Chris Monks has “taken a chainsaw” to Verdi’s Rigoletto and reassembled it as a new musical adventure, Soul Man, which opens this week at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Explains Monks, “I went to Music College in Leeds in 1974 and I used to be in a show band playing the working men’s clubs of West Yorkshire.
“At the time there was a venue called the Batley Variety Club and that was my inspiration for the club where my version starts.
“There’ll be a live band on stage and, as well as Verdi, there’ll be some soul music.”
Jimmy Johnston appears as the Soul Man, Justin Jones, in Monks’s musical which is based on Victor Hugo’s Le Roi S’Amuse as well as Verdi’s Rigoletto.
It swaps 19th century Italy for 1970s Leeds at a time when Jimmy Jones has something precious to hide. Pursued by vengeful enemies and with the cards stacked against him, he needs to get himself and a precious cargo out of the country before it’s too late.
Johnston received Olivier Award best actor nominations for roles as The Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and Will Parker in Oklahoma! at the National.
He has also appeared in musicals including Dreamboats and Petticoats, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera and Cats.
Chris Monks succeeded Alan Ayckbourn as artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in 2009.
His adaptation of Mozart's Don Giovanni for the New Vic was nominated for best musical production at the 2008 Theatrical Management Association Awards.
Soul Man runs at the New Vic from Wednesday (5 September) until Saturday, 15 September.