Post by rosemary on Sept 17, 2004 15:05:32 GMT
From the 15th Sept issue:
The Big Feature
Musicals in the air
With a new season of West End musicals about to open, Roger Foss meets ex-Boyzone boy Stephen Gately as he prepares to star as the evil Childcatcher in 'Chity Chitty Bang Bang'
“Just be evil!” That was the friendly advice given by one Childcatcher to another when Richard O’Brien who created the role of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s creepy villain, bumped into Stephen Gately, the latest in a long line of performers to don the ethereal makeup and funereal black costume. “Richard was really charming and said ‘just be evil - as evil as you can possibly be,’ recalls Gately with a big angelic smile after a long day rehearsing a role also played by the likes of Paul O’Grady, Wayne Sleep and Lionel Blair. “I just want to be evil, I want to be bad,” Gately grins cheekily beneath his pulled down baseball hat. “If the audience forgets it’s me under makeup, I’ll be very happy.”
Gately, once the youngest babe of Boyzone, is now the youngest Childcatcher by several decades, and surprise casting. It’s a role he says he wanted to play, partly because he’s keen to do more stage work. But mostly it’s so completely opposite to his last West End appearance, as Joseph in Joseph And His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. In that he wore a revealing loincloth. Now he’s unrecognisable on stage. “Joseph was fun to play. They asked me to go back into the show over the Christmas period but I decided against it because I didn’t want to repeat myself. The Childcatcher is completely different. There’s so much more acting behind it than anything else I’ve done. I want people to see me in a different light.”
Despite being a heart-throb in one of the biggest boy bands of all time, followed by a short-lived recording career of his own (reaching number three in the charts with his first single ‘New Beginning’), Gately still had to trundle along to the Palladium to audition: “I thought I’d give it a bash, then two hours later they phoned and said I had got the part. I sang ‘Kiddy Widdy Winkies’ from the show, a hard number to perform. They must have thought I was OK because there were other actors auditioning. I sat in the stalls thinking ‘I cannot be what they are looking for.’
“During this number the stage is very dark and there’s a lot of smoke so I have two fears - one is falling into the orchestra pit and the second is driving the Childatcher’s horse and cart full of captured children. It’s nerve-racking. I have to admit that I crashed in rehearsals. I thought my gosh, there are two kids in the back. But no-one was hurt.” He also gets lifted up through the auditorium roof as a final exit, but “that’s the easiest thing,” he says. “I’m looking forward to being swept up to the Palladium ceiling every night - and being sinister, creepy and bad.”
Off-stage you couldn’t imagine anyone less creepy than cuddly Stephen Gately who is as cheerfully Irish as they come. He’s definitely not going as a Goody Two Shoes, but it’s obvious that a bad boy image is not his style, despite the best efforts of the tabloids. Indeed, Gately’s ordinariness is a big part of his appeal. There was his very public gay ‘coming out’ in the Sun which he handled very astutely, leading one journalist to write: “I expect Gately has done more in terms of changing attitudes in one week than some activists have in a lifetime.”
More recently, there was report about a violent bust-up with his partner, Andrew Cowles, on the pavement outside show biz haunt The Ivy. But he says this was no more than a lover’s tiff. “It was upsetting for both of us because we are very close and love each other very much. I’m not like that. I admire people like Jodie Foster who keeps herself to herself, does her work and leads her own life. I’m not into publicity or self-promotion.”
Career-wise Gately has been writing song lyrics and, with his partner, formed a TV production company. “I work on that in my spare time. But since Joseph I’ve been for auditions and got turned down - one was a film. I just take things as they come.”
Recording, though, is on hold. The music industry is tough at the moment. If people don’t get number ones or near the top three of the charts they’re dropped. It’s a shame. There used to be much more development of artists. It was hard enough for me when I stopped recording. You do think what am I going to do next? But losing a recording contract is not the end of the world - nobody died!”
Joseph, he continues, was a challenge but also a lifeline to another world. “In a recording studio you can try things hundreds of times. But to do it live every night is a different story all together. That’s why the transition from pop to stage is so hard. In the pop world you have things so easy.”
As his seven years in Boyzone (formed by The X Factor’s Louis Walsh), rapidly recede into pop history Gately says he’ll always be grateful for the opportunities it opened for him. “I was so not confident when I was a kid. I was so shy. Acting helped to bring me out. Then when I was 16 Louis gave me an opportunity that I will forever thank him for. My life now is so different from what it might have been. I see old friends who are unhappy with what they are doing. But the years in Boyzone helped me learn a lot. It was my schooling - where I learned about being positive.” Coincidentally he’d seen Walsh the night before we met. “Louis was talking about a Boyzone reunion. I don’t think it will happen. But we will just have to wait and see…”
‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ is at the London Palladium. Box Office 0870 890 1108.
