‘Allo ‘Allo husband and wife team win lead roles

It’s not often Vincent van Kuyk gets away with calling his wife stupid.

Vincent and his wife Linda van Kuyk have been cast in lead roles in Blenheim Musical Theatre’s Allo Allo - My Leetle French Sausage.

And in a case of art mimicking life, the pair will play married coupled Rene and Edith Artois in the musical comedy

As rehearsals get underway for the musical comedy based on the British TV series, Vincent has been grappling with insulting his wife on stage.

Linda says the only similarity between on and off stage as husband and wife could only be interpreted through the team dynamic of married life.

“Our characters, Rene and Edith are husband and wife, as are we, but that's pretty much where the similarities end.

“Rene is a somewhat 'unwilling' ladies’ man and Edith is a bit domineering, which we aren't.

Though in the show Rene and Edith work together on a special mission, and Vinny and I are very much a team together, so in that aspect we are quite similar.”

For Linda, playing the part of Rene’s on-stage wife has already been a lot of fun.

“Edith is a terrible singer! Though she loves to perform for everyone in the café.

“So, I've been really practicing my song, off key, which is really hard to do.

“What has been awesome is having a person (Laura Heydt) in the cast actually from France to help us with some of the trickier pronunciations.”

For Vincent, the visual transformation to Rene is already under way.

“I have dyed my hair dark to get closer to looking like Gordon Kaye’s Rene and have also grown a goatee which will be shaved to just a moustache for the show.

Having just a moustache for the next two months would not be a good look for me, so this is a good compromise.”

The Theatre Restaurant show is directed by Geoff Anderson, Linda’s brother, and features all the characters from the smash hit British TV show.

Co-written by Geoff and Musical Director Penny Wytenburg, the show also features songs from the war era such as My Way, Falling in Love Again, A Policeman’s Lot Is Not A Happy One and There’ll Always Be An England.