"It's very exciting doing a big glitzy musical like this in the intimate space of the Minerva Theatre because the relationship between the audience and the cast is so intense. It's the perfect show to open the Chichester Festival because the audience feel as if they are right on top of the production."

So says Angus Jackson, Associate of Chichester Festival Theatre who directs this multi-award winning musical in the cosy 300-seat space.

Based on the life and career of Broadway star and comedienne Fanny Brice, and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nick Arnstein, Funny Girl captures the exuberance and tragedy of the star's life.

"Fanny was a girl who wasn't pretty but had huge talent and personality," says Angus, whose previous credits include The Waltz Of The Toreadors for the Chichester Festival last year. "She vowed she'd do anything to become a big star. But once she made it, her personal life fell apart. Her husband felt threatened by her success and ended up gambling his life away and being imprisoned for embezzlement."

Fanny's story is told in retrospect through her eyes from a backstage dressing room as she waits for her husband to come out of prison.

"The audience is taken along with Fanny to share her tremendous highs and lows," says Angus. "Her signature song was Don't Rain On My Parade, which is about someone who just goes for it completely and won't be stopped. It's one of the great musical theatre anthems of the last 100 years because we'd all like to be that person and we all enjoy being taken to that place."

Olivier-award winning actress Samantha Spiro, who previously played the part of Barbara Windsor in Terry Johnson's Cor, Blimey!, as well as Mike Leigh's Two Thousand Years, stars as the irrepressible Fanny Brice.

Angus says: "Samantha is a cracking comedienne with a huge voice. Like Fanny, she has carved out her own career and is successful because of her personality and gifts.

"She can take audiences to some pretty dark, emotional places but her funniest moment is when she tears up a big classical number by adding her own style to it.

"What was great about Fanny is she was her own master. She couldn't be ruled by anybody. Every time she was disciplined, and agreed to do what she was told, she couldn't help but not do it. She was impossible to control, but because she was as good as she was, she didn't get fired."

Fanny's wayward husband, Nick, is played by Mark Umbers who Angus describes as being "suave, sophisticated and absolutely gorgeous".

"He epitomises class and beauty - everything Fanny didn't have and everything she saw in him," explains Angus. "Nick, in turn fell for Fanny's intoxicating charisma. Their marriage was romantic, but very tempestuous and inevitably, perhaps, it failed."

According to Angus, one of the most powerful scenes in the show is when the couple first meet.

"Fanny comes backstage having just held the audience in the palm of her hands and Nick is absolutely dazzled by her," says Angus. "Watching them, you can feel the spark of electricity, which makes it all the more tragic when they decide to part company. But the overall spirit of Funny Girl is life-affirming."

  • 7.45pm, £20-£26, 01243 781312