Drew McOnie is currently preparing to premiere the first production from The McOnie Company. The theatre-dance revue, entitled Drunk, premieres at the Leicester Curve Theatre on Tuesday 28th January before transferring to London’s Bridewell Theatre from Wednesday 5th February 2014.
The show features a brand new score by Grant Olding who is best known for composing the live music in the National Theatre’s production of One Man, Two Guvnors for which he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Score and won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Score.
Drew is fast becoming one of the UK’s most sought after choreographic talents. Last year he collaborated with Matthew Bourne on an original piece for the Coronation Festival Gala at Buckingham Palace, broadcast on BBC1, and also choreographed Chicago at the Leicester Curve Theatre to huge critical acclaim.
His other recent credits include: West Side Story for NYMT at Victoria Warehouse, 13 directed by Jason Robert Brown at the Apollo Theatre, Laurel and Hardy at the Watermill Theatre, Kiss of the Spider Woman at Arts Educational School and the UK Tour of James and the Giant Peach. Drew created his first major dance piece Making Midnight at Jermyn Street Theatre in 2012 which was revived at last year’s Latitude Festival. This year he is working with the National Youth Ballet to film a new dance feature film Out of Step.
Recently I spoke to Drew about developing Drunk, the huge success of Chicago and what's next for The McOnie Company...
How are you feeling ahead of Drunk’s premiere?
I’m flipping between nervous and excited at a very quick pace. When I’m in the studio with the dancers and the music I’m ridiculously excited, a little bit uncontrollably so, but then when I get home and I’m on my own sitting with schedules I start to get a little bit nervous, only because what we are doing is very important to me and makes me feel quite vulnerable as it is the first time my company and my name have been put forward in this way. It is terrifying but the vibe within the company is very exciting and that whips me up into quite a frenzy!
When did the Drunk journey begin?
The idea had been in the back of my head for quite a few years really. As the years have gone on I’ve worked on it in my head but have never really had the courage to talk to anyone about it. I was working on the UK tour of James and the Giant Peach with the composer Grant Olding. One night we went for a drink after the show and I plucked up the courage to talk to him about the idea and asked him what he thought because I really trusted his opinion. Grant’s eye for storytelling and structural problem solving is fascinating so I thought he would very quickly tell me if it was a rubbish idea. But he became excited about it very quickly and believed the characters were well formed, very bright and funny. I thought Grant would be too busy to take on another project but it turned out he was able to do it because he was so excited about it! The idea that was in my head was quite a simple one for quite a long time and it wasn’t until I started working with Grant that a lot of interesting and moving scenes were discovered within it. It’s become a proper show in the last five months, but it’s been a developing idea for about three years.
What do you think audiences will be able to take away from the show?
What I am discovering daily is that the craft the musical performers have in all three areas is really impressive. The guys and girls are giving their souls singing, dancing and acting. The sheer energy of the piece is going to be impressive and unexplainable in terms of the amount of passion these performers are giving. Hopefully the audience will laugh quite a lot as it’s a comedy with heart. The characters should all be people you have met before, but you’ll see some in a different light. I think the audience will take away something a little unexpected in terms of how far theatre dancers can go and also there is a moving story about one woman’s journey to self-confidence.
You are working with the most incredible cast. Was it always your intention to gather such a strong and diverse group of performers?
Absolutely! During my career as a performer I was fortunate to have worked with some astoundingly inspiring dancers. Very often the dancers in musical theatre are kept in the ensemble, but in my recent production of Chicago at the Curve Theatre we celebrated the dancers, pushing them into their areas of individuality. It was very important to me to bring together and celebrate the talents of these very versatile performers and put them together and focus in on how versatile, dynamic and diverse these performers are. So I am incredibly proud of the company of people we have put together. I think they have come together at a time in their careers where they believe they want to push themselves further and they want to go to the next level in terms of how far they can push their bodies, their brains and their voices. It’s a very inspiring dynamic as the performers are bouncing off each other and learning a lot each day. It’s very inspiring to watch.
The cast of Drunk, Photo Credit: Sean Halidy
What was it like working with Grant? How did the collaboration work?
