Rachel directs a musical favourite from childhood at Chichester Festival Theatre

Rachel Kavanaugh is delighted to say she is working her way through shows that are glowing childhood memories.

She ticked off The Music Man at Chichester Festival Theatre some years ago; she’s recently directed Seven Brides for Seven Brothers; and now she’s directing the CFT’s Half A Sixpence (until September 3).

“It’s just a show I have always loved. Last summer (CFT artistic director) Jonathan Church and Cameron Mackintosh came to see my production of Seven Brides at the Open Air Theatre at Regent’s Park, and the next day, I got a call to talk about Half A Sixpence. I knew that George Stiles and Anthony Drewe were working on it (new music and lyrics) from just chatting to them, and the opportunity came up to be working with great people again on a show I have always loved.”

And, importantly, on a show she knew wasn’t perfect and therefore offered plenty of scope for a reworking.

“What Julian Fellowes has done is go back to the novel, and our book is entirely new. The film was like a production from the 1960s. Our version feels like a production from now and also a production from the time the story is set. There is not a single song that they have not completely written the lyrics for. I think we are moving towards a proper, single authorial voice.

“But I have to say I haven’t watched the film for a long time. My memories of it are childhood memories. I hadn’t seen it for 30 years and then I was asked to do the job. I remember loving it when I was little, and maybe I am looking back through rose-tinted glasses, but I have that fondness for it, and maybe you have to have that fondness when you are doing a big musical or a big new version of a big musical. You have to have that love for it.

“And it is lovely to be back here in Chichester, especially during Jonathan and (executive director) Alan (Finch’s) last season here. There is such a familiarity with that stage and with that space.”