It won’t be just the kiddies catching the Elf magic at the Brighton Centre on Friday and Saturday, January 5 and 6.
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00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Art Circus at Sussex Newspapers. Great pleasure
00:06 to speak to John Conway this morning because John is the producer and the director of something
00:12 truly spectacular, something truly wonderful, that's going to be coming to Brighton just
00:16 after Christmas, Elf the Musical, Brighton Centre, January the 5th and the 6th. And why
00:22 is it going to be such fun? It's going to be spectacular, isn't it, at the very least?
00:27 Well it's a big show, we call it super-sizing because obviously it was a Broadway and West
00:32 End musical but when we play it in arenas it's huge. The audience are given snowballs
00:39 to throw at the actors for the snowball fight, there are mobile stages that travel around
00:43 the arena so you're always close to the action, there's great big iMac screens so you can
00:47 see it almost, it's very similar to watching a film live on stage because our background
00:53 is computer generated images that interact with the performers on stage. Really unique
01:00 experience. That must be extremely well and cleverly choreographed to make that work then.
01:06 Well we've been doing it for a few years now and it's really exciting to break out of the
01:09 normal venues that we go to and this is a tour we're literally going nationwide with
01:14 and although it's on after Christmas, it's the, you know, Epiphany is the 6th of January,
01:22 that's the 12th day of Christmas. When you will be in Brighton, yes. Last weekend of
01:26 the school holiday so it's your last Christmas act. And you have aerialists, they're decorating
01:32 the Christmas decorations at Macy's, they're going to be spectacular with you too, aren't
01:36 they? That's right, yeah, there's quite an element of cirque and obviously unlike a theatre
01:41 where your height is only about 5 metres, you know, we got to 10 and 11 metres in different
01:46 places and it all literally explodes out of the screen, out of the stage at you.
01:52 And it sounds brilliant but underpinning all this, all this wonderful effects is the fact
01:56 that it's a really lovely story, isn't it? What makes it such a good story do you think?
02:00 Because that's the crucial thing, the story is.
02:02 Yeah, I think that Elf has overtaken Home Alone as everybody's favourite Christmas movie
02:07 and it's based on the wonderful performance that Will Ferrell originally gave and that
02:13 our actor Steve Sirlin has really sought to recapture. There's some great songs in it
02:17 as well, written for Broadway. But it's just this funny, lovable character. I wouldn't
02:24 say he's politically incorrect, but he's indiscreet, you know, he has no filter, so he just says
02:29 things as children do. And that's what kids see, this is a grown up in an adult body,
02:36 but with a child's mind.
02:37 Yeah, and the lovely thing, I mean, the whole thing is basically about rediscovering a sense
02:42 of family, rediscovering a sense of wonder, isn't it?
02:45 It is. And there's an interesting thing about pantomime. I think, they tell me, I'm the
02:50 most experienced panto veteran, having written 600 pantomimes over 40 years. And what's really
02:56 interesting, I discovered this way back when, every Christmas story comes from what we used
03:01 to call a broken home. So there's always a widow or a divorcee who was the mother, whether
03:08 it was Dame Trott or Widow Twankey or whatever else. And of course, the buddy story is also
03:14 the misplaced child, somebody who lost his parentage, now seeking, and that whole thing
03:19 also of an outsider, trying to seek, because he is, he's an elf who comes to New York,
03:26 and they all think he's weird. And again, it's kind of an allegorical tale for our times.
03:31 It feels sort of slightly Peter Pan-ish, doesn't it? That not growing up from a different world,
03:35 coming into our world is intriguing, isn't it?
03:39 For sure. And if ever there's a time in the year when we can put all our troubles behind
03:43 us and remain children and not grow up, it's Christmas.
03:47 And you're applying that to the dads too, with their awful jumpers then?
03:52 Well, yeah. I mean, those who can remember Noel Edmonds, it's like a Noel Edmonds convention,
03:57 because all the dads come in. You've never seen so much wool and yarn in one building
04:01 in your life. And it's fantastic. They all come decorated in their dad Christmas sweaters
04:06 and buddy the elf hats.
04:08 It sounds fantastic. John, really lovely to speak to you. Thanks for your time. Good luck
04:12 with it. And I look forward to seeing you without the jumper.
04:15 It'll be fun. Thanks.