Since S Club 7’s much anticipated appearance on the BBC’s Children in Need show, things have suddenly become rather busy for Jon Lee. The reunion performance was greeted with such warmth and affection that, within days, a full UK tour was announced and the media frenzy started.
Now, just as things have started to calm down, Jon has started an intense period of rehearsals in Worthing ahead of his performance as Aladdin in the Connaught Theatre’s traditional family pantomime, which opens this week.
Luckily Jon was able to take just a few minutes break from his hectic schedule to talk to me about the pantomime, that reunion performance and the upcoming S Club 7 tour.
Thank you for taking time out when you have such a busy schedule.
It’s my pleasure. We’re having a quick break in what has been a very hectic rehearsal schedule. We had just 10 days to get everything up and running and we open this Friday. Thankfully it’s all going really well and today is our second day on the stage and we’re working through all the scenes and the musical numbers.
Tomorrow we have to start all the technical stuff where they work out lighting and sound and they make sure that no one’s going to get sliced in half by bits of moving scenery and stuff like that.
Of course, you are no stranger to pantomime.
No, not at all. I think this is my fourth or fifth one and I played Aladdin two years ago up at the O2. It wasn’t the actual main arena, but they made a special purpose-built theatre on the site and that was with Lily Savage as my mum.
It’s quite amazing, for someone who is still quite young, that you have been in showbusiness for 20 years already.
Well, yes, I know. I have to kind of pinch myself every now and again really as I still feel like I’m about 20 years old and then I remind myself that I’m 32 years old and I’ve been doing this for a really long time now – and that’s why I get so tired! But, I still love it and that’s why I do it – in fact it’s the only reason that I still do it.
Honestly, you can’t do this job properly unless you love it. You have to invest so much of yourself, both emotionally and physically, into each character you play that you can’t just go on stage and think “I’m only doing this for my pay cheque”, you have to really believe in what you do.
I’m lucky, it’s not like I am down a mine or working on a building site or anything like that, I’m on stage and I get to pretend be other people and play “dress-up” for a couple of hours and I get paid for it – it’s amazing.
What’s it’s like to have a job that you love so much?
It’s just brilliant and I am so grateful, I really am, because I’ve been doing this since I was about 12 and I’ve never done anything else. It was what I decided I wanted to do when I was about 4 or 5 years old and I just knew that this was where my heart is and I just went for it.
I think, for a lot of people when they are growing up, a big problem is deciding what you want to do and, because I knew what I wanted from such an early age, I was able to start working on it straight away.
Did you get lots of support from your family?
Absolutely, yes. We lived in Devon when I was young and, when I got the auditions for the part of Oliver in the West End, they drove me for four and half hours in the car to go to each audition, and when I got the part they helped me a lot because, when I was just 12, I had to go and live with another family in London for six months.
Then I got a scholarship to go to the Sylvia Young Theatre School and, obviously, they didn’t want me staying up in London all by myself for all that period of time and so they sold their house in Devon and moved up to London so that I could go to school and follow my dream.
But they have done the same sort of thing for my brothers and sister too. My brother was a British champion gymnast when he was under 16 and they drove him all over the country to compete so yes, they are very supportive.
Now you’re in Worthing playing Aladdin over Christmas, do you have a magic carpet?
I do, yes! It’s very exciting. I’ve been on it this morning, although getting strapped into my harness at 9.30 didn’t feel that magical but it looks really great. We’ve got some really good special effects in the panto this year. I think it’s the first time that they’ve had a full flying rig here at the Connaught so it’s really exciting for me and for them.
Now, before we finish, I can’t avoid mentioning the big S Club 7 Reunion. It is 12 years since you split, how is it that most of you haven’t changed?
I think I am very lucky because I am the youngest in the band at 32. Some people in the band are 38 and, considering they are nearly 40, I think they are all looking really good. Some journalists out there have made comments like “Look who’s put on weight” or “Hasn’t so-and-so aged” but hang on a minute, we are talking 12 years ago.
They need to accept that, to a certain degree, everyone has changed over the last 12 years. We’re not superheroes and we haven’t been cryogenically frozen in our time away, we are human beings and of course you change over time, people gain weight and lose weight and a couple of the girls are mums now as well.
How long have you been working on the reunion?
We’ve been talking about it for maybe 2 years but I was in Jersey Boys for 3 years so I had to wait for my contract to end and Rachel was very busy, and was having another baby, and so it was tough to get our schedules to match up.
I had already committed to play Aladdin so we literally had time to do Children in Need and then, a couple of days later, to launch the tour, and we’ve all blocked out the time next year to actually do the tour, but trying to get 7 people in a room together and getting their diaries in sync is really quite a challenge.
We’re you surprised at the phenomenal response there was to your performance?
It’s been amazing and, honestly, it’s been totally overwhelming because we had all gone back to our “normal lives” and sort of forgotten about it. I had gone back to the theatre and, although I wasn’t worried, I was a bit nervous that maybe no one would care that we were getting back together but the response has been so huge it’s amazing and it’s not just from this country, we have got people flying in from all over the world to see the show.
To hear stuff like that, and to read it in tweets and Facebook messages, it’s really touching that people really care about the “S Club Days” and that it was such a huge part of their childhood. That’s just magical and really means a lot to us.
The Children in Need performance looked so natural and you all looked thrilled to be back.
We were. It was such an incredible day because we walked out on stage to pre-set before the broadcast and the whole studio audience went completely crazy. It felt amazing to get such a huge reaction and to be back on that kind of stage again and we can’t wait for the Bring It All Back 2015 tour.
Jon Lee is appearing as Aladdin together with Britain’s Got Talent’s Kieran Sutcliffe and Sarah-Louise James (Genie of the Lamp and Slave of the Ring), Heart Breakfast’s Tom Evans and Jack Hayes (PC Ping and PC Pong), Stephen Richards (Widow Twankey) and Jade Chaston (Princess Jasmine) at the Connaught Theatre, Union Place, Worthing. BN11 1LG from Friday December 5th – Sunday January 4th. Show times vary so, for further information and to book tickets, please call the box office on 01903 206 206 or go online to www.worthingtheatres.co.uk
