11:45am Thursday 21st March 2013
Gareth Gates has certainly found his spiritual home on stage. This might sound like a prerequisite for someone who found fame on a reality TV show, but having been feted and lauded before being churned up and spat out by pop’s vociferous machine, he has re-emerged as a musical theatre performer and consistently stunned his critics into submission. Having a severe stammer has done little to impede his journey, and interestingly when in character Gareth doesn’t have a speech impediment, only as himself. “When I was a child I was the only person I knew with a stammer, which is a very lonely place to be, and it would have been very helpful to know there was someone in the same situation, because it dictates everything from your job to your personal life,” Gareth Gates says without a scrap of self-pity. His battle to speak normally and in the full glare of the public eye has been a brave one — an entire BBC documentary Stop My Stutter — being dedicated to the subject last year where he discussed the revolutionary McGuire Technique which helped him, and of which he is now a teacher, a role he is hugely proud of. “Speech for me has been a very big part of my life because it’s always something I’ve had to deal with, so to show other people what it’s about and help others is a great feeling for me.” Who can forget watching him appear on our screens for the first time to sing like an angel on Pop Idol, unable to utter a word to the judges? “This is my journey and I’m not ashamed of that at all. It’s made me who I am.” Singing has always been Gareth’s release, and with a classical education that is seldom mentioned, he is the perfect musical star; Joseph, Les Miserables, Legally Blonde and now Boogie Nights meaning he’s a pro. “The last four years have been full-on. I’ve jumped from show to show, so I’m fortunate,” he says. About to wow you in Boogie Nights at the New Theatre, Gareth is in his element: “It’s lots of fun and full of 1970s classics which my parents used to listen to so it’s right up my street,” he says, “and I’m the lucky one who gets to sing with the Osmonds! “It’s the kind of show which gets everyone up on their feet singing and dancing,” he smiles. Unsurprisingly Gareth plays the heartthrob, “Yes,” he laughs embarrassed, changing the subject, “but it’s amazing to work with legends like The Osmonds and an honour, so I wasn’t nervous, more excited. But I do need a break after this.” Until the next one? “Absolutely.”
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