Theatre and Dance

When Alan Plater’s award-winning show Blonde Bombshells of 1943, arrives in High Wycombe, it will mark yet another step in the amazing journey of St Albans’ Sarah Whittuck, although the challenges that she has faced in following her dream are not something that she dwells on. After having, what she calls “a colourful medical past”, Sarah just gets on with it!

Born with a heart murmur, she had a kidney transplant when she was 17, with an organ which was donated by her dad, followed by a hip replacement at 25.

Blonde Bombshells of 1943

With a demanding job as an actor, musician, singer and dancer, you may wonder how he has managed to keep going, but Sarah hasn’t let anything stop her and her philosophy is clear.

“It’s all still holding together” she laughed!

“My philosophy is that having been given my dad’s kidney and a synthetic hip, all these extra chances of life, the last thing I want to do is sit around.

“I mean, I know it would protect them if I sat around and did nothing but that’s absolutely completely against my nature” she added.

“My desire in life is to really use up my life fully with everything that’s been given to me so I keep fit, I go to the gym and I make sure that I keep my muscles toned to keep everything in place – I don’t want anything falling out!

“I just get on with it and actually it works” she continued!

“It enables me not to focus on any of that stuff. I’m aware of it all and I have check ups and stuff but I never focus on it and never think of myself as a patient in anyway and I’m very, very lucky because I am able to do that.”

Toe-tapping

Sarah, who has recently been seen as Lottie in Mack and Mabel in the West End, can currently be seen in the UK tour of Blonde Bombshells of 1943 which can be seen in High Wycombe in February.

Based on the award-winning film The Last of the Blonde Bombshells starring Judi Dench, the story centres on the Blonde Bombshells, who are the most glamorous all-girl swing band in the North, but it seems to lose members every time it plays a GI camp!

Now there’s an important BBC job in the offing and Betty needs to find four new musicians – fast!

The show is packed with toe-tapping live performances of hits by Fats Waller, The Andrews Sisters, and Glenn Miller including Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree, T’aint What You Do, When I Grow Too Old To Dream, Goodbyee and other classics that fans of 1940s swing, old and new, will love.

“You don’t have to have been there the first time” explained Sarah.

“I know that it appeals to people who it brings back memories for, but it’s also had somewhat of a revival recently, with people such as Christina Aguilera using that style. And I love it, I just love that style of music!

“The first two thirds of [the show] are a play with music. They are rehearsing and doing the auditions and some of their war time stories come out, so it’s quite moving and touching.

“The last third of the show is the BBC wireless concert which is just a rip roaring gig of lovely swing numbers.

“It’s also really funny. I love it because one minute you’re crying, the next you’re roaring with laughter.”

Unusual

Some fairly unlikely characters come to audition and among those drafted for Betty’s band are naïve school girl Liz, who plays a mean clarinet, Miranda, an upper-crust saxophonist and singing nun Lily, played by Sarah – who plays the saxophone and banjolele, an unusual instrument that Sarah had to learn just for the show.

Blonde Bombshells of 1943

“It’s the same tuning as a Uke with a banjo body” she explained, “but it’s smaller than a banjo so it’s got a louder sound for public performance.”

For Sarah, whose theatrical credits include playing the role of Miranda in the UK tour of Return to the Forbidden Planet, learning something different for a part is nothing new!

“Yes – over the years I’ve added to my skill set” explains Sarah, “I had to learn the drums for Return to the Forbidden Planet, and I’ve had to learn the flute for Puss in Boots.

“You do find that with these actor musician shows there’s always something snuck in there by somebody who wants you to do something and this time it was a banjolele so I’m doing my George Formby. It’s lovely actually, I’m really enjoying it!”

Amazing

It turns out that Sarah had just a few days to learn it! She joined the cast just before the show toured in Kuala Lumpar and Singapore last year, and there was a very short rehearsal period! But, she revealed that the tour, where they actually performed to one of the Princes of Singapore, was an incredible experience.

“It was amazing” she said, “it went down really, really well. Myself and Jane Milligan [Spike’s daughter] who joined the cast for that specific tour had nine days to rehearse including learning new instruments and everything else, so that was a steep learning curve!

“But it was amazing, I’ve never been anywhere like that and it was just fantastic, I loved it.”

Unlike some touring shows these days, all the music in this show is played live.

“There are eight of us in the cast” explained Sarah, “seven girls and one boy and we’re all actor musicians. There’s absolutely no extras, no click tracks, no musicians off stage and no pit musicians, it’s all performed live on stage.

“A click track is a track with a beat on it and a bit of backing vocals and stuff just to fill it out a bit if you haven’t got quite the band that you would like to be able to afford, but with this show there’s none of that at all, nothing is pre-recorded, everything is absolutely live.”

As well as being a jobbing actor who is often on tour, Sarah is also a mother, so how does she combine these two demanding roles?

“It’s very, very challenging” she revealed, “but I don’t want to make it sound negative!

“My husband is also an actor and we try not to be away at the same time. He’s just done panto in Radlett where he played an Ugly Sister – a role that he was born to play – so he’s just finished and I’ve just started rehearsals, so we try not to clash.

“But our absolute saving grace is my wonderful mum and dad who live just around the corner from us – we absolutely couldn’t do it without them, they’re fantastic.”

Romantic

Sarah met her husband whilst touring the show Return To The Forbidden Planet, where he played Captain Tempest to her Miranda and the story of how he proposed is worthy of the best romantic novels.

“It was my birthday and we were in Croydon [on tour] at the time” she explained.

“There’s a moment in the show where Captain Tempest declares his love for Miranda. There’s a line - forgive me but I can’t remember the exact quote – where he says something like “all the virtue the object and the pleasure of mine eye are only yours” – or something like that!

“This particular night he was looking a bit odd when he said that line” she continued, “and he was looking down at his hand which was behind the microphone that was hiding his hand from the audience.

“I looked down and there was this ruby and diamond ring in a little box behind the microphone. I thought, ‘is this what I think it is? Oh my God!’

“I looked at it and said my next line which was ‘Oh Captain of my dreams’ – it’s all slightly cheesy – and I jumped into his arms and he whispered ‘will you marry me?!’
“There were 2000 people watching us but they didn’t know at the time, not until the end of the show when it was announced.”

It was amazing that she managed to hold it together, but consummate professionalism took over!

“I was about to weep when I realised that there were three more songs to sing” she said, “so I had to keep myself composed really – and I also had to say yes!”

The qualities of determination that Sarah has shown in her life are those that you need if you are to succeed in what is a tough business, so she is an ideal person to give advice for those wanting to follow in her footsteps.

“Yes” she said, “I would say that you really need to have a burning passion otherwise there’s a lot to get through.

“However, if you really, really want to do it then don’t let anybody stop you, because if I can do it, you can! Just keep at it, if you really, really want to do it!”

The Blonde Bombshells of 1943 is at the Swan Theatre, High Wycombe from 4-7 February 2009 and at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton from 26-31 January.