Lots of you may know Ben Adams because the baby-faced, curtain-haired heartthrob from A1 – however his newest activate the stage is much less Prime Of The Pops, extra fetish membership from house.
The 37-year-old stars as Brad Majors in the brand new manufacturing of The Rocky Horror Present, and he admits these attending as a result of they know him from his A1 days may be a bit surprised to see him trussed up in stockings and suspenders.
Talking to Metro.co.uk forward of The Rocky Horror Present’s stint on the New Wimbledon Theatre, Ben mentioned: ‘I don’t assume they’re surprised to see me in a musical theatre surroundings, as a result of I’ve accomplished fairly a little bit of it now. However I feel they may be surprised to see me in stockings and a corset. That wasn’t what we had been going for in A1.
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‘My mum thought she would be shocked, but then she came along and said we were doing it so brilliantly that she forgot she was watching her son. It’s a personality that’s not that comparable to my very own character, he’s fairly straight-laced and virginal in direction of the start at the least.’
For these of you not versed in the stage or movie model of Rocky Horror – right here’s a short style – Brad, performed by Ben, and his fiancee Janet Weiss (performed by Joanne Clifton) are on their manner to see their previous professor when their car breaks down. They find yourself visiting a fort for assist, the place they meet Dr Frank-N-Furter, a crossdressing scientist who’s about to unveil his newest ‘creation’ – a perma-tanned blond muscle man known as Rocky.
Ben mentioned of the present: ‘I saw it four years ago, and I didn’t know something about it. My buddy had spare tickets and I went alongside as a result of I like musical theatre. It was fairly an essential musical for me as a result of it was what made me need to write my very own musical – which I did, known as Eugenius. So yeah, once I was requested if I wished to be in Rocky Horror, I jumped on the probability.’
The 1975 movie The Rocky Horror Image Present starring Tim Curry and Susan Sarandon has grow to be a cult traditional, however going to the stage present is a unique beast. Diehard Rocky fans see the present much less as a manufacturing, extra of an interactive expertise. For instance, when Frank proposes a toast, toast is thrown. When Janet’s title is talked about, the viewers shout ‘slut’, whereas the response to Brad’s title is ‘asshole’.
Ben mentioned: ‘I don’t assume you possibly can put together your self an excessive amount of. I feel that was what frightened us essentially the most, as a result of you possibly can nail the script, however having stuff thrown at you on stage and not being fairly positive what they’re going to say, and simply having to roll with it, that was the factor that was essentially the most nervewracking.
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‘And it has such a strong following, we were all very conscious of getting it right – because if you don’t get it proper, you’ve got the Rocky Horror fans coming and lynching you and coming to the stage doorways and telling you you’ve received it improper.’
Fortunately, Ben has Joanne Clifton by his aspect. The Strictly star was wrapping up a 16 month run of Flashdance with Ben after they landed auditions for Rocky – and had been shocked to each land the elements. So are they a little bit of a musical theatre married couple?
‘It seems to be going that way, yeah! I think when you find people you work with really well, and it works, whether it’s chemistry on stage or the inventive aspect, you maintain on to that. And it’s nice that others recognise that too. And it’s the identical off stage, we’ve been dwelling in one another’s pockets for nearly two years and accomplished so many nice issues. Bloody Nora is the following venture after Rocky Horror, so it seems to be like it’ll proceed in that vein.’
The pair are in the center of writing a jazz-orientated musical a few serial killer from Grimsby, and after Ben failed to write himself a component in Eugenius!, he admits that there’ll be house for him and Jo in Bloody Nora, ought to they need it: ‘Maybe like in the Lin Manuel Miranda way, doing the start of it then handing on the role.’
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For these of us who know Ben greatest for being the star of posters on our wall and one of many boys behind Take On Me and Similar Previous Model New You, Ben’s time on the musical theatre stage may be stunning, however that is the place his coronary heart lies.
He mentioned: ‘There’s so many issues I need to do. I’d love to be in one thing like The E book of Mormon, I’d love to do Les Miserables, Phantom Of The Opera… simply issues which can be assorted, not being typecast, preserve stunning folks. I went into pop and doing boyband stuff, not by mistake, nevertheless it’s what got here up once I was 16.
‘But I was classically trained, which not many people really know. So it would be fun if I did something not around pop and was a bit more classical… give myself a challenge.’
The Rocky Horror Present is on at New Wimbledon Theatre till 16 February, earlier than transferring on to Torquay, Woking, Oxford, Southampton, Bromley, Bathtub, Birmingham, Eastbourne, Bristol, Malvern, Dartford, Wolverhampton and Richmond – tickets available here.
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