Madness frontman Suggs talks about Our House
August 20, 2008
The hit Madness musical Our House is currently on a UK tour, direct from the West End. The show arrives at the Lowry from Mon 15 - Sat 20 September. It stars Steve Brookstein, the first X Factor winner, in his stage debut and Only Fools and Horses’ familiar face Gwyneth Strong, Our House is a fun-packed, mad-capped, feelgood hive of boisterous activity!
Madness fans will be thrilled to hear 15 of the band’s classics with their original lyrics, including “House of Fun”, “It Must Be Love” and “Driving in My Car.” Our House tells the story of sixteen year-old Joe, in love for the first time, and the fateful day when something happens to tear his world in two.
This massive West End hit received rave reviews and public acclaim when it opened, winning the Olivier Award for ‘Best New Musical’ in 2003. Written by Tim Firth (Calendar Girls, Neville’s Island), the show is being staged by the entire original West End creative team, including Director Matthew Warchus (Lord of the Rings, and Art), and choreographer Peter Darling (Billy Elliott).
We caught up with Madness frontman Suggs who, unlike many band members linked to a jukebox musical, not only got involved behind the scenes, but is also a big fan.
How would you describe the show?
I’d describe the show as one of the best things I’ve ever seen, and without sounding like I’m blowing my own trumpet, it really is a tremendous show and the great people at the Olivier Awards agreed. I’d describe the show as a fantastic romp through the underbelly of London life as seen through the eyes of a young couple and all the trials and tribulations that go with growing up in London – the music’s not bad neither.
Can you sum up the story?
It’s a very interesting story, and one of the things I’m most proud about with this musical is that we could very easily have just done a sing-a-long-a Madness, but it’s quite a complex story about a kid who has two choices in life when he’s very young - he’s got the choice to do the wrong thing, which is the path his Dad took, or the right thing. And then we see those choices unfold in a rather dramatic and fabulous way.
Who do you think the musical will appeal to?
This musical will appeal to absolutely everybody, without wanting to sound clichéd. For some peculiar reason, Madness has always appealed to everybody and we still have this great affinity with very young children, to the middle-aged people to my age and older. They will see a great show that has been designed, directed and written by three of the best people working in theatre today. Tim Firth, Matthew Warchus and Peter Darling and Rob, the designer – one of the best.
How do the songs translate onto stage?
The greatest experiences of being involved when this new born baby, Our House the musical, was arriving, was seeing the way that people work in arranging the songs. We’d thought about doing it ourselves but I’d never felt so confident about the fact that you’ve got somebody else who understands a completely different way of doing it. The songs weave in and out of eachother. You’ll recognise very clearly passages of Madness songs and then suddenly you won’t and you’ll realise you’re into “It Must Be Love” out of “Baggy Trousers”, but mainly they work in dramatising the story which is really is the best thing about the show is it’s continuity between the story and our songs. We didn’t want to write something particularly biographical but what Tim Firth the writer did was take all the narrative which is our lives in the songs and the story almost made its own path through the show.
What have the audience reactions been to the show?
One of the great things about the show is that I’m not a huge fan of musicals but the great ones are when they’re seamless between the songs and the narrative. And a great number of our songs do have a narrative – because so many of our songs were narrative think of “Baggy Trousers” is about going to school, “My Girl” your first love affair so you’re off on a story already. Tim Firth very cleverly wrote a story that was pretty biographical but an amalgam of all the band’s lives – we all grew up in roughly the same area in North London where the musical is set and all the trials and tribulations of growing up in an urban environment. And a beautiful love story! The other great joy for me of going to see it – and I did go and see it probably about 30 times was the audience reaction, because it really did get everybody because it’s a story of all our lives of blundering about as a teenager into what is adulthood and all the mistakes that come with that. It’s a slightly moral story as well so I think it’s got everything really.
Any favourite bits from the show?
I don’t want to sound self-congratulatory, but every time I see this show it really gets me because it’s based in the reality of our lives as a band and it’s a very sympathetic story to young people growing up. It really does have the highs and lows and if it doesn’t get you crying at the end, well, I don’t know – maybe I’m just a sentimental old fool. And one of the other another marvellous thing about the show is that we were all very into dancing as a band and that’s been greatly choreographed into the show - scenes like “Baggy Trousers” really capture the energy of what we were as a band but transferred to the theatrical stage in the most amazing way.
How did you come up with the idea?
We’d had the idea of doing a musical for some time because our songs are so narrative and they are little stories in themselves, but we really didn’t have the wherewithal and then we were approached by a couple of people and they really seemed like the right people and then once we got the writer Tim Firth and he started explaining how he saw it, we realised we had something good on our hands, and I think we have.
Is it just going to appeal to Madness fans?
It really does have an appeal to everybody. I mean, I’m not a great fan of musicals necessarily but the great ones like Oliver, West Side Story, I think it’s really up there with those sort of things. It’s just a great, great show. And I’m confident enough to say the music that Madness made is strong enough to carry the quality of the show in the way it has been written which in itself is really excellent even without our fabulous music.
The show did really well in the West End. What are you most looking forward to about the tour?
I’m really looking forward to seeing it again - I haven’t seen it for a little while and Tim’s tightened it up a bit – the great thing about it is that it evolves a little bit as it goes along, and it has got even more punchier and exciting from the new script I’ve written so I’m very much looking forward to seeing it.
Can you sum the show up in three words?
Really fantastically, excellent!
Our House is at the Lowry from Mon 15- Sat 20 September, 2008.
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