Interview: Warren Sollars, starring as Marc Bolan in 20th Century Boy

Warren Sollars is currently starring as Glam Rock legend Marc Bolan in the UK Tour of new musical 20th Century Boy. He appears alongside Coronation Street’s Sue Jenkins and Waterloo Road’s Luke Bailey.

Directed and choreographed by Thriller Live’s Gary Lloyd, 20th Century Boy is the culmination of five years’ development. The original production had successful runs at the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich in September 2011 and the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry in September 2012. 

This new production began its 2014 UK Tour in April and continues until July. The musical showcases 24 of Marc Bolan and T.Rex’s best-known iconic hits including ‘Ride A White Swan’, ‘I Love To Boogie’ and ‘Get It On’.

Warren was most recently seen in Tim Rice’s new musical From Here To Eternity at the Shaftesbury Theatre. His West End credits also include: Kiss Me Kate (Chichester/Old Vic) and Pepper in Mamma Mia (Prince of Wales).

His theatre credits include: All The Great Books (Abridged) (London/Dubai), Peter Pan (Curve), Joe in Everybody Loves a Winner (Manchester Royal Exchange), Goody ‘Goodman’ King in Fame (UK Tour), Eurobeat – Almost Eurovision (Edinburgh Festival), Our House (Birmingham Rep/UK tour) and the title role in Aladdin (Peterborough). 

I recently spoke to Warren about how he prepared for such an iconic role, what makes 20th Century Boy stand apart from other jukebox musicals and what it’s like go through Marc Bolan’s huge journey night after night…

The response to this new production of 20th Century Boy has been very positive. Have you had a moment to take everything in?!

It’s all been a bit of a whirlwind actually [laughs]! We haven’t been on the road for long and we put the show together in such a short space of time – we only had three weeks in London. 

So many people I interview discuss their desire to be in the original cast of a new production and to have the opportunity to create a role. How did you find that process?

Well, it’s not every day you get asked to play a part which is based on a real life person! Marc Bolan is such an incredible character, he was loved by so many people and there are still so many T. Rex fans out there – you forget how many of them there are! It’s a massive role and there was a lot I had to overcome. It’s been an incredible ride! To emulate his life on stage and to absorb myself into his world has been amazing; it’s not something you always get to do in musical theatre.

Warren as Marc Bolan

How did you prepare?

I wasn’t trying to become a carbon copy of him; I wanted to capture his spirit and essence. What’s great is that we have YouTube now and there are lots of great interviews and performances on there. As soon as I got the job I started listening to his music every single day. I was already a T. Rex fan before I got the audition, although I only knew the basics – I had never dived in until now. I play him from a young kid right up until his death at 29. 

That must be a big journey for you to go through every night!

It’s an incredible journey and an incredible story. It’s not like other jukebox musicals because it’s about a real person, the songs aren’t shoehorned in – they’re all there for the right reasons. If you took the songs away the story would still stand alone as a great play. The first thing I always look for in a piece of theatre is the book and 20th Century Boy has a great script, so then when you add the songs on top it comes alive! It’s so demanding, the only time I’m off stage is to get changed so it is a bit of a mental show for me! But it’s great and I feel so lucky to have been asked to play such an amazing role.

What can audiences expect from the show? 

They’re going to be taken on a roller-coaster ride, for sure! You see all of Mark’s highs and all of Mark’s lows. The hard core theatre fans who want to experience great theatre will get just that, the hard core T. Rex fans will get what they want because we do about twenty-seven songs and then we do a massive band section at the end so everyone can stand up and clap along. There’s a lot for everyone, it’s very fun and energetic but also poignant and sad at times.

What have the audience responses been like so far? Have they been wild?!

Oh yeah – they go wild [laughs]! Obviously there are the T. Rex fans, but what’s great for me is when people of my generation come and watch the show and experience hearing the music live. The response has been amazing! People have literally been screaming and hearing those songs being shouted back at you is an incredible feeling.

Warren as Marc Bolan

Ok, slight change of subject, if you had to go to a desert island which three musical theatre songs would you take with you?

Wow! Ok… actually this is so tough! I would take ‘What is it About Her’ from The Wild Party (by Andrew Lippa) because it’s probably one of my favourite musical theatre songs. This is hard! I can’t think! Can I take something from my show? Does that count?

Hmm you can take one!

I would take the title song – 20th Century Boy – because it actually is my all-time favourite rock tune. One more… here we go… I know! ‘Bui Doi’ from Miss Saigon because it’s such a powerful tune, you would need a big anthem with you!

Finally, it must be so nice having support behind you from theatre fans?

It’s incredible! You want to know you’re doing well and, especially when you’re playing a character like Marc Bolan – you want to know you’re doing the role justice. There’s expectation to do well so when you meet people after the show who say things like “great performance mate” and “you did Marc well and took me back to the seventies!” it’s really nice to hear. It’s great to have that support; it is an incredible feeling because you know you’re doing good!

Interviewed by Andrew Tomlins (Editor)

20th Century Boy tours the UK until 19th July 2014, including a stop at the New Wimbledon Theatre between 23rd - 28th June. Please visit www.20thcenturyboythemusical.co.uk for further information, full tour dates and tickets.

Photo Credit 2-3: Robert Day

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