A new stage for Graham Norton
23/02/2009
Graham Norton is in a relaxed mood as we talk. He’s just been called back in for some fine-tuning of his part in Cage Aux Folles; but, as he says with some relief, the show has got off to a great start “I started this Monday,” he says, “and I have to tell you that for the first couple of days I was really scared out of my life. But I’m really starting to enjoy it now.”
For a major celebrity like Norton, it’s hard to imagine first night nerves, but this part has really stretched him: for a start he has to sing while trying to look good wearing a dress and lashings of make- up. And for that he has been taking a crash singing course. But, as I remind him, he has sung on TV before: as the overbearing and overloud Father Noel Furlong in three classic ‘Father Ted’ episodes. “You’re right, I’d forgotten that,” he laughs. Who can forget that particular rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody?
So how are the press reviews? “We haven’t let them in yet!” he says.
“But the audience reaction has been lovely. It’s a really important show and I didn’t want to wreck it. I saw it first when I was about 21 in San Francisco and thought to myself: ‘When I’m old enough I’d love to play that part’. And here I am.”
The show - which was Broadway’s first musical based on gay people – was groundbreaking at the time. But haven’t all the battles about ‘coming out’ and being accepted by society now been won? Do the themes really still resonate?
“I think so. Because it’s not just about coming to terms with being gay. It’s also about conflict within families, and the big number ‘I am what I am’ is there for anyone who feels misunderstood or rejected. There’s still an important message.
“And it’s also a show that sends you away happy. We needed that when the show first came out in 1983. And we need it now… perhaps more than ever!”
As he readily agrees, preparing for this has been a big challenge – and also a risk: after all, he is someone at the top of his profession. What if the show bombed with him in the lead? “It’s not as though I need the work, but I suppose it was a diversion as much as anything. I certainly wasn’t sitting there thinking ‘I’d like to do a musical’. The producer came along and asked me if I’d be interested. I have to say there aren’t many shows that I would want to do, but I had to say ‘yes’ to this one.
“There really are some great songs in there. ‘I am what I am’ was really important to me at the time. And it’s still important to a lot of people. But it’s interesting because I’m 45 now and I just love ‘The Best of Times’ – which is a song about maturity and where I am now.”
On the subject of which, does he miss the move from the risque late night chat shows? “I just loved doing those, but the move came at the right time for me and I would have felt very limited if I’d just kept on doing that. I was thinking: ‘I’ve done as much as I can on Channel 4 – what next?’
“I still have a late night chat show but I’ve also got the big Saturday shows on the shiny floors, such as ‘Maria’ and ‘Your Country Needs You’. They’re a terrific challenge and I’m very lucky the BBC asked me.”
So what explains the huge popularity of the Saturday early evening family shows like his, and Strictly Come Dancing? “We’ve had a long run of reality shows. This is more about people trying to achieve excellence, which viewers love.”
Even John Sergeant? “Ah, well,” he laughs, “That was comic relief!”
Next up? “Well there’s Eurovision of course. First finding a winning entry, and then providing the commentary. Then it’s a holiday. I think I’ve done my quota for a while! I won’t even try to replace Terry Wogan. After 35 years he’s become an icon, so nobody could. But Eurovision lasts a very, very long time – and goes from the very good to the risible. How will I play it? Very quietly at first I think!” I suggest, semi-seriously, that it’s a shame that the spoof Father Ted entry (‘My Lovely Horse’) couldn’t find a place in Eurovision. Graham laughs at the memory. “That was my very first big TV gig,” he says. “Perhaps it’s the only credible work I’ve done!
“They were a wonderful bunch of people to work with – tremendous actors. And the scripts… if you are Irish you really recognise the characters in there. It wasn’t so much a comedy programme in Ireland – more of a documentary. I certainly knew the sort of person I was playing – a happy-clappy singing priest with a guitar who drove everybody mad.
“The Irish were suspicious at first of the programme but they ended up loving it.”
Perhaps a neat analogy for Graham’s own career – which has moved from edgy fringe comedy to mainstream acceptance. Already he has re- written the rule book by being our first openly gay mainstream TV host – a long way from the knowing but ultimately veiled and camp innuendo of Larry Grayson. It’s going to be fascinating to see how his career moves on from here – and what other challenges he takes on along the way.