Hi Bruno. How are rehearsals going so far?
"Great, we've just come down to Plymouth from London, so we're nearly there now. We're rehearsing in the theatre for a second week this week and then it's going to be a mad starting week of the tour next week! We're all hard at work putting the hours in on the show. We work 10 to 7 each day and we put in a lot of effort. It's very much a team effort in musical theatre."

How excited are you about doing a brand new musical?
"It's incredible and it's why I auditioned for the part. You can play around with the role and the music and staging and everything is new and fresh. It keeps people interested."

You have an illustrious cast. How are you enjoying working with other members of the cast of Flashdance?
"It's great fun. There's not a lot of big egos around here saying I deserve this. Everyone does their best. Bernie (Nolan) particularly is lovely, she's very cool. I'm actually learning a lot from her, I watch as much of her stuff as I can."

Is Jimmy a character you can identify with?
"He's a very confused young man and he's down on his luck a bit. He's American, but he's like me in some ways. He's not a very nice character really, but it's really good to play the bad guy for once!"

How are you getting on with the American accent?
"I'm quite delicate with it, it's not as cheesy as you would have thought, but you do pick up on it. It's been a learning curve. You have to record yourself and listen back to it and measure how you're doing."

Does musical theatre feel like a big change for you?
"Yes I've never done it professionally before. I've done charity singing and stuff, but this is my first proper musical theatre role. Sometimes I think that was good. Other times I think that was awful. You've got to try and meet yourself in the middle somewhere and try and enjoy it."

What's the next challenge for you?
"I'm not sure. I'll be going for lots of auditions and hopefully get the jobs. I'm very much a jobbing actor at this point in my career. I'm really looking forward to some new roles. But I'm going to take a break first and go and do some TV and film auditions and hopefully win some great parts."

What differences have you found on the stage compared to TV?
"On TV you tend to play something like yourself a lot, but on the stage you can go a lot older and younger because the audience can't really see unless they're right up on you. I just love to act on either though. Theatre is definitely exceeding expectations. I like to try everything, you've got to try everything once. From what I've seen of musical theatre so far, I think I'm going to like it. I like to think I can adapt to things."

Would you ever go back to the soap?
"A lot of people say they want to see me back on there. Never say never. It was a big part of my life."

How do you relax away from work?
"I love watching films. I've been to see some absolutely amazing ones lately, there's a lot around at the moment."

© This Is Hampshire, 1/8/08

<< back