The BWW Q&A: Rebecca Caine Talks THREE PHANTOMS

Tell us a little bit about the tour and what you do during the show.
I've been touring with the lads for three and a half years now. We've had dancers, Adam Cooper, pyros, we've toured Scandinavia. I've attempted to learn to riff under the tutelage of John Owen Jones and failed. It sounded like baroque ornamentation.

We've had a great time. We are now doing a British tour and are coming to the final part of the summer part of it. We do another 10 weeks in the autumn.

I provide class, vocal technique, a certain flakiness and hormonal mood swings. I wear a red sequinned dress, pretend to be a 16-year-old French virgin while looking like Dolly Parton and feeling like Baby Jane. What more could you ask?

When were you happiest?
I'm a malcontent by nature so I may not have realised I was happy when I was - but wearing a pair of shorts sitting in my country garden in Sandwich, listening to the Radio 4 and eating cheese from the local French deli is close to heaven. Also, realising I had managed to cross over from musical theatre to opera. That felt like a big achievement.

What is your greatest fear?
Losing my mind, which according to The Phantoms has already happened.

What is your earliest memory?
Walking along the top of a swing set. I thought I was immortal. I was shocked to realise I was not.

Which living person do you most admire, and why?
As I write it is Mandela but there are many, Desmond Tutu, Hillary Clinton, Aung San Suu Kyi, obviously.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Lordy, where to start? Negativity, never feeling good enough or pretty enough, not enjoying the gifts I do have.

Where would you like to live?
I love the home we inherited in Kent. I love history and being in somewhere that is old. If it could always be warm and nearer my friends that would be perfect.

What makes you unhappy?
Unkindness, cruelty particularly to old people and animals, politicians, bankers, the destruction of the planet and, of course, people who riff Sondheim.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
"Darling" - I can't remember anyone's name. See the third question.

What is the best job you've done?
Depends on how you define best: Les Mis for the being part of history, Phantom for the dosh, but others that I loved for other reasons. The vixen in The Cunning Little Vixen is closest to my real self; Lulu for showing people I could really do it; Merry Widow because I would have been an operetta singer in another era; Lola in the crazy football opera Playing Away for Opera North for pure unadulterated fun. I played a rock star, swore a lot and don't remember large parts of the European tour - living the dream.

Cat or dog?
All the animals, all the time and all sleeping on my bed.

To whom would you most like to say sorry?
I did recently say sorry to Cynthia Morey. She played Mrs Eynsford Hill when I did Eliza [in My Fair Lady]. I didn't realise she'd been the principal soprano in the D'Oyly Carte and I was swanning about thinking I was all that, and I should have been asking for her advice. She was in the recent film Quartet and I tracked her down and told her I regretted not getting to know her.

I'd like to say sorry to many teachers and people that helped me. I try to pay it forward with young performers now. It drives them nuts, probably. And everyone whose back I put up when I was younger. Insecurity is often mistaken for arrogance.

Who is your best friend in theatre?
Frances Ruffelle is my oldest theatrical friend. I use the word old advisedly as she still looks 19.

If you could go back in time, where would you go?
I would walk around London during the Blitz. My mother was injured during the war and I'm obsessed with it.

Where would you most like to be right now?
In the garden I wrote of.

Tell us a secret.
I'm not a diva. No, not at all.

Rebecca Caine is on tour with the Three Phantoms.

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