ONCE MORE WITH FEELING
Niamh Perry got her first big break on I’d Do Anything, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s TV search for his Nancy ... now she’s back on home turf with Dubliner Brian Gilligan to bring Once the Musical back to the Olympia
IT’S a story that’s almost worthy of a musical itself — a teenage schoolgirl thrust into the spotlight after applying for a TV show. But that’s exactly what happened to Bangor’s Niamh Perry after she auditioned for the BBC hit, I’d Do Anything.
It was a search for the new Nancy to take up the role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s West End version of Oliver and at 17, Niamh was one of the youngest to make it through to the TV show, having previously only done amateur dramatics.
In the middle of studying for her A Levels, Niamh found herself in a different world — and one which would ultimately lead to her career on stage.
Now starring in the new production of Once The Musical at the Olympia Theatre, Niamh admits it hasn’t all been an easy ride. ‘That was nine years ago,’ she explains, those stunning eyes sparkling at the memories. ‘It’s funny, because I am so grateful for that opportunity, as I genuinely wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for I’d Do Anything.
‘So much time has passed now and I forget, as well, that I did get into the business in a quite random, weird and wonderful way.’
Niamh paraded in her crinolines and boots with the best of them in front of the musicals legend Webber and a series of judges, spurred on by host and fellow Irishman Graham Norton.
‘I will always be indebted to the people I worked with then and that incredible stroke of luck I had at that time,’ Niamh explains. But she admits there were drawbacks to being thrust into the spotlight.
‘I think because of that I also had to fight against the reality TV stigma,’ she says. ‘So it’s taken a lot of hard work to continue to get myself in through doors because I was branded with this reality show thing.’
BEING on TV gave Niamh a crash course in what it would be like as a jobbing actress, experiencing the demands of the stage. ‘Within that short period of time on that TV show I have never worked so hard in my life and I have never felt pressure like it,’ she says. ‘And I was only 17.
‘It was crazy — I was doing my A levels in Belfast, then all of a sudden I was on that show. I had only done a couple of shows with amateur dramatics before that.
‘It was a very odd time for any 17-year-old but there was the advantage that I hadn’t worked before, I hadn’t trained — I didn’t have that kind of pressure on me. I was just soaking up every second of it and learning constantly.
‘I had less pressure on me than some of the other contestants had, as they had trained. So it was just a crazy world. I was having a wonderful time and I didn’t have to go to school.
‘But then I had to go back and sit my A Levels.’
Niamh began working almost straight away, ditching any ideas of college for experience on the stage itself.
‘I got an agent off the back of the TV show and spent the first year doing little things to get used to it, really, and let it all sink in,’ she explains. ‘And then I got the part of Sophie in Mamma Mia in the West End the year after.’
Once The Musical is a great homecoming for Niamh to have as she’ll be the girl to Brian Gilligan’s ‘Guy’ in the new production, which kicks off at Dublin’s Olympia tonight.
It’s the first time there has ever been an all-Irish cast in the stage version of the show, which was created following the success of the film starring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.
‘My first big job in London was The Commitments, which happened at the end of my training,’ Brian explains. ‘I went to the Academy of Music in Dublin and I had been signed by an agent, which was pretty cool at the time because my kind of direction, I suppose when I was leaving college, was that I was going to go into opera, as I am trained in that side of things.’
And a mixture of talent and good fortune was also the reason for Brian’s move to musicals.
‘I had been very lucky in that I had done a musical while in college in Dublin and a London agent had come over to see the show,’ Brian says. ‘And that would have been my first break into the musical theatre world. ‘But to be honest, doing the Gaiety panto Robinson Crusoe was one of my first steps into the professional world for me here. I got to work with brilliant people like Daryn Crosbie, who is an amazing director. ‘That gave me the wherewithal to see how hectic your show schedule can be, because panto can be ten, 12 or even sometimes 14 shows a week. That’s where you learn a lot about professional pressure and what it’s actually like to do this for a living.’
Opera had been Brian’s first love, so the boy — or the Guy, as he’s now known in Once — can certainly sing.
