When it comes to Hear’Say, the facts show that Noel Sullivan has used the band as a stepping stone to a musical career. He talked to Steve Pratt

THE audition was unlike anything Noel Sullivan had experienced before. “I have never had to dress in full drag, spend two hours doing make-up, then go in a room and run up and down in high heels,” he says.

Certainly nothing like that happened when he was a member of Hear’Say, the pop band that came out of ITV’s Pop Stars programme. But in the ten years since its five members went their separate ways, Sullivan has forged a new career in musical theatre, with parts in shows including Flashdance – The Musical and Grease followed by the lead role of Galileo in We Will Rock You in the West End and on tour.

Now comes Priscilla Queen Of The Desert in which he plays one of a trio of drag queens heading by bus across the Australian outback for a cabaret job in Alice Springs, and encountering all sorts of Aussie wild life along the way. It’s very camp with a nonstop soundtrack of disco numbers and outrageous costumes.

“It’s like I’ve been trapped in a glittery cell for a few weeks,” says Sullivan, emerging from the rehearsal room for a lunchbreak. The extravagant costumes, all feathers and glitter and glitz, are extraordinary. He’s used to wearing a white T-shirt and black jeans not frocks and headdresses that make Joseph’s Technicolor Dreamcoat look dull and shabby.

“I had seen the show in London so I knew what to expect, but the audition process was quite intense,” he says. “But beneath the costumes is a great story and I play the heart of the story. It has the most amazing music as well.”

He plays Tick, sharing the tour role with Jason Donovan, who was seen in the part in Sunderland recently. Sullivan’s second week on stage comes in York at the Grand Opera House this month.

“Underneath all the camp flamboyance, Tick is coming to terms with being a father and some of the responsibilities that go with that,” says Sullivan.

He’s happy with the way his career is going. It’s great to be getting to the place in musical theatre where he’s always wanted to be. “People didn’t think I was capable of doing it. That’s great because it gives you something to fight towards. After We Will Rock You, there was no question of my abilities,” he says.

Hear’Say and, more particularly, the way the manufactured group was regarded as the winners of a TV talent show in the days when The X Factor was only a gleam in Simon Cowell’s eye did him no favours. He wanted to be in musical theatre before the group came along and he’s unsure if his cause was helped by being in the pop band.

“I auditioned in Cardiff and because Pop Stars was the first show of its kind we didn’t have anything to judge it against, so it was a blind audition,”

he explains. “It was very difficult to get an audition regionally until then. The rest, as they say, is history.”

Hear’say lasted two years. Then Sullivan, Myleene Klass, Suzanne Shaw, Kym Marsh and Danny Foster went their separate ways and have found varying success in show business.

“It seems like a different life now,” says Sullivan. “I was 19 at the time and am about to turn 33. It was almost half-a-lifetime ago. It was an amazing experience and changed my life. It’s given me a good standing and I’m working on an album now.”

But there is no escape from a group that cited “abuse from the public” as one reason for their split.

HE was offered some West End roles, including Joseph, in the wake of the demise of Hear’Say, but thought they were wrong for him at that point.

“I just didn’t want to rush into it, but build a career of longevity. I had already had a boom and bust experience of being thrown on the scrapheap at 21,” he says.

He sees talent shows like X Factor as “a jaded process” these days – “you can see the sob stories coming, hear the piano and the strings, and think, ‘here we go again’.”

Priscilla is his most demanding, musical theatre role yet. There are others he’d like to play. “The one I want to do hasn’t happened yet, but they are talking about a revival of it – Miss Saigon.”

Being on the road demands a certain lifestyle. “It’s not the easiest thing I’ve ever done. The touring and stuff being away from home is quite a tough life, and it’s exhausting. People say you’re only working in the evening, but that work is like doing a 12-hour shift on a normal job. I’m not complaining. The point of what we do is to let people escape for a couple of hours.”

But there are scenes in Priscilla that make him wonder what he’s let himself in for. There are tender moments, like when he sings Always On My Mind, but then there’s the MacArthur Park production number.

“I’m in my pajamas and dancing with some giant cupcakes. I try to think of myself as Mickey Mouse in Fantasia.

It’s just nuts,” he says.

  • Priscilla Queen Of The Desert: York Grand Opera House, May 13- 18. Box Office: 0844-8713024 and atgtickets.com/york