Joe McElderry chats about
Club Tropicana: The Musical ahead of its Sunderland Empire dates in May
Mark
Goucher & Gavin Kalin Present
Club
Tropicana
Sunderland
Empire
Monday
20th – Saturday 25th May 2019
 |
| Photo: Darran Bell |
Joe McElderry, Neil McDermott, Kate Robbins, Emily Tierney
and Amelle Berrabah announced as cast for the show.
Club
Tropicana The Musical by Michael
Gyngell, a summer adventure of love in the sun, with a soundtrack of smash-hit
pop classics all performed live on stage is coming to the North East for the
first time. It takes a fun-packed trip back in time to the electric 80’s when
hair was big, shoulders were padded, girls (and boys) just wanted to have fun
and mobile phones were shaped like bricks and weighed a tonne!
The cast
is headed by North East’s Joe McElderry (Star of Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), Neil McDermott (Ryan Malloy in EastEnders, Eugenius!, The Wind in the Willows, Shrek), Kate Robbins (Spitting Image, ITV’s The Imitation Game,
Dinnerladies), Emily Tierney (Eugenius! , Wicked, The Wizard of Oz) and former Sugababe star Amelle Berrabah making her musical theatre debut.
Michael de Burca
caught up with South Shield’s own Joe McElderry.
It might be 10 years
since Joe McElderry, then a fresh faced 18-year-old took X Factor and the
Nation by storm with his chart-topping rendition of The Climb, but the
enthusiasm, passion and energy that endeared him to millions of viewers in 2009
remains undiminished.
He positively bounces
into the interview room for our “usual natter” having already had the cast and
company of Club Tropicana, the brand new 80’s musical in which he stars, in
hysterics with his portrayal of Garry, a Club Rep with an eye for the
outrageous and a killer line in barbed one-liners.
“He’s camp, he’s
witty, very flamboyant and quite sassy,” laughs the 27-year-old [28 on 16 June
2019] from South Shields.
He continues, “I’ve
never played a comedy role before but it’s been really fun. At first I was
really nervous but I’m excited by it now.”
He thinks for a
moment, then confesses, “There’s no rules with Garry, he’s probably me after
four or five vodkas.”
To a time when hair
was big, shoulders were padded, and mobiles weighed a tonne. Set to a
soundtrack of some of the most iconic, chart-topping hits of the 80s, the story
unfolds in the vibrant Club Tropicana Hotel, the 1980’s answer to Love Island.
When a budding bride and groom get cold feet, they
decide to jet off to sunnier climes and feel the heat anyway - but little do
they realise they’ve checked into the same hotel... a hotel about to get a
visit from the hotel inspectors.
So while the sizzling
summer season at Club Tropicana sees drinks flowing and tans glowing, will the
young lovers decide to go through with the wedding? And will the hotel
inspectors finally get their way and close the resort, or can the staff save
the day?
McElderry is joined by
a stellar cast including ex-Eastender Neil McDermott, top impressionist Kate
Robbins and former Sugababe Amelle Berrabah, making her musical theatre debut.
Born in 1991,
McElderry just missed out on the 80s himself, nonetheless he admits they left a
massive impression on him. “Club Tropicana has a great story line. It’s a great
fun, family-friendly show that you can come along to and sing-a-long to. It’s
feel-good and I’ve realised that 80’s music is still massively relevant... and
that I know most of the songs. I don’t remember them being played over the
radio but subconsciously I must have heard them many, many times because when
we first had a read through of the show, I found I knew the not just the tunes
but the lyrics to nearly all of them. That’s the impact 80’s music has had on
me even though I wasn’t even born.”
Club Tropicana is just
the latest in a long line of projects to have kept the singer busy in the
decade since winning X Factor.
Looking back, he
smiles, “It’s mad because when I first started in the industry I was looking
for some sort of longevity. People always used to ask us what I wanted to do
and I always used to say I want to still be doing this in 10 years time... the
fact that I am is crazy. It’s feels like yesterday, yet I feel like a
completely different person now - it’s
been a huge learning curve but I’ve had a good time and grown up a lot.”
Explaining, he
continues, “If you ask most 18 year olds, they will say they haven’t really
worked out who they are yet or where they fit in. I was really self-aware for
the first three years of my career until I realised I just had to be a good
person and trust that.
“There were times
people would pick apart the most ridiculous things and I didn’t know how to
react, so I gave myself a bit of a pep talk and said, ‘You know Joe, you’re a
nice person, just enjoy your job and have fun. Show business is supposed to be
lights cameras, fun. So I learned to take it for what it was and not take things
too seriously.”
