West End musical theatre star Gary Wilmot offers Regis Centre his support

“I have known Hazel (Latus, who runs the venue) for at least 35-40 years. She is a phenomenal woman. She was an agent within the agency that represented me, and our paths crossed a lot.” Gary also likes the Regis Centre attitude. He recalls it was once suggested the venue book a Freddie & The Dreamers tribute. The venue’s response was “Why don’t we get Freddie & The Dreamers themselves?” It’s the positivity he is tapping into now. On Tuesday, November 3, Gary will be in conversation with Chichester-based actress (and Bognor Regis panto regular) Vicky Edwards, talking about his career and favourite musical memories and singing a song or two. It’s great to be back, says Gary who was in the West End in Prince of Egypt, the story of Moses and the parting of the waves, when the pandemic brought everything to a stop. “Stephen Schwartz is an extraordinary writer and he brought it over here. They decided to do a stage show and we were in a 3,000-seater theatre and you just couldn’t get a ticket. But in the two weeks leading up to lockdown, the numbers were dropping suddenly, and in the end the producer said ‘We are going to close the show for a few weeks.’ We thought it would be just three or four weeks. We’d been going for about five weeks and it was great. Everyone was just in shock. I don’t think it really sank in at the time. At first we were thinking three weeks and then it was eight weeks and then it went on and on... “But the producers have been brilliant. We regularly have Zoom calls with the whole company and they are fully intending to put it back on again as soon as they can reopen the theatre.” It will need a proper, full reopening: “It is a show that needs at least five shows a week. It is a big show. There are 40 people on stage and there are 18 in the orchestra and you can double that again for the number of people back stage. But they are looking at next year, perhaps going back next March. They have been excellent. However long we are in lockdown, they are going to move our contracts along that amount of time. “I have done lots of things in my life. I am at an age where it is not necessary to work. I do need to work, but I can live without it from a financial footing. But I feel so much for the younger performers that have spent ten to 15 years or whatever getting to this point, from dance lessons at the age of six, through school and college and then leaving at the age of 21 or 22 and thinking that they were going into a show that was going to run and run and then suddenly it stops. It’s the finances really. They should be able to live their dream. It should be open to them... but they are going to struggle. I really feel for them.” As for Gary, he has spent lockdown doing a lot more writing than he would otherwise have done, including a screenplay for his play which he brought to Bognor Regis a couple of years ago. He has also been writing a number of monologues – and has also done a couple of Zoom plays. He has now got the Palladium show to look forward to this Christmas, not quite the usual panto, more a question of Julian Clary in Pantoland: “It is not a panto story. There wasn’t enough time to put that together. It is going to be the best bits of the pantos that we have done over the past four years.” As Gary sees it, the key thing is to encourage people to have the confidence to start coming back to the theatre. And that’s partly where his Bognor Regis show this autumn comes in... Shows this autumn at the Regis Centre are unreserved seating events. Customers will be seated as they arrive, in line with social distancing. Tickets: 01243 861010 or http://www.alexandratheatre.co.uk Steps announce Brighton date and new album West Sussex man reveals "truth" about his sister's murder in 10 Rillington Place Why pre-booking might be here to stay at Weald & Downland Living Museum Loxwood Drive-In Movies set for 2021 return IN PICTURES: Eastbourne Pier turns film star! IN PICTURES: Images of lockdown across Brighton and Hastings • Talk is increasing of further lockdowns in the UK. What do you think of the situation? Join the Big Conversation and have your say on everything from healthcare to how the pandemic has affected you personally and how we make our communities stronger: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/bc-worthing