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Getting ‘em off and packing ‘em in
The Full Monty
Sunderland Empire
Monday 20th – Saturday 25th
March 2017
STARRING GARY LUCY, JOE ABSOLOM, ANDREW DUNN,
LOUIS EMERICK, CHRIS FOUNTAIN AND KAI OWEN
Vicky Edwards talks to Gary Lucy about his
role in the new tour of The Full Monty
An invitation to sit in on a rehearsal of The Full Monty, Simon Beaufoy’s stage adaptation of his own
phenomenally successful award-winning movie, is not something a girl gets every
day. And when said invitation also
includes joining the leading man, fit-as-a-butcher’s dog Gary Lucy, for a chat
over lunch, it’s fair to say that this wannabe cougar was purring at full
throttle.
Without doubt the play is every bit as compelling as its movie
counterpart, which tells of a group of Sheffield steelworkers who lose their jobs and
resort to forming a Chippendale-esque group as a means of making a few quid.
Having arrived at the start of the working day I quickly became so
engrossed in watching the heart-breaking and hilarious antics of Gaz and the
boys that I was astonished when lunchtime rolled around. I had happily whiled
away the morning enjoying the play and, if truth be told, doing a fair bit of
politically incorrect ogling.
“You really feel for these
guys. All they knew was working in the steel works and when that was taken away
from them they had nothing else,” said Gary, whose impressive array of screen
credits include Danny in EastEnders, DS
Fletcher in The Bill, Kyle Pascoe in Footballers’ Wives and Luke Morgan in Hollyoaks, a role that won him the title
of Best Newcomer at the British Soap Awards.
But in recent times Gary – who was also crowned a champion in Dancing on Ice – has been committed to The Full Monty, with this tour marking
his fourth outing in the play.
As with the film, while the core storyline is rooted in men losing
their pride as a by-product of losing their jobs, the Northern humour sparkles
as beautifully as Mr Lucy’s eyes.
“It is very funny,” agreed Gary, “but the characters all have their
own stories. Gaz needs money to pay maintenance for his kid, but they all have
their own problems.”
Freely admitting that, as his first stage role, it was something
of a baptism of fire, Gary said: “It was a big challenge and quite scary, but what an
opportunity! To play the lead in the stage production of such an iconic British
movie was something I had to grab with both hands.”
Quick to praise his fellow cast
members, Gary told me
that the actors coming to the show for the first time have fitted in
seamlessly.
“It’s a play that is all about camaraderie and friendship and we’ve
really got that with this cast, which is brilliant.
“Jack Ryder [the former EastEnders star turned director] also has got great energy and
great fresh ideas,” he
nodded approvingly.
Observing that it’s just as well
that Gary and his
fellow cast members get on so well – the tour runs until April 2017 so they’ll
be spending a lot of time together – Gary’s
handsome face clouded for a moment.
“Of course I miss my family,” he
sighed [Gary and his wife have three children, the youngest just a year old],
“but when you’re touring the time does go really quickly; this show is such a
monster that you have to stay focussed and make sure that you give audiences
the best experience possible. But after the last show of the week I usually get
in my car and drive home wherever we are, so I do get back most weekends.”
And becoming a dad has, Gary
reckons, helped him with the role of Gaz.
“As a family man I know how Gaz
feels because as a dad I have that point of reference. When you get older and
gain more life experience you can draw on that as an actor.”
On the subject of appearing in his birthday suit, Gary laughed.
“Listen, by the time we get to that point in the play we’re well
up for it. We don’t think of it as an isolated moment; the whole play builds up
to it.”
And without giving too much
away, Gary
revealed that there are times when the lights – a major part of the final dance
– can cause the boys to be exposed for a little longer than is altogether
comfortable.
“The audience is whipped to a
frenzy and then there’s a point at the very end where, if the lighting cue goes
wrong as it has done in the past, people get a bit more than they’ve paid for,”
he chuckled.
Having toured already with the
show, many of the theatres on the schedule are return matches that Gary and the
team are looking forward to enormously.
As he finished his lunch Gary
confided that although The Full Monty is
his stage debut, he can’t imagine ever being in another show that gives him
such an adrenaline rush.
“It gives me such a buzz and I
really don’t think there will ever be a show to live up to it for me.”
Hoping audiences go home with their cheeks aching from laughing,
as we said goodbye Gary added: “It’s so rewarding to know that they have had a great
time.”
Jack
Ryder tells Vicky Edwards how an audition he never meant to attend took him to Albert Square and on to becoming British theatre’s go-to
director of naked actors…
Jack Ryder has phenomenal
attention to detail. Lucky enough to inveigle my way into his rehearsal room to
watch him work with the cast of the brand new tour of The Full Monty, I marvel at how he picks up on the smallest
nuances. But each time he stops to ask an actor to try something differently
the subsequent re-run is immediately enriched; the dialogue more sparkling and
the character more credible.
