Love, courage and redemption - An Officer And A Gentleman in Eastbourne
Six or seven months into a long tour, performers can find themselves flagging just a little. But absolutely not with An Officer And A Gentleman which plays Eastbourne’s Congress Theatre (from September 17-21).
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00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Educator at Sussex Newspapers, now an
00:07officer and a gentleman, no less. He's going to be in Eastbourne from September the 17th
00:12to 21st, and playing Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley is Jamal Crawford. Lovely to speak to
00:18you. Now, you've been on the road for, what, seven, eight months or so by now, and you're
00:23saying often at this point in a tour people are getting a bit tired, struggling a bit,
00:27but that's clearly absolutely not the case with you. You're having a blast with this
00:31one, aren't you? What makes this one special?
00:34Loving it.
00:35Why? Why?
00:36The people. Yeah, the people, the story we get to tell every night, the impact we have
00:44on the audience as well. I don't take that for granted, you know. Every night, yeah,
00:50we get to see different emotions out there in the audience, you know, whether you're
00:53crying, whether you're smiling, whether they're up on their feet, they're loving life. And
00:59it's not every day audience members are just captivated. And I feel like we, honestly,
01:03we pull that off in a biased way, not in an arrogant way.
01:06The same thing is about the impact that you have on the audience, isn't it?
01:09100%.
01:10100%.
01:11And some fabulous...
01:12Yeah, if you can't, I don't know why you're... Yeah, yeah, oh my God, the music. Obviously,
01:20when it comes to theatre, I think the music, if you've got bad music in a show, you're
01:24not going to go anywhere with it, and you're going to lose the audience pretty quick. So
01:28yeah, we're lucky in that sense. Our musical director used a lot of 80s songs. So basically,
01:36if your favourite song isn't in our show, then I'll be very surprised because, yeah,
01:41he thought about it a lot. Do you know what I mean? So, yeah, it's a great show, man.
01:48You know the film, but you don't know the musical. You're still going to get pretty
01:52much... It's true to the original story, isn't it, what you're doing?
01:57100%. Oh my God, so, so faithful. We literally have gone off script to stage straight away.
02:03Obviously, a few changes just because of the times, I guess, and certain stuff was a bit
02:10too far, especially when it comes to my character. But just little stuff, stuff that people that
02:19are true fanatics of the movie, you won't even notice, you know? So yeah, we're so faithful
02:25to the movie, and I love that because the movie obviously did what it did, and there's
02:29a reason for that. And I think our producers and directors knew that. Nothing needs to
02:35be changed. We just need to bring this to life on stage and obviously add little quirks
02:39to the theatre that obviously make it a musical, you know?
02:44And you've got such an interesting character to play. As you were saying, there's quite
02:47some arc, isn't there? We will regard him in a different way than we did at the start,
02:52won't we?
02:54Yeah. So, yeah, I get to take my audience on a journey, and I enjoy that. I enjoy the
03:02fact that people don't really know my intentions from the start, and they don't really know
03:07what I'm about, and my reasons for doing what I do, and why I'm so hard in these certain
03:12offices, like Zac Mayo, played by Luke Baker, and Paul French, who plays Sid Worley, but
03:19yeah, so I'm not. I'm really not. You know, people are always surprised when I come out
03:28of stage door, because obviously I give little hints during the show, like showing that,
03:33you know, I am actually human, you know what I mean? I do have a human side to myself.
03:38And yeah, when I come out of stage door every night, audience members, I think they're surprised
03:42that I'm actually just a nice guy, which is cool, which says to me, like, okay, I'm obviously
03:47doing my part on stage, which is amazing.
03:49Plus acting.
03:50Exactly. And bro, that's all I say to them. I'm like, yeah, I'm just acting, I promise
03:56you. I'm a nice guy, I promise. Yeah. So, no, it's a great show. And I think I can speak
04:01on behalf of all my cast. We're just blessed to be playing all these characters on stage.
04:06And yeah.
04:07Brilliant. Well, speak to everyone from September the 17th to the 21st. Lovely to speak to you.
04:13Enjoy the rest of the tour. Thank you.
04:16Pleasure. Thank you, man.