COMING HOME: Danny Becker, soon to be back in the West End cast of The Prince of Egypt at the Dominion Theatre

Pocket Size Theatre and Liza Heinrichs (Captured by Liz) have teamed up again and created our new series 'Coming Home'. In this new piece, we look at the reopening of Theatres in London and around the country and celebrate our industry coming back. We got together some performers who will be some of the first to return to theatres and created this piece to bring some positivity to the theatre industry which has been through one of the toughest years in our lifetime. Whilst it is important to acknowledge the hardships we've all gone through, it's important we pull together as a community and celebrate our beloved industry finally coming back! 

Danny was in the original London cast of ‘The Prince of Egypt’ at the Dominion Theatre, a show he had only been with for just under a month when theatres shut their doors. With the recent announcement that the Dominion will be reopening its doors on the 1st July, Danny takes time to reflect on how it might be when the show returns; “I can’t wait for the end of our opening number, ‘deliver us’ when we hit that button and the light shine on the audience, it’s going to be electric!”.

Danny was in the ensemble of the show and was also covering the roles of Aaron and Moses, he didn’t have the chance to go on for either of these roles before the show closed but it won’t be long until he’ll get the chance! His other credits include covering the role of Fabrizio Naccarelli in The Light in the Piazza at the Royal Festival Hall, understudying the title role in Disney’s Aladdin at the Prince Edward Theatre, The Who’s Tommy at the Greenwich Theatre and playing Niki in Out of this world at the Old Rose & Crown. 

The Corona Diaries: Danny Becker

These recent times have been some of the hardest challenges we've faced and as a community, it hit us pretty hard. However during these difficult times, here at Pocket Size Theatre, we wanted to spread a little positivity and share some peoples experiences because we are all in this together. Each day we'll be speaking to our friends in the industry to share their experiences with you all so take a read and see how people are getting through these hard times.

Let's stick together, share the love and get through this as a community!

*Some information mentioned in this article may be out of date due to the progress of the current situation. Please keep that in mind when reading* 

Danny Becker is currently in The Prince of Egypt at the Dominion Theatre, in the ensemble and covering the roles of Moses and Aaron. His other credits include Don Lockwood in Singin’ In The Rain (Gaiety Theatre); understudy Fabrizio in The Light In The Piazza (Royal Festival Hall and LA Opera); understudy Aladdin in Disney’s Aladdin (Prince Edward Theatre); Follies (Royal Albert Hall); The Who’s Tommy (Greenwich Theatre); The Little Mermaid (UK Tour); Niki in Out Of This World (Rose & Crown) and The Twelve Tenors (Asian Tour & Monte-Carlo).

On Monday 16th March 2020, The Society of London Theatre announced the closure of all Theatres in London. This followed suit with regional venues. Where were you when you found out and what was your initial reaction? 

I happened to be preparing to do a performance of the Prince of Egypt, standing on the Dominion stage in the West End. We had just finished physical and vocal warmup. When all of a sudden every department of the theatre started coming onto the stage followed by our producer. He announced to us that the show would have to be suspended for the evening until further notice. My reaction was one of shock as I had never been in a show before where they have had to stop the production for an uncertain amount of time.

Can you tell us anything productive you’ve been doing?

At first I used some time to chill, as we have been pretty non-stop since opening the show very recently. After that I decided that I needed to prioritise my physical and mental health, therefore decided to start working out a little bit every day. A few of us from my show work out together every morning which has been a fantastic way to start my day, seeing my friends and getting a bit of a sweat on. I also run a weekly drop-in dance class at pineapple dance studios called ‘Dance For Actor/Singers’ (@danceforactorsingers). We are currently running an online BootCamp for our students, this has been lovely to organise and makes me feel very fulfilled that I can continue helping my students develop.