Interview: Reece Kerridge on Sit In The Stalls, Pink Pig Productions & The Gift That Keeps Giving

Reece Kerridge has performed in many productions, including the UK Tour of Shrek the Musical and the West End production of The Book of Mormon, as well as appearing in hit movie musical Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again!. Before the pandemic started, he had been in Germany rehearsing for Starlight Express. Reece has been very busy during lockdown, recording a radio show with fellow performer Claire Learie and launching his own production company. We were lucky enough to talk to Reece about how he has managed to keep working throughout the restrictions. 

Firstly, how have you been handling the whole ‘going back into lockdown’ situation?

I messaged a friend of mine the other day about this actually. This one is so tough because the first time, we’d never had anything like this happen before so it was new and a lot easier. Then the second one happened, followed by Christmas and let’s face it, you don’t do really do much anyway at Christmas so it was fine. And then this time, we had a taste of freedom but have gone back into lockdown again so it’s really hard to deal with. But it’s just about finding things to keep yourself busy and calling our friends and family all the time. But yes, this one is really tough. 

How have you managed to keep yourself busy? Have you got a lot of work to do?

Yes, we have a lot of work to do. The radio show is growing because obviously it’s now the new year, so people are starting to get back into work and announce new projects. Obviously not live shows, but loads of things online and stuff getting rescheduled so we are really busy with that. Claire (Learie) is also busy with her side projects for the radio show with the new writers, which is going amazingly well and we’ve just got a bunch of amazing composers and lyricists on board. They’re working with us and there’s a lot going on with Pink Pig Productions at the minute as well. We’ve got a lot of new ideas that have come out of that and we want to play around with some old stuff. We don’t want to say too much about that at the moment though! So there’s a lot going on, which is good because it’s keeping me busy. 

What is it like working on Sit in the Stalls in lockdown? 

We didn’t really know any different because we started in August. It must have been the beginning of August because that’s when the theatres were first meant to reopen last year so we tried to coincide it with that, but obviously that never happened. We’ve only ever done the radio show in lockdown so it’s all that we know. We’re dying to get in a room and record together though. Claire and I met on Our House, our first job professionally and our first job out of college. We would probably laugh a lot more; I mean we laugh a lot on the radio show as it is, but we would probably laugh even more if we were in a room together. So that’s what we really want and we are desperate to find a cheap office space where we can work. 

What is your favourite thing about co-hosting Sit in the Stalls?

I just love it. I’m so obsessed with my job! You know what some people are like, thinking that some people don’t have any hobbies and don’t talk about anything else other than their job, but that’s me. That is literally all I talk about! I love my job. I have such a passion. And I have such an angry passion for it so I get frustrated very quickly. Just being able to talk about theatre, share reviews and talk with the amazing guests we have on our shows and our Sit In The Stalls live chats on YouTube. And doing it with your best friend is even better. We just have a hell of a time and it’s great!

If you could pick any three songs to play on your radio show, what would they be and why?

This is such a difficult question because I do the majority of the song lists for the show. We try to cater for everybody because this is a show for everyone. Obviously, we’ve just come in and we’re quite young and fresh, so we are never going to do what Elaine Paige does because what she has is so great. So we have come in and given our show a young fresh take. We have such a wide audience, from young to old so we try to accommodate everyone with songs from legit, golden age, contemporary, brand new, fresh songs and great British musical theatre. I had to remind Claire that a song she wanted last week had already been played four times, so we do try not to repeat songs too much, even if we love them so much. 

Have you watched any of the theatre content that is being shared online? Do you have a favourite that you have watched? 

I haven’t watched loads as when stuff was coming out, we were working on the first episode of The Gift That Keeps Giving so I was really busy. But I did watch Sunset Boulevard from the Leicester Curve, which I loved as it was so well done. I had a Twitter conversation with Ria (Jones) afterwards and she was saying that they literally rehearsed it in six hours and filmed it. I love how they used the seating and the fly floor, it was just amazing. The cast were also incredible, the best cast I’ve seen in that show. I also watched Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical. I followed it from day one on TikTok because I love it so that was amazing. 

What inspired you to set up Pink Pig Productions?

When the first lockdown hit, I was in Germany for Starlight Express and we obviously shut down. I was in a studio apartment so my kitchen, my bedroom, everything was in one room. I used to go to the bathroom just to see another room! It was terrible, I absolutely hated it. I did two weeks then came home. I remember talking to a very dear friend of mine who is a lyricist. I asked him what I could do, as I needed to be proactive but there were armed forces on the streets in Germany so I wasn’t allowed out of the house. She suggested I write a song. I thought that was hilarious at the time but lo and behold, I took to Instagram and said I was going to write a song as a bit of a joke. I asked for things to write about and someone commented chicken nuggets so I wrote this song and the flood gates of my imagination just opened. I suddenly had all of these ideas. 

I have always been a very creative person, even as a kid. I was always creating shows in the living room and made sets and costumes. I have always been that type of person but I never thought in my career would go down the writing route and have my own company to produce things. When I got back to the UK last year, I ended up writing a family musical. We are actually in development with that now, it’s now got a composer on board and we are doing read throughs and workshops. From then on, I started writing more and more and The Gift That Keeps Giving was the big accident that happened as it just randomly popped into my head. I connected with Jen (Caldwell) and Tori (Hargreaves) on Twitter and we workshopped the idea. The first scene that you see in the episode was the first bit we workshopped. We all looked at each other and were like “Oh my God, this has to be a sitcom of some sort”, so that’s when Jenna Boyd and I connected on Twitter. We were workshopping something completely different at the time but I talked to her about this project and she said that she wanted to be a part of it.

I remember sitting with Jenna and Claire, saying that I was thinking of putting this together under a brand-new production company, Pink Pig Productions. Everyone loved the name; it is so out there and different, but also family friendly. We set it up and got going with The Gift That Keeps Giving but there are so many other ideas coming out of it and the company is going to house all of the stuff I have written. We’ve also got our amazing editor and composer Ben (McQuigg) so that’s amazing too. 

I imagine it’s been quite a challenge to work because everything is currently online. Is that true?

We were ok. Setting up the business was absolutely fine because it’s just a website and an email address. The hardest thing for us was actually filming because we are all in different houses and were all in lockdown when we filmed it. We were all over the place and it was all done on a Zoom call. The girls had a camera and their headphones connected to Zoom but it was Ben who made it work, all relying on the power of internet connection! And Jenna Boyd’s WiFI is not the one! It’s a running joke now that it probably won’t hold out for whatever we are doing.

Everyone wants to know if there is going to be more episodes of The Gift That Keeps Giving because we all want to know what happens next!

Well, I can’t confirm or deny it, but watch this space everyone. 

It did really well and everyone who tuned in loved it.

I remember that we uploaded it at 10am and Claire messaged me asking how it was going. I thought if we could get 200 views by the end of the week, I would be really happy. I wasn’t expecting so many people to watch it. Within less than 72 hours, we had 1000 views! I remember texting the girls and the reviews started coming in. Jenna and I were thought if the response was like this for the first episode, it would be epic if we carried on. 

Do you think it’s done so well because the characters are relatable?

Yes. It’s so lovely because everybody is saying which character they are most like. I am sometimes like Karis, snacking and a bit away with the fairies but then there are times I am like Ellie who wants to get stuff done. Our feedback was that everybody is so relatable and they can identify as one of the characters, which is really lovely. 

If you would like to watch the pilot episode of The Gift That Keeps Giving, please click here. 

Please note: this interview also features on blog site Musical Theatre Lives In Me.