Well, it’s interesting because new musicals and new centre pieces can take years and years to develop. As a choreographer I’ve worked on several workshops for musicals. So really the show has been put together very quickly – we’ve only been working properly with a piano in a studio for four months! Luckily I’ve absolutely fallen in love with Grant’s music and the way he crafts music and we have had a very cohesive and collaborative process – we’ve had very little disagreement, we seem to be inspiring each other at a pure level, which is great. The way in which the show is being made is that I have written what is more like a screenplay, obviously there is no dialogue other than in the songs, giving an indication as to how long each section is. Grant went away and wrote what is effectively a film score with the narrative being told through the music. Obviously the main difference with this kind of theatre for both Grant and myself is that our work on this is not background, it’s foreground. It’s a different kind of way into working on a theatre piece, one which we both really enjoyed, and then he sent me sections like he would to a film director. I then imagine the scene that I had been plotting in my head to his music, just tweaking bits and bobs. During rehearsals the dancers brought up questions. Grant was here all through the rehearsal process to tweak things at the piano and work closely with the cast. We were very lucky to have him so much.
Chicago at the Curve was such a success; your choreography won rave reviews. Have you had the chance to take it all in?
No, not really! When you throw yourself into something so wholeheartedly like I did with Chicago and like I am doing with Drunk I have to be ok about the outcome regardless of whether people love it or hate it. Of course that’s easier said than done. Creating Chicago was clearly one of the most stressful shows in my career, not because of anything other than the fact that Chicago had such a massive legacy. I have since met choreographers who have been very supportive of the reviews but said that they would never have done it themselves. These are choreographers who I really respect. I never thought for one moment ‘I shouldn’t do it because of the original’, I did it because I really believed in the piece. On day one of the auditions I said: “Hi, my name’s Drew, I should say I’m not Bob Fosse.” And basically the way I approached Chicago was with as much passion and as much dedication as Bob Fosse did and it would be very ignorant and arrogant of me to say I have the talent to re-create what he did. So I haven’t really taken in the response. I’m very, very proud of the company and the good reviews of the show are very much down to them because of the way they were involved in the creation of it, so I’m very happy for the cast and proud of what they achieved. When Chicago opened I transitioned my stress over to Drunk so I guess it won’t be for some time until I sit back and really appreciate how well loved Chicago was.
You’re an Associate Artist at the Curve, what is it like to be working there at such an exciting time for the theatre? There must be such a buzz?
At the moment Curve is a very exciting place to be, without doubt, it’s kind of a limitless building – you can tell by the architecture of the place. What I think is brilliant about the place is the Artistic Director Paul Kerrison, he’s a very creative man and he’s very good at letting you have your creative voice in a process. I think through allowing me to have a creative opinion we’ve become a team in a way, and it’s through that dialogue he’s built a belief in me and in my future. It is very exciting for me to have the belief from somebody like that! The last show I did as director and choreographer we were rehearsing on a carpeted church hall corridor… you can’t underestimate the fact that we are now in fully sprung, air conditioned, mirrored, natural light, proper piano in the room, changing rooms, showers and so on – it’s like a complete culture shock for me as I’m so used to having to create in difficult circumstances.
Finally, what can we expect from The McOnie Company after Drunk?
We’re developing a new show that is being composed by George Stiles which is known at the moment as a wickedly little physical folk tale. It’s a re-working of an Oscar Wilde short story. It’s very exciting in the way we are going to do the collaboration of the dance and music. I don’t want to say too much just yet but the way the dancers interact with the musicians is very exciting! It’s also forward thinking in terms of technology which is great. We’re looking to develop that in the next few months after Drunk. The company’s future aim is to collaborate with different musical theatre writers, composers, lyricists and to push forward just how far musical theatre choreography can go.
Interviewed by Andrew Tomlins (Editor)
Drunk runs at the Leicester Curve Theatre between 28th January and 1st February 2014 and at the Bridewell Theatre between 5th February and 1st March 2014.
Please visit www.themconiecompany.com for further information and tickets.
Great interview Drew!
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