The Big Feature
Musicals in the air
With a new season of West End musicals about to open, Roger Foss meets ex-Boyzone boy Stephen Gately as he prepares to star as the evil Childcatcher in 'Chity Chitty Bang Bang'
“Just be evil!” That was the friendly advice given by one Childcatcher to another when Richard O’Brien who created the role of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s creepy villain, bumped into Stephen Gately, the latest in a long line of performers to don the ethereal makeup and funereal black costume. “Richard was really charming and said ‘just be evil - as evil as you can possibly be,’ recalls Gately with a big angelic smile after a long day rehearsing a role also played by the likes of Paul O’Grady, Wayne Sleep and Lionel Blair. “I just want to be evil, I want to be bad,” Gately grins cheekily beneath his pulled down baseball hat. “If the audience forgets it’s me under makeup, I’ll be very happy.”
Gately, once the youngest babe of Boyzone, is now the youngest Childcatcher by several decades, and surprise casting. It’s a role he says he wanted to play, partly because he’s keen to do more stage work. But mostly it’s so completely opposite to his last West End appearance, as Joseph in Joseph And His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. In that he wore a revealing loincloth. Now he’s unrecognisable on stage. “Joseph was fun to play. They asked me to go back into the show over the Christmas period but I decided against it because I didn’t want to repeat myself. The Childcatcher is completely different. There’s so much more acting behind it than anything else I’ve done. I want people to see me in a different light.”
Despite being a heart-throb in one of the biggest boy bands of all time, followed by a short-lived recording career of his own (reaching number three in the charts with his first single ‘New Beginning’), Gately still had to trundle along to the Palladium to audition: “I thought I’d give it a bash, then two hours later they phoned and said I had got the part. I sang ‘Kiddy Widdy Winkies’ from the show, a hard number to perform. They must have thought I was OK because there were other actors auditioning. I sat in the stalls thinking ‘I cannot be what they are looking for.’
“During this number the stage is very dark and there’s a lot of smoke so I have two fears - one is falling into the orchestra pit and the second is driving the Childatcher’s horse and cart full of captured children. It’s nerve-racking. I have to admit that I crashed in rehearsals. I thought my gosh, there are two kids in the back. But no-one was hurt.” He also gets lifted up through the auditorium roof as a final exit, but “that’s the easiest thing,” he says. “I’m looking forward to being swept up to the Palladium ceiling every night - and being sinister, creepy and bad.”
Off-stage you couldn’t imagine anyone less creepy than cuddly Stephen Gately who is as cheerfully Irish as they come. He’s definitely not going as a Goody Two Shoes, but it’s obvious that a bad boy image is not his style, despite the best efforts of the tabloids. Indeed, Gately’s ordinariness is a big part of his appeal. There was his very public gay ‘coming out’ in the Sun which he handled very astutely, leading one journalist to write: “I expect Gately has done more in terms of changing attitudes in one week than some activists have in a lifetime.”
More recently, there was report about a violent bust-up with his partner, Andrew Cowles, on the pavement outside show biz haunt The Ivy. But he says this was no more than a lover’s tiff. “It was upsetting for both of us because we are very close and love each other very much. I’m not like that. I admire people like Jodie Foster who keeps herself to herself, does her work and leads her own life. I’m not into publicity or self-promotion.”
Career-wise Gately has been writing song lyrics and, with his partner, formed a TV production company. “I work on that in my spare time. But since Joseph I’ve been for auditions and got turned down - one was a film. I just take things as they come.”
Recording, though, is on hold. The music industry is tough at the moment. If people don’t get number ones or near the top three of the charts they’re dropped. It’s a shame. There used to be much more development of artists. It was hard enough for me when I stopped recording. You do think what am I going to do next? But losing a recording contract is not the end of the world - nobody died!”
Joseph, he continues, was a challenge but also a lifeline to another world. “In a recording studio you can try things hundreds of times. But to do it live every night is a different story all together. That’s why the transition from pop to stage is so hard. In the pop world you have things so easy.”
As his seven years in Boyzone (formed by The X Factor’s Louis Walsh), rapidly recede into pop history Gately says he’ll always be grateful for the opportunities it opened for him. “I was so not confident when I was a kid. I was so shy. Acting helped to bring me out. Then when I was 16 Louis gave me an opportunity that I will forever thank him for. My life now is so different from what it might have been. I see old friends who are unhappy with what they are doing. But the years in Boyzone helped me learn a lot. It was my schooling - where I learned about being positive.” Coincidentally he’d seen Walsh the night before we met. “Louis was talking about a Boyzone reunion. I don’t think it will happen. But we will just have to wait and see…”
‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ is at the London Palladium. Box Office 0870 890 1108.