Liverpudlian returns to stage drama as Hollywood star

May 13 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

ROCK HUDSON was a Liverpudlian. At least, the Hollywood actor will be played by one in a new drama previewing at the city’s Unity Theatre tonight.

Hudson was actually born in Winnetica, Illinois, but in the new play, Rock, by Tim Fountain, the 1950s heart- throb will be played by Liverpudlian Michael Xavier.

For Xavier, who has spent most of his career playing leads in musical theatre, it will be a welcome return to straight drama. It will also mark his Liverpool stage debut. Liverpool-born Xavier, who first performed in plays at St Xavier School, really got the bug when he played in productions at Knutsford High School, after a move to Cheshire.

"I was in Grease and I thought this is really something I want to do. But there is a story my mother tells that when I was four I told her I wanted to be an actor and she said, ‘Go on, then, act’, but I was too shy. I’m still too shy to act in front of my mother."

After going on an acting course at Manchester Met, a then girl friend suggested he try his luck in London.

"I was very green and thought I would go down, and within two months got a role in a musical Pageant with Lionel Blair.

"It was about beauty pageants but all the girls were played by men. It was very funny and a great show." He played Miss Great Plains.

"It really spiralled from there and I got job after job in musicals, and I knew it was going to be difficult to turn back to straight acting."

He’s played the West End with leading roles in Phantom of the Opera and My Fair Lady and toured with shows like Mamma Mia, Miss Saigon and The Mikado. Then his agent sent him the script for Rock and sent him the script. "I thought it was fantastic and I wanted to be in it. This is mine, I thought."

He did finally landed the part and loves it. "It is really the story of Rock’s agent Henry Willson (correct spelling!) and his journey. We see how Henry moulds Roy Fitzgerald as he was known, and moulds him into Rock Hudson."

Both men were gay, and Hudson was originally goofy and a little effeminate with a high-pitched voice. "He worked on Rock’s voice and walk, and created this Frankenstein monster."

* ROCK, with Bette Bourne as Henry Willson, runs at the Unity from tonight until May 17, and then tours until June.