My Top 5 Showtunes: Rebecca Trehearn

Rebecca Trehearn's theatre credits include Floyd Collins (Wilton's Music Hall), Show Boat (Sheffield Crucible and West End), City of Angels (Donmar Warehouse) and Dogfight (Southwark Playhouse).

For her performance as Julie La Verne in Show Boat she was awarded the 2017 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical.

We caught up with Rebecca and asked her: "If you were stranded on a desert island which five showtunes could you not live without?"

1. "Somewhere" from West Side Story

This song makes me bawl. That beautiful melody, the sadness, longing and hope in the lyrics, the knowledge that it’s all going to go tits up for Tony and Maria… Sorry I’ve got something in my eye.

2. "Love to Me" from The Light in the Piazza

It's one of the most desperately romantic songs out there. It’s the inarticulacy I find so touching; Fabrizio’s English is poor and so his compliments are somewhat unusual, but utterly heartfelt and the more affecting for it. I’m a huge Adam Guettel fan; the Dream sequence from Floyd Collins is also utterly beautiful.

3. "Pretty Women" from Sweeney Todd

I’m starting to think I have a weird thing for doomed love…! The contrast between the tender words being sung and the murder the audience believes to be imminent sets up an exquisite tension that I’ve always loved. Sondheim’s a genius.

4. Aida

Or more specifically, any of the massive belty songs Heather Headley sings! That album is one of my guilty pleasures. If I’m in a bad mood, screaming along to the "Dance of the Robe" soon cheers me up.

5. "Pretty Funny" from Dogfight

I was always slightly jealous I didn’t get to sing this one when I did the show, not gonna lie. Beautiful and heartbreaking; there can’t be a woman alive who couldn’t relate to that lyric at some point in her life.

This is really hard, btw. Five slots is not even close to enough!