The Sound of Music is at Chichester Festival Theatre this summer.
Gina Beck, whose performance as Nellie Forbush in 2021’s South Pacific was also acclaimed in London and on a UK tour, returns to play Maria.
Gina Beck, whose performance as Nellie Forbush in 2021’s South Pacific was also acclaimed in London and on a UK tour, returns to play Maria.
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00:00 No, dear me.
00:01 Good afternoon, my name is Phil here at Greenparks, editor for Sussex Newspapers,
00:06 and it's fabulous to be speaking to Gina Beck again, who is back at the Festival Theatre with
00:10 the absolutely huge one, the wonderful prospect of The Sound of Music from July 10th to September 3rd.
00:17 Now, Gina, what a fantastic role to be taking on that, must be so exciting.
00:21 Yes, I'm so excited about Maria. I mean, what a complex, interesting character.
00:27 She's a problem, isn't she?
00:29 Yes, she definitely is a problem. She's a problem to the nuns,
00:31 because she doesn't quite fit in at the nunnery. And yeah, it's really fun to play that sort of,
00:38 you know, wild side of her, the kind of confrontational.
00:42 She just sort of says what she thinks and doesn't have any kind of stop of herself.
00:49 And I think that's what makes, eventually makes the captain fall in love with her.
00:52 So clearly not destined to be a nun, but the lovely thing is she is just so
00:57 lovable and likeable and spirited, isn't she?
01:00 Yeah, I mean, she's got an amazing heart. Of course, she immediately loves the captain's
01:05 children. And that endears her to everybody, because, you know, taking on seven of somebody
01:11 else's children is a hard thing to do. And she just immediately wants the best for them,
01:16 which is kind of amazing.
01:17 Yeah, but talking of hard things to do, what an enormous role this is.
01:21 You barely leave the stage, do you?
01:22 Yes, exactly.
01:24 And this is your story.
01:26 A lot of songs, there's a lot of text. And when you see that I'm not on stage,
01:32 I'm basically changing my costume. Yeah, there's not a lot of downtime,
01:36 but I'm hoping that that's going to really just kind of give me loads of energy to get
01:39 through the show, because I suppose sometimes when you're in shows that a lot of time off
01:44 stage can make it kind of drag, make it harder to kind of boost yourself up again.
01:48 But hopefully I'm going to be on the show.
01:49 No downtime, is there? But does it help the fact that you were here two years ago,
01:53 also in the Rodgers and Hammond, starting the South Pacific, which was a fantastic success,
01:58 wasn't it?
01:59 Yes, it was. It was great. But luckily, I'm not going to be pregnant this time.
02:02 So hopefully it'll be a bit easier than that was, although that was a fantastic show to be part of.
02:10 And obviously one of Daniel Evans' last shows.
02:13 You did fabulously well two years ago. You went through, how many months pregnant was it?
02:19 I think it was 31 weeks, so seven months pregnant.
02:25 That's quite some achievement, isn't it? But as you say, theatre's about suspending disbelief.
02:30 They might more disbelieve that I'm a nun.
02:36 But the complication this year, of course, is that you have a one-year-old
02:42 in addition to your now six-year-old.
02:43 Exactly, yeah. So I'm not sure what's better.
02:47 I think it's nice to have my own body back for a little short time.
02:51 Well, how on earth are you going to juggle that this summer? Massive show.
02:54 Yeah, good question. Good question.
02:57 Just as you do. I mean, this is what I really love doing, being in shows. And luckily,
03:04 I've got enough friends and family around to support me doing that with two kids.
03:09 Hopefully it'll all go well.
03:10 Well, it's a lovely prospect. July the 10th, September the 3rd,
03:14 Sound of Music in Chichester. Gina, really, really lovely to speak to you. Thank you.
03:18 Thank you.
03:20 [BLANK_AUDIO]