BWW Interviews: [title of show]'s Simon Bailey and Scott Garnham!

You wait years for a UK production of [title of show], and then two come along at once.

One's up in Edinburgh this summer, and the other opens at the Landor Theatre on August 7.

With Sarah Galbraith and Sophia Ragavelas as Susan and Heidi, Simon Bailey and Scott Garnham play the musical writing duo, Jeff and Hunter, and can't wait to get going.

"It's a bit like a tennis match - there's so much going on, and it's a story with so much heart to it," says Bailey.

"It's two friends, and they've got an email about a theatre festival - Scott's character rings my character, and says shall we do something, we can write it in three weeks, and whatever we've got we'll submit. And it just develops from there."

"People have been waiting to do this show!" says Garnham, who won the 2011 BWW:UK Award for Understudy of the Year, for his work on Les Miserables.

"They describe the show as a love letter to musical theatre. If you know about musicals, you'll laugh very hard. But the more we've read it, the more we think - this is a love letter to life. When you're a kid you dream about doing things, but you forget about those ambitions - this is about four friends who go back to that time."

"Everyone will come away feeling they've seen a real story of friendship," says Bailey. "It gives you a nice, warm feeling - it's lovely."

"We all knew each other before," interjects Garnham.

"That definitely helped," agrees Bailey, and the rapport between the pair is clear as they swap jokes and finish each other's sentences. They say they've got a similar sense of humour, which is helping them through rehearsals and also their chemistry on stage.

Garnham has never worked on the fringe before, and is relishing the chance to create the role in what he describes as a "funny, wry show" as well as working with show authors Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell - some of the script is undergoing tweaks to make it more comprehensible to a UK audience.

"We've got an American in the cast [Sarah Galbraith] and there were some references even she didn't understand," explains Bailey.

They are also looking forward to the intimacy the Landor stage offers, with a capacity of around 60.

"They're there with you - it's tangible what happens in the room," says Bailey. "It doesn't take time to get into it - it's there straight away."

"You don't need TV stars and big sets and turntables - you can do a musical with just the four chairs and a keyboard," says Garnham.

"No messing about with mics - "

"No mixing - you can't just belt it out and hope they'll turn the volume down - "

"You have to really listen to what's going on. It's great."

[title of show] opens at the Landor Theatre on Wednesday August 7 until Saturday September 14.

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