Matt Cardle recently took over from Killian Donnelly as Huey Calhoun in the West End production of Memphis The Musical at the Shaftesbury Theatre, joining Beverley Knight as Felicia Farrell.
Inspired by true events from the underground dance clubs of 1950s Memphis, Tennessee, David Bryan and Joe DiPietro’s musical follows the fame and forbidden love of a radio DJ who wants to change the world and a club singer who is ready for her big break.
Memphis marks Matt’s West End and acting debuts. Since winning the seventh series of The X Factor in 2010, Matt has gone on to become a multi-platinum recording artist who has sold over 2.2 million records in the UK and completed five sell-out tours.
A talented vocalist, songwriter, guitarist, pianist and drummer, Matt’s debut single ‘When We Collide’ sold over one million copies and has just been named as one of the Top 40 biggest selling singles of the past decade. The song spent three weeks at #1 and was nominated for Best British Single at the 2011 Brit Awards. Gary Barlow wrote Matt’s next Top 10 hit ‘Run For Your Life’ which was followed by the release of his platinum selling debut album Letters.
Matt’s other albums, which have charted in the Top 10, include The Fire and Porcelain. He most recently entered the Top 10 singles chart with ‘Loving You’, a duet with Spice Girl Melanie C. Matt completed his fifth sold-out UK tour in April 2014 and is currently writing and recording his fourth studio album which is due for release later this year.
Yesterday I popped into the Shaftesbury Theatre and spoke to Matt about why Huey is a gift of a role, the supreme talents of Beverley Knight and why he found taking over from Killian Donnelly a little daunting…
A few months ago you got a call about Memphis, what happened next?
Well I came down and saw the show because initially it was just an invite to come down, see the show and see if I liked it. I took the evening out the studio, came down and saw it with my manager and was totally blown away by Beverley and Killian – they’re both just so ridiculously talented. The whole show and whole cast and everything and the music – I was like, how have I not seen this already and why have I not heard more about it?!’ Then it was a case of ‘Do you like it?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah I absolutely love it, who wouldn’t?’ So then it was a case of, ‘Well ok, if we send you through some scenes and a couple of songs would you learn a bit?’ So I did that and went and sang a couple of songs for Nick Finlow (UK Musical Supervisor) and did some script read-throughs with Tara Wilkinson (UK Associate Director).
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