As a person, McElderry
reflects that “becoming an adult” in the industry has made him a more confident
performer. I didn’t trust my own ability as much as I do now, I was a bit
unsure of myself. There was that pressure of being thrust in to the public eye
with lots of different people with different opinions behind the scenes telling
me to do this or do that. I had to learn how to navigate a way through that,
but I was lucky, I had a really strong tight-knit family behind us, and still
do.” Having now done “loads of different things I never thought I’d do” one
thing McElderry has been surprised to discover is that he copes very well under
pressure, something he puts down to his time on X Factor. I cope under pressure
better than when I am not under pressure,” he laughs. “I think that comes from
the boiling pot that is X Factor, it’s so intense you had no choice but to get
your head down and get on with it.
“So now something
really big won’t phase us out, but something you might think would not freak us
out does, little things like everyday worries I find a much bigger deal than
preparing for a two hour musical. It’s really weird.”
McElderry’s musical
theatre career took off in 2015 when he was cast in the title role of the
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour
Dreamcoat. He played the part on and off for two and a half years, winning rave
reviews for his performance. Joseph was a challenge because I was stepping into
an iconic role that lots of very famous people have become very loved for
playing, Philip Schofield, Jason Donovan, Donny Osmond and the rest. I’d seen
them and grew up with them playing Joseph so I realised the weight of the role
I was taking on.
He laughs, “I didn’t
want to be the worst person to play it.”
McElderry was, and
still is, aware of the stigma that comes with being discovered on a TV talent
show and was determined to prove that he was the right person for the job. “Coming
from a show like X Factor I wanted people to come to the show and say, ‘He
deserves to be in that role and isn’t there because he was in X Factor. I
didn’t want to be one of those people just put in the job to sell tickets. So I
felt the pressure to be good and worked really hard.
He adds, “I don’t
think that stigma ever goes but in a way you can use it to your advantage
because if people do come with that expectation and you’ve grafted really hard
to produce something really good, they go away happy and with a new
appreciation of what you can do.”
As we talk, it’s easy
to spot the discreet musical note he has tattooed just below the thumb on his
left hand. It wasn’t there last time we ‘nattered’.
“I’ve had that four
years now, it was a spur of the moment thing and I would never get another
one,” he stresses.
“I was in London
promoting an album and walked past a tattoo shop and just thought, ‘Oh my god,
I should get a tattoo... and I did. I got it there because when I hold a
microphone nobody can see it. I forget it’s there now and I wouldn’t get
another one, they’re not for me really, I didn’t enjoy the pain,” he grins.
Born and raised in
South Shields, Club Tropicana will bring McElderry home when it plays the
Sunderland Empire. “It’s literally 10 minutes down the road from me and I can’t
wait because audiences in Sunderland, Newcastle and South Shields are always
brilliant.”
Despite his busy
schedule, McElderry has eschewed the usual path taken by performers and chosen
to remain based in the North. “I’ve always fought living in London because I
love it in Newcastle. People in the industry come up to you and say, ‘What you
still live in Newcastle?’ But I’m very lucky because the work I do fits around
my schedule and people incorporate my commuting into theirs. For me, Newcastle is where me sanity is. I do
all the crazy work and everything that comes with it, then I go back to
normality where I’m not immersed in the industry.
“All me childhood
friends are there and me family. It’s important to understand that although we
work in a wonderful industry it’s not the be all and end all of life. I don’t
want to be lost so much that I loose perspective on real life - going back to
Newcastle, that’s me real life and this is the fun job I step in and out of.”
That said, much of his
time these days is spent on the road and another venue he is looking forward to
returning to with Club Tropicana is the Edinburgh Playhouse. “Last time I was in Edinburgh with Joseph I
got a huge apartment and all me family came up. We had a few crazy nights out,
eating haggis and chips and I even had a deep fried Galaxy Bar, which was
beautiful, although I didn’t feel so good in the loin-cloth the next day... but
it was wonderful while I was eating it.”
He explodes with
laughter as he confesses, “You certainly become very aware of mirrors and
camera angles when all you’re wearing is a loin-cloth; you see a camera in the
front row and think, ‘That angle is not going to be pretty’ as your singing
Close Every Door.”
To celebrate 10 years
in the business McElderry is also writing a new album of original songs. “I’ll
definitely be doing something on stage to acknowledge 10 years but first I’ve
got Club Tropicana, which takes me up to September,” he says, gazing at the almost
life-size picture of him that adorns the poster for the production.
What would the
‘Newcastle Joe’ say to seeing that image?
“He’d say, ‘You don’t look like that when you wake up,” he laughs,
adding, “It’s always a very humbling thing to see yourself on a huge poster
outside a venue. I’ll never get used to that. It makes me appreciate that not
everybody gets to do what they love and I feel lucky to have experienced that
as much as I have. I feel blessed.”
Interview by Michael de Burca
Twitter:
@ClubTropMusical
Facebook:
@ClubTropicanaMusical
Instagram:
@ClubTropicanaMusical
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