Pop Goes The Musical

It was announced this week The Wanted's Jay McGuiness will star in the European premiere of Big the Musical in Plymouth this November prior to the show's West End run in 2017.

When the announcement broke, Twitter split - as is usually the case when a popstar or celebrity is cast in a show - into three camps. On one side were his fans who were ecstatic by the news and probably sending the poor manager of Theatre Royal Plymouth's Twitter account into meltdown with the notifications; on the other side were the doubters, instantly writing him off as another star casting chosen by the producers to put bums on seats and, in the middle, were the "meh, I'll give him a chance" hopefuls.

Here at Pop Kulture, when a celeb is cast in a musical, we are usually always in the middle, willing to give people a chance. Yes, we are lovely, lovely people. However, we can totally appreciate why some may instantly place themselves with the doubters. Celebrities have always been a popular choice with producers because they need to sell tickets and if you have a name famous enough to be used on a poster and a fanbase then, more often than not, you're going to be the first choice to be cast. Joseph, for example, is a show synonymous with celebrity casting and has starred everyone from Jason Donovan to Stephen Gately to current Joseph, Joe McElderry. However, with the rise of the reality shows such as X Factor and The Voice, star casting seems to be at an all time high. This isn't always necessarily a bad thing though.

Seriously. Let us explain.

The argument put forward by many when a celeb is cast is the age old "what about the people who have trained for years only to be shunned for a popstar?" You're forgetting that said popstar might have trained too. Several popstars of today attended theatre schools from an early age and that's how they broke into the industry. Hell, even Tom from McFly went to Sylvia Young! Hold on, he's never done a musical, that's a rubbish example. Let me do that again. Even Matt Willis from Busted went to Sylvia Young! His theatre credits include Nick in Flashdance (a role created originally by Noel Sullivan of Hear'Say fame btw) and Fiyero in Wicked.

Kimberley Walsh with Ben Forster in Elf: the Musical

Similarly, Jade Ewen (of Sugababes and Eurovision fame) attended Sylvia Young and appeared as Nala in The Lion King as a young girl before changing paths and making a stab at the pop world. She has since returned to the stage with star turns in Porgy and Bess and In The Heights and she will soon appear as Princess Jasmine when Disney's Aladdin opens at the Prince Edward Theatre in June. Girls Aloud's Kimberley Walsh, who attended theatre school as a child, has also been making waves on the stage. She played the role of Princess Fiona in Shrek the Musical, taking over from Amanda Holden in 2011 and, most recently, starred as Jovie in Elf: the Musical over the 2015 Christmas period. She also released an ill advised album of musical theatre tracks which we'll forget ever happened.

Beverley Knight & Matt Cardle in Memphis

Even if they haven't trained, producers aren't stupid. They want people to enjoy the show so aren't going to cast someone who's going to be rubbish. Well, not usually. I'm sure there have been one or two occasions when that has indeed been the case but we'll gloss over them for just now.
When long-reigning Queen of British Soul, Beverley Knight was announced as Heather Headley's successor in The Bodyguard it wasn't that big of a shock to people. Beverley has, undoubtedly, of the the best - and biggest - voices in the country so surely, belting out some Whitney every night would be a breeze for her. What the show gave Beverley a chance to do was hone her acting skills and by the time she opened in the West End transfer of Memphis she was phenomenal and received an Olivier nomination for Best Actress in a Musical.
For the last few months of her run she was joined by X Factor winner, Matt Cardle who took over the role of Huey from Killian Donnelly. Pop Kulture weren't overly enthusiastic - to say the least - when Cardle was announced as Donnelly's successor but he received generally good reviews across the board for both singing (to be expected) and his acting skills. We were equally surprised when Ronan Keating faired well in the reviews when he was cast in Once. Granted, he played an Irish singer so you could say it wasn't much of a stretch, but we had caught a glimpse of his acting in a film he shot while working in Australia and were less than impressed (we had a cushion over our face) so were pleasantly thrilled (we love Boyzone) when Ro seemed to have settled into the old acting game.

We could sit here splitting hairs on this for ages (we have DOZENS more examples) but it's probably fair to say there will always be naysayers when it comes to a topic like this. Nothing makes people have an opinion and spit venom more than a celebrity. It's why people log onto Twitter in the morning and the reason Daily Mail Online has any comments at all. We can all sit and make assumptions about Jay's ability and how well he'll be able to carry this show but no one will really know outside the rehearsal room until opening night. Which we fully intend on being invited to. We'll even perform the chopsticks routine on a floor piano at the after party.