Inside Look: John McCrea

We spoke to actor John McCrea about his role as Jamie New in the Sheffield Theatres production of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.

You’ve mentioned in interviews that you perceived yourself lacking a certain breadth of experience as is typical for a West End lead. When can it help to enter into something where your enthusiasm, or commitment exceeds experience? Did it help you at any point for Everybody’s Talking About Jamie?
I always knew I could portray the character well, I felt as if I knew him inside-out, so I guess that fuelled me to take a risk and push myself. At first it was the stamina needed for a lead role that I was anxious about. Believe me, there is nothing quite like an eight show a week schedule. Especially in a musical. You have to be an athlete and I didn’t quite know how my body was going to respond to the physical and vocal demands of the character. Luckily, with the support of an amazing cast I really hit my stride and it got easier. It is still a lot of hard work but well worth the rewards.

In one of the other interviews I read with you, you mention how new you were to the process of workshopping your character. Could you expand a bit more on this process? What did you learn? Did it change the way you have approached the role of Jamie, or will approach other ones?
Workshopping is essentially just an extensive rehearsal period with no guarantee of the work ever being seen by the public. The first workshop took place in September of 2014 and it was five days long. You sit around with your fellow actors and the shows creatives and read through scripts, sing through songs and try and create a world that could exist beyond the pages of dialogue you’re given. The most important thing I learnt during that process was to ask questions. I was privileged to be working in a very collaborative environment. It has given me a much braver approach to the way I see characters but I am still open to working in as many ways as possible. After all – everybody’s process is unique to them.

Were there any seemingly small moments of action or dialogue that stick out in your mind that lay the groundwork for the big movements of the story or your character?
The climax of my character’s trajectory is when he is finally confronted with his father’s true feelings towards him. Jamie is extremely expressive, especially with his hands, so in this scene I put my hands in my pockets to symbolise Jamie holding himself in. It’s almost as if everything he is, is desperate to escape but fear keeps it all hidden away at that one moment. So even though from an audiences perspective I am just standing still with my hands in my pockets, it’s quite distressing and poignant.

As a performer, how is your relationship to the musical numbers different than that of the spoken dialogue?
Singing is essentially an internal dialogue so there are always going to be slight differences. You can be far more open and honest when you feel like no one is listening. In the past there have been disconnects between spoken and sung dialogue which can be hard to combat, but in this production we’ve all been lucky that they move seamlessly from one to the other. Our characters all sing in a similar dialect to their own speaking voice which is helpful and Tom MacRae (Book Writer) and Dan Gillespie-Sells (Composer) really worked together to join the two disciplines so they felt authentic.

What will you miss the most about this role and the production?
So many things. It’s been all encompassing for about four years now so it’s going to be strange when it’s over. I’ll definitely miss this cast. They are all so incredibly unique and hard working and we have built this together. I just hope we get the opportunity to pass it on to a whole new group of people to experience. Very ‘Miss Universe’ answer I know – but true none the less.

John McCrea can be seen in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, on now at the Apollo Theatre, London (UK).

As told to Paul Vaughan for TPJ
Photographer: Jessie Craig