Splashin' good fun

HOW is singing in artificial rain in front of 1,400 people on stage the same as singing in the shower?

"You just kind of let it all go and not care who hears you," laughs Duane Alexander, who plays the lead role in the classic Singin' in the Rain musical. Of course it's harder to sing on stage when "you have to strain to hear the music so you stay on-pitch and in-time", but "the fun factor's the same".

Singin' in the Rain is set in 1920s Hollywood, and tells the story of Don Lockwood, a silent movie star who seems to have it all together, until the advent of talking pictures. Lockwood must come to terms with the transition even as he falls for Kathy Selden, a chorus girl and aspiring actress, who is endowed with far greater talent than his normal leading lady Lina Lamont (played by Taryn-Lee Hudson) and is tasked to dub in Lamont's lines.