Backstage With...

Ricardo Afonso is currently playing Judas Iscariot in Jesus Christ Superstar, a reincarnation of the 2016 Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production at the Barbican. The show had a second run at Regent’s Park in 2017 after it won the Olivier Award for best musical revival, played Chicago in 2018, and will tour the US later this year.

The show, which was originally written as a rock opera album, is about the days leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

This particular production has received rave reviews each year it’s run in London. Apart from the fact this version is playing at an indoor venue, the only real difference is the casting, including the actors playing Jesus and Judas who are both new to the show.

Ricardo was actually offered the part in 2016 but had to pull out of the production for health reasons. He moved home to Portugal for three years before coming back to London earlier this year to finally play the part he has longed for his whole career.

Many of the reviews of this year’s run have singled Ricardo out as the ‘absolute standout’ and ‘vocal master’, with ‘soaring vocals’ making him ‘the star of the show’.

We met up at the Barbican one lunchtime, shortly before a midweek matinee.

Ricardo filled me in on what happened in 2016, why he had to move his family to Portugal while he recovered and how much he hoped this production would come back and give him another chance to play Judas.

No stranger to the West End, you may also have seen Ricardo as Galileo in We Will Rock You, Top Hat and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

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Christie Prades is currently starring as Gloria in On Your Feet the musical, which you may have guessed is all about Gloria Estefan.

We recorded this episode in her dressing room at the London Coliseum almost three years to the day since Christie made her broadway debut as Gloria.

Now she’s come over to the UK to do the show after covering the role in New York and playing it on tour for two years in the US. She’s handing over the part to Philippa Stefani at the end of this run when the show embarks on a UK tour.

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Julie Atherton is making her London directorial debut with Bare: A Pop Opera at The Vaults in south London.

Best known for playing Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut in the original West End cast of Avenue Q Julie has also appeared in Sister Act (UK tour), The Last Five Years, Lift the Musical, Thérèse Raquin and The Grinning Man.

We recorded this episode just as technical rehearsals for Bare were about to begin.

Bare: A Pop Opera is running at The Vaults until August 4th 2019.

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Matt Henry is currently starring as Sam Cooke in One Night in Miami at Nottingham Playhouse.

He’s best known for appearing on the second series of The Voice UK and originating the role of Lola in the West End production of Kinky Boots for which he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

Matt was also honoured with an MBE for services to musical theatre in the Queen’s New Years Honours List in 2017.

Matt trained at the Urdang Academy after completing his degree in Sociology. He left his course early to join the West End production of The Lion King as Swing/1st cover Simba. He’s since appeared in Saturday Night Fever, Hair, Miss Saigon and Avenue Q.

We recorded this episode during rehearsals in Nottingham for One Night in Miami. The play is set on the night Mohammed Ali became heavyweight champion of the world and celebrated with his friends the activist Malcolm X, American football star Jim Brown and the soul singer Sam Cooke.

One Night in Miami is running at Nottingham Playhouse from June 7th to 22nd. It will also tour to Bristol Old Vic (June 25th to 29th) and Manchester Home (July 2nd to 5th).

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Layton Williams is currently playing the title role in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie in the West End.

At the age of 24 he has been working in showbusiness for more than half his life. After going to an open audition in Manchester for Billy Elliot at 12 years old he was swept away to ‘Billy School’ before playing the role in the West End. That lead to a part in the BBC series Beautiful People, alongside Olivia Colman.

Layton trained at Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts and has since worked with Sir Matthew Bourne and appeared in productions of Rent, Hairspray and Kiss Me Kate. He can also be seen in the three series of Bad Education which was also made into a film.

As well as performing eight shows a week, Layton has his own dance academy and works with the charity Stonewall on LGBTQ education and inclusion.

We recorded this episode in Layton’s dressing room a few days after the Olivier Awards. We talked about taking over the role from his best friend John McCrea, how he had to go back into the closet after going back to school in Greater Manchester after Billy Elliot, and being taught to knit by Olivia Colman.

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Pippa Evans is a musical comedian, actress and singer. She’s one of those people who has 34 different projects on the go at any given time, and describes herself as the ‘ultimate modern-job human’.

Pippa has been part of the Olivier award-winning Showstopper! The Improvised Musical for 11 years. She’s also part of the Glenda J Collective improv group and writes and performs regularly across a number of radio and television shows.

Now Pippa is launching a show called The Parts I’ll Never Play at The Other Palace where she’ll be joined by musical theatre stars who’ll sing songs of characters they think they’ll never be cast as.

In this episode we had a really in-depth discussion about casting, diversity and gender. We also talked about what it’s like to work towards your goals in your 20s and how to cope with impatience and anxiety.

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Clive Carter is one of the Olivier award nominated stars of Come From Away.

He was in the original cast of Les Miserables at the Barbican, created the role of Raoul in Phantom of the Opera (while it was in development at Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sydmonton estate), and he was part of the original West End cast of Into the Woods.

Clive has been working as an actor since 1975 and is one of a handful of actors who has seamlessly switched between Shakespearean plays to big budget musicals.

Come From Away is about what happened when the US airspace was closed on 9/11. 38 planes were forced to land at Gander airport on a Canadian island called Newfoundland. The 7,000 people from those planes were taken in and looked after by the people of Gander and nearby towns for five days before the planes were allowed to take off again.

I’ve done a few episodes on the show before when I’ve been able to have a quick chat with Clive but I really wanted to have a proper conversation with him to talk about his career in more detail.

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Simon Lipkin has been in some of the biggest West End musicals of the last 15 years including Avenue Q, Rock of Ages, The X Factor musical I Can’t Sing as well as starring opposite Rebel Wilson in Guys and Dolls.

He’s currently appearing in Ghost Stories at the Lyric Hammersmith, where it ran in 2010 before transferring to the West End.

This episode is entirely spoiler free so if you haven’t seen the play, we don’t give anything away.

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Summer Strallen has been singing, dancing and acting since she was three-years-old. Growing up as the niece of Bonnie Langford and the daughter of Sandy Strallen and Cherida Langford, there was never any doubt Summer and her three sisters would follow them into showbusiness.

Summer has worked extensively in musical theatre, most recently appearing as Inga in Young Frankenstein in the West End, as well as playing Meg Giry in the original production of Love Never Dies and taking over from Connie Fisher as Maria in The Sound of Music.

Having recently made her directorial debut Above The Stag, Summer is trying to work outside her comfort zone. That’s how she ended up in Intra Muros at Park Theatre in north London.

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After writing to one of the UK’s top casting directors, Pippa Ailion, at 14-years-old, Lucy May Barker bagged the role of Ilsa in the original London production of Spring Awakening. The show opened at the Lyric Hammersmith before transferring to the Novello Theatre in the West End.

Sadly, the show didn’t get the ticket sales it deserved and closed within a few months of transferring.

Since then Lucy has built a career in theatre having appeared in plays at the National, the Chichester Festival Theatre production of Sweeney Todd, alongside Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton, and most recently in MAMMA MIA!

Having spent three years playing Sophie in the UK and international touring production, Lucy is now doing it eight times a week at the Novello Theatre in the West End where the show is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary, making it one of the longest running productions in history.

You can follow Lucy on Twitter and Instagram.

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You can follow Backstage With... on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to find out which stage door we’re going through next.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/backstagewith.

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