Plenty of fun and standing ovations with 101 Dalmatians

Charles Brunton was brought up in Southampton and now lives in Brighton which makes 101 Dalmatians the perfect tour.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely today

00:05to speak to Charles Brunton, who is on the road with 101 Dalmatians. Now, appropriately,

00:11given that you were brought up in Southampton and you currently live in Brighton, you're

00:15doing both venues, aren't you? You're doing Mayflower in Southampton and for Christmas

00:19you're doing the Theatre Hall in Brighton. And the terrible thing is you're a villain

00:23in this. How bad?

00:24Ah yes, I'm a bit of a baddie, but a nice one.

00:26A nice baddie.

00:28When you come to see the show, it all makes sense.

00:30Where do you fit in? What are you trying to do villainously?

00:34Oh, obviously, well, Corinda Ville is obviously the big villain of the piece and we have to

00:39go round and do her evil bidding for her on her behalf. But there's lots of comedy twists

00:45and turns along the way throughout the story, so I'm not as bad as it may sound when I first

00:49appear on stage.

00:50Despite the superficial villainy, you're quite good-hearted, aren't you, really?

00:55Oh, no, definitely, definitely. It's definitely my role. Casper definitely has a lot of hearts

00:59to him. Otherwise, the story wouldn't resolve. But yeah, very excited to go to Southampton

01:08next week. I've been going to that theatre as a kid growing up, so it's always lovely

01:12to go back there to perform on that stage. It's so wonderful. And then I get to spend

01:17Christmas at home in Brighton. I can't wait.

01:19Very conveniently located.

01:22Yeah, very conveniently located. Curtain comes down, I can roll up the hill.

01:27Tell me a bit more about the show. You said when I asked you just now, it's bonkers. What

01:33makes it so entertaining?

01:36It really is. I mean, the best way to describe the theme of the piece and the vibe of it

01:39is very much a family musical for everyone, the adults and the kids. The vibe of it is

01:45a very well-written book musical with some comedy one-liners, with a slight lean towards

01:50a light panto element at times, all for major comedy effect. And we've got fantastic...

01:57Oh my God, the puppets in the show are absolutely fantastic. The way they've been designed and

02:02stuff is incredible. And you do literally, when we're on stage with them, you are generally

02:09spending your entire time looking at the puppets of the dogs, not the actual puppeteers behind

02:14them who are doing all the hard work.

02:16Oh, this one's brilliant. And it sounds a good Christmas show. Obviously, they don't

02:20have the title rewrite into a straight panto anymore. But what makes this a good show for

02:25Christmas?

02:26Oh, because it's such a wonderful piece for everyone in the family. It's so upbeat fun.

02:29I mean, all of its response has been incredible to this production. We get to the end of the

02:35performance each night and they're all up on their feet. And there's loads of people,

02:38you can see lots of people crying for good reasons, but cry with tears in their eyes

02:42because they've had such a nice time, I guess. Well, I hope so anyway.

02:47It sounds brilliant. You make it sound really appealing. Lovely to speak to you, Charles.

02:50Enjoy the show. And enjoy your home stint in Brighton. Great to talk to you.