Local actor, Alex James Ellison, will be meeting with some very stange friends when a strictly limited West End season of family show “Aliens Love Underpants” heads to the Dominion Theatre in London’s West End from 1st August – 5th September 2015, marking its return to London following a highly acclaimed UK tour.
Based on the hugely successful children’s book by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort, the story of the mischievous aliens who come to earth on an important mission to steal everybody’s underpants has stunning effects, madcap action, original music and lots of crazy aliens of course! This zany and hilarious tale has been adapted by Adam Bampton-Smith, who also directs, with the magical puppetry skills of the actors bringing the colourful cast of aliens to life.
During the show’s London run Alex will continue to star as Timmy, the main human character in Aliens Love Underpants and, in between shows at the Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells, I caught up with him to ask about Aliens, Underpants and his latest chance to headline in the West End…
How long have you been playing Timmy in Aliens Love Underpants?
I’ve been Timmy for just over a month now, actually coming up to a month and a half, and it’s going really well. I love it. It’s just so much fun. It was a very short rehearsal period, with just two weeks to get into it so it was a steep learning curve, but Mark Collier, one of the guys who has been in the show for a while, was really helpful and he gave me a few pointers to help me get up to speed.
How much puppetry do you get to do?
I do very little, thankfully. The others do almost all of the puppetry and I just do a couple of bits of the “secret puppetry” where you can’t see the puppetteer. For instance, there is a scene with a little alien in the bed and one where there is an alien in the drawer and they are the bits I do.
And now you get to take the show into the Dominion Theatre in London.
I know, it’s absolutely crazy! I literally cannot wait to get there because it’s such a big deal. I’ve seen shows there before, like We Will Rock You and White Christmas, and now I’m going to be on that same stage for a five week run, right through the children’s summer holidays. There are loads of “three show days” so the schedule is a bit full on, but it’s such a great opportunity for all of us.
But, as well as where you are going, let’s talk about where you have come from, because you’re a local lad aren’t you?
Yes, I’m from Brighton. I was brought up there until I was 16, I went to the Dorothy Stringer School, and then, when I was 16, I got into the Brit School so I commuted every day to Croydon, which was a two hour journey each way, but it was ok because some of the other people from my class at Dorothy Stringer went to the Brit School too, so we all went on the train together.
I did that for two years and then, when I was 18, I moved up to London to go to the Mountview Theatre School and I trained there for three years. Since then I have done some theatre work around London at the St James Theatre, The Union, The Lost Theatre and at The Landor. I am also Louis in a One Direction tribute band, as well as being a singer/songwriter, in fact, I just released my latest single, “Chocolate Bar”, which is avilable on iTunes.
So are you a singer/songwriter who acts or are you an actor who writes his own music?
I don’t really know, to be honest. I like to keep all of my options open and so I don’t really want to choose, until or unless I have to choose. At the moment I don’t think I need to choose as I make time for both. I have wanted to be an actor since I was about six or seven, so I’ve always done that and then I got into Musical Theatre and learned to play the piano and guitar and, when I left Mountview, I started writing more and more.
The good thing is, when you write your own stuff, you can pick it up and drop it as time dictates. When I got this tour I thought that I would be able to gig along side it, and I have done some, but when it gets too busy I just stop for a while. What’s really good about Aliens is that all of our shows are in the daytime, so I can play my music at night, which is great.
The thing that amazed me most about Aliens was how you have transferred the book to the stage, in such incredible detail.
I think it’s incredible too and I really admire all the extra work that has gone into the show. I didn’t actually read the book until after I saw the show for the first time and I was amazed at how they have recreated the props, the costumes and the Aliens just as they appear in the book.
We have extra bits that have been added at the beginning of the show and a lot of extra detail at the end and then, right in the middle, the audience get to hear the words just as they have read them in the book – they really love that.
What will you do after the London run?
Well, we are already signed up to do more performances through the October Half Term week in Birmingham, Hertford and Basingstoke and then we have a two week run in Corby in the run up to Christmas and then the show is travelling to the Far East with dates in places like Singapore and Hong Kong, and we’ve all signed up to do that as well, so we are in for some great experiences with Cryl, Coops and Dex – the Aliens who Love Underpants!
Aliens Love Underpants appears at the Dominion Theatre, 268-269 Tottenham Court Road, London. W1T 7AQ from 1st August – 5th September 2015 with performance times as follows: Monday – 10.00am, 12.00pm, 2.00pm (except Monday 31st August which is 11.00am, 1.00pm, 3.00pm), Tuesday – no performances, Wednesday – 10.00am (except no show on 2nd September), Thursday – no performances, Friday – 10.00am, 12.00pm, 2.00pm, Saturday – 10.00am. Tickets, priced £23.75, £19.75 and £15.75 (plus booking fee) are available from the box office on 0845 200 7982 or you can book online at www.dominiontheatre.com.
