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Theatre goers will finally get a chance to watch the original cast of April’s critically-acclaimed debut show by Chronicle Theatre, No Particular Place To Go, when it returns to the Brighton stage for a one off performance at the wheelchair-accessible venue of the Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, on Thursday 10 November.
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For as long as most of us can remember Todd Carty has been a constant presence on our TV screens. He first appeared as Tucker Jenkins in Grange Hill and the subsequent spin-off series Tucker’s Luck. His next break was as Mark Fowler in EastEnders followed by the villainous policeman Gabriel Kent in The Bill.
But just over a year ago the producers of the Broadway and West End hit Spamalot invited him to join the cast of the touring production of the show playing the much put upon sidekick to King Arthur, Patsy, and since then he hasn’t looked back.
It must be a great thrill to be doing Spamalot for a second time…
Oh, it is, of course. I have had an amazing 15 months on the road doing it. It’s just one of those things that I had enjoyed so much that when they said do you want to come and do it again it was a very big yes. It’s such a fun show and that, more than anything else, is why I love doing it so much.
Did you feel that you had found your comedy voice through Spamalot?
I don’t know about that, I’m far too modest to say anything like that but I certainly, after three or four weeks of rehearsals and then going out on the road for a bit, got used to a different kind of acting and learnt how to work with it. I was working with a great bunch of musical theatre actors and they really helped me through the piece. I will say that if a gag goes right then it does make you feel good, and you have a nice, small glass of wine to celebrate after.
The role of Patsy, sidekick to King Arthur of the Britons, demands that you sing and dance as well. How have you coped with that?
I don’t know, it’s an old joke but basically I went to the Douglas Bader school of dancing, so I was not really any good. I enjoyed the singing more than the dancing, I found the dancing harder, I mean when I sing Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life I don’t have to be Pavarotti. It’s Patsy singing his way through life and trying to cheer up the King and say that life’s not too bad old son. Talking about it makes me realise how much I enjoy this part and how glad I am to be going back and doing it again.
“When I sing ‘Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life’ I don’t have to be Pavarotti. It’s Patsy singing”
It’s a bit of a monster of a costume…
Well it isn’t just the costume, it’s that big bloody back pack that I have to carry every night. When I first put it on a realised that it is as long as it is wide. I almost fell flat on my back so for the last 18 months I
have been crouching over a bit to counterbalance it. I’m glad to be able to straighten my back up during this break.
Were you a Monty Python fan before you did the show?
Oh yes, I think anyone of a certain age, and I was a certain age the other day, is a Python fan. We all remember sneaking into the original Monty Python And The Holy Grail film when it first came out and obviously the BBC TV series. I’m very much of that era.
It was certainly in my blood before I was asked to play the part.
I can remember my parents not allowing me to watch it because they thought it was too adult, but now looking back at it, it’s not, is it?
No, not at all, compared to what we see on our screens and on the internet now it is very innocent. It’s very, very silly and it is certainly suitable for an audience aged from 4 to 104. We do get a very varied audience of all ages and it’s great to hear the little kids chuckle at their jokes while the
adults chuckle at theirs.
And that is a pure pantomime convention, the script working on several levels…
Indeed it is, it appeals to all. A heavy Shakespearian tragedy it is not and if that is what you want to come and see then don’t choose Spamalot – but, if you want an evening of fun then this show is for you. If audiences leave with a chuckle in their heart that is great because we do too.
Has doing a live stage show been a nice break after so many years of constantly being on our TV screens?
It is, it’s very nice and good for me to go out of my comfort zone and as Monty Python would say, do something completely different. I am doing two films at the moment back to back and it feels really weird being back on a film set and not having a live audience there to work against. It is a very different discipline. I have fitted these two films in before I go back to the role and it is so different.
Have you done much stage work before?
I have done panto before and The Business of Murder, a serious play with lots of lines but TV has kept me very busy and now Spamalot is doing the same. Being on a stage with an audience and particularly in a show where it is this much fun is great. I can’t tell you about how excited I am to be back in the show and particularly to be coming back to Brighton where we had such a great reception last time.
What is it like to be on a stage when the audience goes as wild as it does in Spamalot?
You know, it really is strange; different regional audiences react in different ways, but when the lights finally go down and the audience start to cheer it is amazing. I turned one night to a mate on stage and said, ‘We’re in a hit, aren’t we?’ and he said, ‘Yes Todd, we are’. It’s a lovely feeling.
Have you any more live theatre lined up?
No, I am doing Spamalot for five weeks in Brighton and I have work with my film company Swordfish Produtions which will take me up to June next year, which in an actor’s diary is pretty good.
Spamalot, Theatre Royal Brighton, 15 December 2011–14 January 2012,
box office: 0844 871 7650 (bkg fee), www.atgtickets.com/brighton
Panto fans don’t come much bigger than me, in both size and passion.
I am seldom happier than when I am watching a good old fashioned pantomime. I love the cross dressing, the audience songs, the “It’s behind you” and “Oh, no it isn’t” silliness of the whole thing. I don’t even object to the odd soap star treading the festive boards to draw in an audience.
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Written and performed by Cohen and directed by Ralf Higgins this is the age of McCarthy, as seen through the eyes of America’s most notorious liar. The strange yet true story of a man who, at the height of the Cold War, succeeded in the impossible by uniting America’s left and right – in hatred for him.
Once a keen communist, he became a McCarthyite supergrass, spent four years testifying wherever and whenever he could get paid to do so, then set the cat among the stoolpigeons by revealing the truth: he had fabricated almost all his evidence.
The play, set in the late 1960s, finds Matusow living in self-imposed exile in England, looking back on a journey that took him from post-war Manhattan to McCarthyite Washington to Lewisburg Penitentiary – and thereafter to a struggle for redemption among the underground art worlds of New York and London.
Writer/performer Robert Cohen was born in London, raised in Dayton, San Diego and Eastbourne, and now lives in Brighton. His previous roles have included Mr Pink in Reservoir Dogs at the Edinburgh Festival, Stepan in the BBC sitcom Ideal, Bobby Gould in David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow and Don John in Much Ado About Nothing at the 2011 Brighton Festival.
Upstairs At Three And Ten, 10 Steine Street, Brighton. BN2 1TE, Tuesday 8–Wednesday 9 November 2011, 8pm, £tbc
Our new programme for thelatest.tv sees Juice FM presenter Guy Lloyd investigate all manner of things. He starts off with chart-topping band The Hoosiers who were mega-successful a couple of years ago, were dropped by their major label and have become fashionably independent. Their chart-topping album cost £1 million to record, their new album £100 and we reckon it's just as good. We have exclusive footage of this new record. Guy does crazy-golfing with them, checks out their sound-check and witnesses the fans' adoration of the band at Audio in Brighton. In future shows Guy will be doing waxing, Dot Cotton, air guitar and needs your suggestions for more crazy things (or people) to do. Send to bill@thelatest.co.uk
AOH Special: It’s Festival time in Brighton & Hove, which means the Artists Open Houses have opened their doors for another year! Maps of all the trails can be picked up across the city. We love nothing better than browsing and buying arts and crafts, and there is so much going on throughout May that we’ve made it easier by bringing the Artists Open Houses to you! We have 11 special programmes, featuring artists in their own houses. So here’s your chance to go ‘through the keyhole’ so to speak as we visit the artists in their own environment.
© 2011 Latest Homes Ltd. Latest 7 is a Latest magazine published by Latest Homes Ltd.
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