No dramas… Gary: ‘I’m too big a diva’ for West End role
GARY BARLOW may be the toast of theatreland but he is ‘too much of a diva’ to tread the boards himself.
The star posted a picture on Instagram of himself in bed clutching a WhatsOnStage Award yesterday after his new musical, The Girls, picked up the best regional production gong at a West End bash on Sunday.
But although BBC1 show Let It Shine is all about picking stars for a musical inspired by Take That, Barlow says his sole theatrical role was in a school play of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat aged eight — and he intends to keep it that way.
‘I’m not good at that, I swear. Look at our cast, they do the show eight times a week! That is incredible,’ the 46-year-old told Guilty Pleasures in an exclusive chat. ‘I have total respect, but it isn’t for me, I’m too much of a diva.’
As he looks forward to the upcoming Take That tour where he will perform new album Wonderland, he said: ‘It’s been completely by accident that I’ve got into theatre. I’m most at home on stage with Take That singing our songs.’
The musical — based on 2003 film Calendar Girls — was co-written with old school pal Tim Firth — now a Bafta-winning dramatist. ‘I met Tim when I was 15 and we’ve kept in touch. He went off to be a playwright, I went into music,’ he said.
The pair previewed the musical to a star-studded audience, including Graham Norton, Mel Giedroyc, Barlow’s bandmates and some of the original Calendar Girls in a gala show at London’s Phoenix Theatre last night.
The Girls officially opens today.
Author: Andrei Harmsworth