‘When I was 20 I was introduced to a well-known singing teacher over here, Mary Brennan, who was very encouraging and told me I could have a career in opera if I wanted,’ he says.
‘I worked with her for a few years and trained my voice, learning a lot of the fundamental techniques while I was training. Mary was a great teacher and she was so inspiring that I thought that was the route I was going to take.’ Musicals, though, are in Brian’s blood, as his mum ran a theatre school in Dublin where he developed his love of acting.
Brian is in fact so passionate about
treading the boards that he actually postponed his honeymoon after getting his Once role.
His bride, Laura Griffin, from Malahide, is also an actor, so happily she understood when their plans were put on ice after the wedding, which took place in the middle of rehearsals, just a couple of weeks ago.
‘Obviously, planning a wedding, you do need to have a bit of time to do it. So we set the date. We just wanted to get married and I suppose it is proper rock and roll to get wed in the middle of rehearsals for a job. I am very lucky, though, I have a very supportive fiancee. We had been planning the wedding for two years and we knew there might be something happening in the future. And as a result we’re both doing jobs, just as it happens. She is doing Annie in the Cork Opera House during the summer and it means we have delayed our honeymoon until September.’
Both Niamh and Brian agree acting is definitely the kind of career where you’re going to have to make sacrifices.
‘It’s so unpredictable, you never know when you are going to have a job and it’s very hard to plan for everything, even a wedding,’ Brian says.
Even so, Niamh is also endeavouring to plan hers to musician Ollie Hanafin next year.
‘It was quite stressful looking for somewhere to have the wedding,’ Niamh admits. ‘But now we have booked somewhere everything else is falling into place. I met Ollie when I did the international tour of Mamma Mia. He was playing in the band — we actually met in Dublin.’
Niamh believes that if acting is what you want to do, you have to get used to the turbulence of being on stage one day and unemployed the next.
‘It’s a very oversubscribed industry and there are a lot of people who want to do what we are very lucky to do,’ she says.
’If it’s the eighth show of the week and I am really exhausted I always try and remind myself how lucky I am to be able to do this as a job and how tricky it is to get a foot in the door.
‘I mean, I’ve only been doing this for nine years but since I have started there are so many more people who want to do the same thing, who are competing for roles, who are looking for the chances. And I think if you have the drive and passion then you just have to go for it.
‘I have definitely had times where I haven’t had any work but I have been really lucky in the past couple of years, it has been quite healthy. I have no plans after Once, so you never know. You absolutely never know — you always finish a job thinking that you might not get another one. You like to think that there will be another job but it does mean you appreciate the one you’re in and I think it is a healthy way of looking at things.
‘You can never predict what’s going to happen.’
NIAMH admits there have been times when she has worried but she’s learned how to live with that for the sake of her craft. And after all, there’s absolutely nothing else that she would rather do.
‘There have been times when I have struggled with thinking, “I’m not going to work,”’ she explains. ‘But I think the older you get you like to think your experience and your reputation might lead to something else.
So if a TV company came calling, would she take the plunge?
‘No actor would ever say no,’ she laughs. ‘It is quite a separate industry and when you have been in theatre for a while it can be tricky to break into a different genre. I did a TV pilot for a show in Australia and I absolutely loved it.
‘But I have such a love and passion for theatre and my heart is so strong for it, I think that even if I did get something in TV I would not stop doing theatre either.’
As for Brian, he’d be happy to land a part on Fair City, just like one of Carrigstown’s finest who happens to be a friend.
‘My pal, Johnny Ward, had my heart in my mouth recently as Ciaran the Carrigstown kidnapper,’ Brian says.
‘I loved watching that storyline and I wouldn’t say no to Fair City, that’s for sure.
‘I have always been very eager to break into TV at some point but whether or not that will happen I don’t know. For now though, I am enjoying being in Once, as it is a new journey for both of us.’
Once the Musical returns to Dublin’s Olympia Theatre tonight and will run until August 26. Tickets are on sale now from ticketmaster.ie.