MARTY MAGUIRE is making his West End debut in Sinatra the Musical.
The Belfast native took time out to tell us about it and why its the role of a lifetime...
Marty Maguire stars in Sinatra The MusicalMarty you are currently playing Frank Sinatra’s father in Sinatra the Musical - this marks your West End debut - how is it going?
I am delighted to be playing the dad. I know it is a small role but when people ask what I am playing and I say, ‘I am playing his dad’ and people say, ‘You are playing Frank Sinatra’s dad?!’ A lot of the time in theatre, especially on small productions, there is an awful lot of multi-role going on, and we have that in our show as well. But just to be considered as one of the principals and his father is just lovely.
At Christmas I was playing nine different parts in A Christmas Carol; coming through trap doors in a coat of chains as Jacob Marley and ten minutes later being Mr Fezziwig* in a wee white wig and doing my wee dance. So it’s lovely to have a nice solid role. It’s a lovely honour to be offered the part, I am loving every second of it.
And this is your West End debut - is that right?
It is indeed, yes. After 40 odd years of being in this game it’s lovely. I have been all over the place. I moved out to Los Angeles not for acting, but for other reasons in 1989. I have two sons who were born out there. I moved back to Ireland at the end of 2008. Since I moved back I have been very blessed to have been working solidly in acting full-time and that’s all I’ve had to do.
Was it a long process to land the role?
I moved to a new agency back home called Shelley Lowry Management and I didn’t even know I had been put forward for the role. I was doing a production of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast, and I got the invite to self-tape. I was so busy at home and it looked like there was work in the pipeline. I was in discussions for other upcoming things and then I got this thing to say you’ve been asked to self-tape for the role of Marty Sinatra. It was the West End for a year and I said: “I don’t want to go to the West End for a year, I’ve got my home, my dog, mum and dad, and I am such a home bird.”
Long story short, I decided to get in the mix anyway, if you’re not in you can’t win, so I self-taped for it in between the two shows. I had to sing You Make Me Feel So Young. You had to do a short one-minute version of that. So I did that, off I went. The following Friday my agent called, and said: “It’s not great news, you’re going to have to tell your wife Jo that you’ll be coming to London for a year.” I called my wife Jo [Donnelly], who is a brilliant actor. We met on a play when I came back from America. I called her and it was FaceTime and she said: “Did you get offered the part?” And I said: “I’ve just been offered the part, love.” She said: “Marty we can do this!”
I read that a member of the Sinatra family was so impressed with your audition that they insisted on you playing the role — what did you have to do for the audition?
The Sinatra family are all over this production. It is their baby. They have had it under their control from day dot. My agent told me it was the Sinatra family member who went: “That’s my grandpa.” We ended up getting a five-day workshop. So I had to come over and in the workshop Tina Sinatra, [Sinatra’s] daughter, was there. She is one of the top producers on the show. In that big room, where everyone was there to sit down, read the play, meet everyone, everyone was having their coffees. I got a tap on the shoulder, turned around, and I knew it was Tina from her photographs. She put her arms out and said: ‘Hey grandpa.’ She said: ‘I just saw your tape and I said that’s grandpa.’
Marty MacGuire and Jenna Russell (Picture Birgit and Ralf Brinkhoff)What’s it like to work with Jenna Russell who plays your wife?
She is a dream. She is the most wonderful, salt of the earth, hard-working, funny, silly, brilliant woman. We just have the best time. We have a laugh and we try to make the most of it. We get lovely feedback from people who say we come across like a proper old married couple.
Were you a fan of Sinatra before you heard about the part?
Yes, I loved Sinatra. Absolutely loved Sinatra. I loved all the old stuff when I was a younger fella. Elvis, Johnny Mathis, Jim Reeves, country and western, Tony Bennett. I was a huge fan of that music. Music you can listen to and sing along with. It touches you and you could sense emotion. I say about the 90s if you hit one button it was the same beat. The whole way through the 90s. No one will be singing those songs in 60 years as opposed to My Way and You Make Me Feel So Young and all the songs that we have in our show.
