Performances are from Tuesday to Saturday, March 11-15 at The Capitol Theatre, Horsham, with tickets available from £19.50 from https://haods.co.uk/book-littleshop or by calling the Capitol box office on 01403 750220.
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FunTranscript
00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers.
00:05Lovely to speak again to Lizzie Alderton at AODS in Horsham. And you are directing,
00:10having directed for the first time with Blackadder at Directing a Play, you are now directing your
00:16first ever musical, Little Shop with Horrors. And you were saying it's a musical with a real
00:21personal significance to you. What significance? Why is it a musical that matters to you, this one?
00:29Um, well, it's the first musical that I saw that I recall seeing with my grandma when I was little.
00:36So it's always stuck with me. It's one of those ones that I saw from a young age,
00:42and it introduced me really to musical theatre. And the score and the music was just so iconic.
00:48And obviously, the man eating plant had a big part of that as well. So it's always stuck with me. And
00:54I always thought to myself, like, if I ever tried to direct a musical, I'd love to start with this
00:59one. So this has been in the back of your mind for a while, then you pitched this a while ago
01:03to Hamms, didn't you? Yeah, I did. Yeah, a couple of years ago, I put my pitch in and was told to
01:10go away and do some, you know, start with something small first. And then, and now here we are.
01:16And what would you say you learned from doing Blackadder last year,
01:19that means that you can now do this, this bigger, more ambitious project?
01:23I think it's just like learning the processes of everything. I think everybody, I had a,
01:28I had a vision in my head going into Blackadder, much like I've had a vision going into this
01:32project. I think Blackadder was really useful in the fact that I was able to really find my feet
01:38in such a safe environment with other people that were really sort of, you know, rooting for me and
01:45sharing in that creativity. So I think really finding my feet with the processes,
01:53and the actual, you know, experience of it taught me a lot. And I was able to really
01:57put that in place before going into this now as well. Absolutely. But as you were saying,
02:01this is a different kettle of fish, isn't it? Completely different. To be directing a musical.
02:06Yeah, exactly. So to go from being a director of a play and a smaller project where you sort of
02:12take the reins on, on a lot of things. With this, it's me and other people working with an amazing
02:19MD Matt, choreographer Caitlin, production manager Yvonne. And it's just, you have a big
02:27team of people around you, which is helpful. It means that you have to be more supportive,
02:33have good communication. Yeah, more supported, you have to have really good communication with
02:37all those people. But it really has helped as well having that having that support and
02:41those people around as well. And what do you imagine it's going to be like on the night?
02:45Will you be able to sit back and enjoy or will you be feeling the pressure?
02:51I think it's I think it's going to be 50 50. I think half of me is going to be absolutely
02:56petrified because it's sort of my vision and our vision, mine and the rest of the team's
03:03coming to life and actually being shown to the people of Horsham and surrounding area.
03:07And but really, the other half of me is going to be so proud, because I know how much hard
03:14work everybody's putting into this. Proud of everybody that's that's just really supported
03:21the process, supported me and just celebrated everything as we've gone through it and had
03:26such an amazing time. It's going to be it's going to hold such a special place in my heart for
03:31the rest of my life. That's a lovely thing to say. Well, fantastic to speak to you and wishing
03:36you all the very, very best with it. It sounds brilliant. Thank you so much. Thank you.