Opera has plenty of soul

RYAN Malloy pats his Olivier Award on the head. It's standing on the table, amid the make-up and theatrical paraphernalia of a working actor, in front of him in his dressing room at the Cambridge Theatre in London.

He's rightly proud of the award given to The Chorus for best performance in a supporting role in a musical - one of four Oliviers that Jerry Springer The Opera collected in 2004.

"The awards night was a great night," he recalls. "I never expected in a million years that we'd win. We were up against hardcore shows and actors. It was one of those years where one show - ours - won everything."

Now television viewers will get to see what London theatre audiences have been watching for two years as the musical is shown on BBC2 and, considering its strong language and tackling of taboo subjects, is bound to attract many complaints no matter how many warnings are put out beforehand. If I tell you that the pre-op transsexual played by North Shields-born Malley is one of the more normal characters, you'll get an idea of just how warped the musical is as it turns Springer's TV talk show into a mock opera.

For 29-year-old Malloy, it was a good 2004. Not only did he continue on stage in the award-winning Jerry Springer The Opera, but was chosen from 200 hopefuls at an open audition to front the reformed Frankie Goes to Hollywood band.

That was for a one-off concert for the Prince's Trust at Wembley Arena in November. He was picked to sing with the band after original vocalist Holly Johnson declined to take part. It looks as if his association with Frankie will continue as there are plans for a tour to Europe, Asia and hopefully the US later this year.

Meanwhile Malloy continues as transsexual Tremont in the London production of Jerry Springer The Opera, which began at the National Theatre before transferring into London's West End.

He was playing clubland king Steve Strange in Boy George's West End musical, Taboo, when he heard about the production of Jerry Springer The Opera. He auditioned and, after eight or nine callbacks, he was recruited into The Chorus - a character in itself whose singers are rarely off stage. Playing Tremont involves performing song-and-dance numbers in high heels. After three or four weeks of falling over, he could sympathise with women's complaints about the difficult and pain of wearing such footwear. He went as far as to join a ballet course to learn how to walk like a woman.

The former Monksheaton High School pupil and North Tyneside College drama student has come a long way since going to Los Angeles at the age of 19. He studied at UCLA and began acting over there. He's also a singer and songwriter.

"It was going really well and then I got immersed in soul music. I won a record deal in London which brought me back here. That didn't go as well as it could and, as the acting side was still unfulfilled, I started getting into that," he says. "I went to the Poor School to study acting and then to the Edinburgh Festival. It gave me a new lease of life, that energy of just getting back on stage and so much commitment and focus."

Appearing in Taboo was an ideal opportunity to combine acting and music. He also writes songs and has been working with The Eurythmics' Dave Stewart on the Pussycat Dolls project involving Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani and Carmen Electra.

Then Frankie Goes To Hollywood came along. The band was reformed for a tribute concert to producer Trevor Horne. Malloy was rehearsing with the band by day and performing on stage as Tremont at night.

"The concert was one of those things that went so well. The guys enjoyed performing with me and I enjoyed performing with them. The fans went crazy so why not do some more?," he says.

He was too young to appreciate Frankie the first time round but his sister, who's ten years older, was a fan of the controversial group whose hits included Relax, Two Tribes and Welcome To The Pleasuredome. "My mum raised me on a diet of Frank Sinatra and stuff like that, so doing musicals is a logical step. But the rock star thing of doing Frankie Goes To Hollywood is so much fun," he adds.

Malloy made a brief trip back to the North-East to see his family over Christmas but regrets that he's never worked in the region as an actor.

"I left Newcastle when I was really young, got out and went straight to Los Angeles, but there's some fantastic drama being done in the North-East. I'd love to do some drama up there," he says. He's contracted to Jerry Springer The Opera until July and after that he says he'll just see what comes along, although a return to America seems likely at some point.

* Jerry Springer The Opera is on BBC2 on Saturday at 10pm

It was written by Stewart Lee and Richard Thomas and filmed at the West End's Cambridge Theatre when David Soul (still best-known for his Starsky And Hutch TV days) was taking the role of Jerry Springer, America's favourite talk-show host.

The opera features the worst day in Springer's career with trailer park trash, nappy wearers and a tap-dancing troupe of Ku Klux Klansmen featuring.

This show is the centrepiece of BBC2's Jerry Springer Night which also features a profile of him in Ruby Wax Meets... when the no-nonsense comedienne went behind the scenes of the US show. There's also a documentary looking at the making of the opera. Jerry Springer Night starts at 9pm.

* The stage show continues at the Cambridge Theatre in London (Box Office 0870 899 3342 or 0207 930 3000).

Published: 06/01/2005