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2008 was Zizi Strallen’s first professional job as an adult – “if you can call 17 being an adult!"
Zizi is now back there for the first time since, in Rock Follies which takes us back to the celebrated 1970s TV series and puts it on the stage in a new version in Chichester 's Minerva theatre, running from Monday, July 24-Saturday, August 26.
Zizi is now back there for the first time since, in Rock Follies which takes us back to the celebrated 1970s TV series and puts it on the stage in a new version in Chichester 's Minerva theatre, running from Monday, July 24-Saturday, August 26.
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00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers.
00:05 Fantastic to be speaking to ZZ Stratton, who is heading back to Chichester Festival Theatre for Rock Follies in the Minerva from July 24 to August 26.
00:15 Sounds a fantastic show, but one of the curious things is this is your first time on a Chichester stage since your very first job as a professional, as an adult in the music band.
00:27 So plenty of happy memories of Chichester.
00:30 Oh, so many happy memories. Yes, I cannot wait to get back there, actually.
00:36 I just love the whole surroundings of the theatre and the people that come to watch the theatre as well are so supportive in Chichester.
00:44 The audiences are always incredible.
00:47 So clearly you had a great time in the Music Man in 2008 then.
00:51 I did. I mean, it feels like a very long time ago because it was, but I do remember a lot of it.
00:57 And obviously I've changed a lot as a performer and as a person since then.
01:01 But my sister Scarlett was playing Marion, the lead in it.
01:05 And so I had a lovely thing and we got on so well.
01:10 So we shared, we shared digs and just spent the whole time together.
01:15 And that was just such a lovely first job experience.
01:17 You were eased in nicely to the experience.
01:21 Eased into the industry at 17 with my older sister holding my hand.
01:24 And now, Rogue Follies, well, considerably less innocent, isn't it really?
01:28 Especially my role, yeah.
01:32 Yeah, it's considerably less innocent than Zunita in the Music Man, yeah, for sure.
01:38 But it's these three women who decide that they're going to set up their own band because they've had enough of being frustrated by the men in the industry.
01:45 Exactly, yeah. And sort of being told to sort of wear certain things and be sort of conforming to what society said was a woman in the late 70s.
01:58 So they're sort of all about pushing the boundaries of being a woman and what you need and what you're told you should need and things like that.
02:07 So the lyrics are fantastic.
02:10 And just everybody's just going to feel empowered watching the show.
02:14 Male and female. It's empowering for everybody.
02:18 And it has to be set in the 70s. It's not something you could update, is it?
02:22 No, no, because it was the music.
02:26 Even though it still sounds current, it's got that sort of 70s vibe because the lovely thing about 70s, the late 70s in London, was that you had all these different influences.
02:38 So some of our songs sound quite punky. Some songs are quite disco.
02:43 You've got all those different 70s vibes going on that were in the charts. It was quite eclectic.
02:49 So, yeah, so the music there is very, very varied in sort of theme.
02:56 And within the band, you have some interesting, strong characters, clearly, not least yours.
03:03 Yeah. And the lovely thing is that all three of us are very, very different.
03:07 We've got Anna, who's the sort of frustrated housewife, who's very highly educated and sort of feels she's not using all of her strengths.
03:17 And then Dee, who's this strong sort of feminist protester woman.
03:25 And then I'm this sort of posh girl, it girl, who is just sort of like loves everyone.
03:33 And I'm sort of the peacekeeper when things get a bit heated.
03:37 My character is always the one that's just like, oh, let's have some fun. Come on. Let's, you know, let's get everybody back together again.
03:43 So it's a really lovely character to play for me.
03:46 But confess your sins. You are an it girl, a posh girl with a little bit of a background, aren't you?
03:51 Yeah. Well, she's been cut off from her family because she's been involved in stuff on movies.
03:58 So and which is hilarious. You know, we kind of like laugh about it in the show.
04:03 But but she says that the other two women in the show, her friends sort of say to her, you don't need to do that anymore.
04:10 You can do you can be in a rock band. You don't need to to sort of.
04:14 But then then there's a lovely thing about my character that says, well, I know I don't need to, but it's my body and I can and I have power over it.
04:22 So if I want to do that, I will kind of thing. It's not a man telling me I should.
04:26 It's me saying, yeah. So it's that sort of empowerment thing of my body, my choice, which is lovely.
04:35 It sounds a terrific prospect. And it's in the map for them from July 24th to August 26th.
04:42 Zizi, lovely to speak to you. Thank you so much.
04:45 Very nice to speak to you, too. Thank you. Thank you.