Some great numbers in the show - what is your favourite?
I am going to be really selfish and say You Make Me Feel So Young, because I get to do a duet with the beautiful, wonderful, Jenna Russell. I have been written as a grump in the first act but then when we do this number in Act Two, it changes. In the rehearsal room when we did the number people went crazy. Me and Jenna run off into the wings every night punching the air going: Yes! It is a lovely moment in the show.
When did you know you wanted to pursue a career on the stage?
My whole thing started in school. I went to De La Salle College Christian Brothers school in Andersonstown in West Belfast. Our school used to always have a Christmas show, and there was always a fun panto. A new teacher came on board, Sean O’Doherty. He wanted to get rid of the panto premise and do a proper show. He wanted to do Grease the musical. Another teacher said: “I hear Sean wants you to be up for your man Travolta.” I sang a song and ended up being Danny Zuko in the show.
My late dad was from Belfast and was a great singer and entertainer — is there something in the water up there?
Our sense of humour got us through. Trying to see the funny side of life. That is where all the drama comes from. People say: “You should write a play about that … you should write a play about that.” The thing is in Belfast people did. You hear stories about when theatre became more popular, certain writers like Marie Jones and Martin Lynch who wrote plays for the people.
Tell me about growing up in Belfast, what was your first introduction to the theatre?
I got an invite in 1985 to audition for the Ulster Youth Theatre’s production of Grease. I was working at Topman selling shoes, still licking my wounds after being kicked out of university. Sean O’Doherty from school saw the ad in the paper and submitted me for the auditions. James Nesbitt was in that one and Briana Corrigan, who was the lead singer for The Beautiful South. So many people who are still going strong in the industry. Ulster Youth Theatre was a brilliant breeding ground for young people, especially with everything that was happening in Northern Ireland at the time. Young people could just be themselves, and all the nonsense was left at the front door.
Aside from your work on stage you’ve appeared in the Kneecap film: how many takes for your scene? There must have been a lot of laughs on set?
It was lovely. There was stuff that didn’t make it into the film. The director Rich Peppiatt had me doing all this improvisation. He wanted to characterise this crazy interrogating police officer. He had me doing push-ups and doing the dialogue: “Why don’t you speak English?!” And some martial arts doing the dialogue. We couldn’t get through it for laughing.
The young lad Liam Óg, he couldn’t get through it without laughing. My sons are fans of Kneecap because they live in America and love anything to do with the Irish. I wasn’t that familiar with them. The Kneecap lads were so natural at acting, the authenticity you couldn’t have got that from actors. It’s in their DNA, these young lads. It turns out Liam’s mummy cuts my mummy’s hair!
Growing up who was your favourite actor?
I loved Jack Lemmon, he was always so in the moment. I ended up getting cast in a production of The Odd Couple and I played the Jack Lemmon role. Sylvester Stallone: I think he is a great writer. One of the best actors I have met is my wife Jo Donnelly. We met on a play. The play that I came back from America to do, written by Martin Lynch, called The Chronicles of Long Kesh.
What is the best bit of advice you have been given?
Listen. A director shouted at me years ago: ‘Marty stop acting, you are acting all over the place, just relax, listen, two ears, one mouth.’ My mummy always said that, she still does: ‘Learn to listen, no one ever learned anything from talking all the time.’
Finally what advice would you give to anyone wanting to follow in your footsteps?
My advice is listen to what is going on around you. Be as true to yourself as you can. Be kind, because I always say when an actor, producer, director are talking about productions they say: “Who is right for the part?” But also, who is a lovely person to be around for ten hours a day? If it is something you really want to do, stick at it. No job is more important than a human being: take care of yourself. Be kind to others.
Sinatra is at the Aldwych Theatre until April 2027. sinatramusical.com
See More: Frank Sinatra, Marty Maguire, West End