“Even when I watched movies as a
kid I always noticed the scene itself rather than the actors. As a director I
do go very much into the detail of things because then something magical starts
to take place,” he explains.
Running my eye over his CV, it
confirms what I have witnessed during the morning’s rehearsal: Jack has come a
long way since getting bumped off as Jamie Mitchell in EastEnders in 2002.
“Directing was something that was always whispering to me,” he admits.
“As Spielberg once said, the things you choose to do in
life don’t usually come in loud shouts or chants; they come in whispers and you
need to listen hard for them. I think directing had been whispering to me for a
while but it took me time to hear.”
Initially
hired to act in the smash-hit stage production of Calendar Girls, Jack became increasingly fascinated with directing.
Spotting both his talent and his interest, the producers promptly hired him as
Assistant Director on the subsequent tour.
So where
does his talent stem from – is he from theatrical stock?
“No, not
at all,” he laughs. “I was very late coming to theatre – being a 90s kid I grew
up watching movies on cable telly. My
dad occasionally took me to the opera, but I found it quite boring and so I’d
sit and play with my toy cars instead,” he confesses.
Wanting
a break from the limelight after EastEnders,
Jack spent the next four years acting in theatre productions.
“I never
trained as an actor so everything I know I have learned hands-on. EastEnders came about by accident when I
was sixteen. I went to a workshop with a mate who wanted to audition and I got
spotted. I’d never even done a school play before then,” he grins.
In which
case, Jack’s school definitely missed a trick
when this little cracker was on their roll, because, as well as directing Act of Memory, a short film that
attracted huge interest and that was selected for a host of international
festivals, including the famous Cannes Film Festival, as an actor he has done
everything from Shakespeare to farce. On television he’s popped up in shows like
Holby
City,
Popcorn and In the Club, while on the radio he has
even done a stint on The Archers.
But
while Jack’s school drama teacher kicks him/herself, their former pupil is
focussed absolutely on The Full Monty,
the movie version of which became an instant hit in 1997.
So what makes
this tale of Sheffield steel workers who form a strip troupe such an
enduring story?
“It’s
the writing,” he says, without hesitation. “Simon Beaufoy [who also wrote the
award-winning film] really gets that balance between comedy and heartfelt
truth. You have drama and big moments and then on the next page you find
hilarious comedy. He is so clever at that light and shade, and also at writing
in a way that means that actors and directors connect so readily with the
material that it makes the process of getting it on its feet so easy – it’s all
just there.
“And it
endures because of its truth. You can take off all the clothes in the world but
if the audience hasn’t been on the journey and believed every moment then it
won’t amount to a thing; you’ll never get that incredible reaction. At that
final dance they don’t just think ‘Yay! We’re at a strip show!’ The audience has
followed these characters and they’re watching Lomper, Gaz, Dave and the boys;
they’re with them and they believe them.”
And he
won’t stand for any of the lads overplaying that final scene, no matter how
vocal the audience is.
“My hand
is extremely tight on the reigns when it comes to the cast staying in character
and forgetting the audience completely,” he says, a note of sternness creeping
into his voice.
“But I
have cast some amazing actors and so as a director I don’t have to get too
mechanical; the boys bring an authenticity to the rehearsal room that is a
breath of fresh air.”
Joking
that, having directed Calendar Girls and
now The Full Monty, I can see a theme
developing, and asking if he is known as the go-to director for any show that
involves actors getting their kit off, in response Jack throws back his
handsome head and laughs.
“If
anyone hears about a play that has nudity in it they ask if Jack Ryder is
directing! But actually I was involved in The
Full Monty on stage at the very start of its development, which is why I
feel especially protective and proud of it.”
His
pride is more than justified. Moving me to tears one moment and then to helpless
laughter the next, this is a show that absolutely deserves its ‘not-to-be-missed’
reviews.
Needing
to return to rehearsals to work on the scene in which the boys remove their ‘undercrackers’
for the first time, before he goes I ask Jack what he does for fun and
relaxation.
“I don’t
get much down time, but when I do I spend it with my family and developing
little projects. I’ve just written a novel,” he shrugs, suddenly shy, before
saying goodbye and thanking me for my time.
Unpretentious,
supremely talented and a genuinely lovely guy, I assure you, Mr Ryder, the
pleasure really is all mine.
Read
the original North East Theatre Guide preview: http://nomorepanicbutton.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/preview-full-monty-at-sunderland-empire.html
Facebook:
The Full Monty UK
Twitter: @FullMontyPlay / #fullmonty
Twitter: @FullMontyPlay / #fullmonty
Tickets:
Tickets are available in person at the Box Office on High
Street West, from the Ticket Centre on 0844 871 3022* or online at www.ATGtickets.com/Sunderland*
*Calls cost up to 7p per minute plus your standard
network charge. Booking fees may apply to telephone and online bookings
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