Mark Ravenhill isn't just a brilliant playwright. He's also exceptionally gifted at thinking up titles for cabarets.
It was he who dubbed Rebecca Caine's forthcoming Pheasantry gig 'No, No Cosette!'
What a stroke of genius. “Having a good title is huge,” says Caine. “I've noticed that people remember it, so now we have to live up to it.”
Caine will forever be linked with the character she created in the original London production of Les Miserables, but nearly 30 years on, it's fair enough that she doesn't always want to be singing those songs. After all, she's had a career in musical theatre and opera that spans four decades, though I know she won't thank me for saying it.
So if she's not going to be wheeling out 'A Heart Full Of Love', what will she be singing? “I mainly wanted to sing music I wanted to sing!” she says. That includes operetta, Blitzstein, Bernstein...and the lap-dancing aria from the opera about Anna-Nicole Smith, as well as a couple of mash-ups of songs that musical theatre fans will recognise.
Caine has discovered a whole new generation of fans via Twitter, as young Les Mis obsessives find themselves able to chat to original cast members. “The point of Twitter is to show people what you're really like,” she says. “There are a lot of people whose talent I admire, but their tweets are boring or over-promote their work, so I'll unfollow.”
Her own tweets are remarkably honest, pulling no punches about reality TV, the media and politics. “I do try to remember that people are reading, but often it's just like speaking my thoughts out loud,” she admits.
She does a lot of concert work, notably with the Three Phantoms tour, but not so much cabaret. So why this cabaret now? “I want to celebrate. I'm still here, still in this industry, and I still love to sing.”
Rebecca Caine: No, No Cosette! is live at the Pheasantry on Sunday 25th March.
Follow Rebecca Caine on Twitter @RebeccaCaine.
