And The Beat...

Stef Smith, who is best known for supplying the text for Oliver Award-winning show RoadKill, drew on her lifelong love of Cher when writing And the Beat Goes On. She said:

I'm a lifelong fan of Cher; I’m interested in how she represents survival, even if only in pop culture terms. I wanted to write something that used Sonny and Cher as a jumping off point rather than a write a biopic about them.

I'm not. I think Cher is a bit odd, but I grew up after Sonny took up politics and Cher spent her time sitting on massive big guns, conflating sexuality and the military. Mind you, that's pretty funny.

I think Sonny and Cher represent a more innocent time, especially in the representation of famous couples. And I wanted to juxtapose this image of ‘a perfect couple’ with a couple who have no choice but to stay together; the idea that under something perfect is a very dark secret. 

I like dark secrets. I bet that moustache isn't real... maybe the character McKnight is playing turns out to be gay. 

I am always interested in the overlap of humour and darkness. I think they offset one another and there is a lovely alchemy that happens when the balance is just right.

I am a big fan of Stef Smith, though. Roadkill was more on the dark side of the street, but the one she did about teenage brains was serious and hilarious.

One of my other inspirations was Johnny and Julie themselves. I've been a big fan of Random Accomplice’s work and have always enjoyed their diverse mixture of comedy and drama. I wanted to write them parts that allowed them to show the diversity of them as performers - a balance of lightness and darkness.