Entertainment

Shane Richie: These heels are killing me

As hit West End show Everybody's Talking About Jamie plays in Belfast, Gail Bell catches up with Eastender-turned-drag queen supremo Shane Richie to hear about the perils of not rehearsing in heels, leaving behind his ego, reconnecting with his children and being thankful for Alfie Moon

Shane Richie in Everybody's Talking About Jamie
Shane Richie in Everybody's Talking About Jamie Shane Richie in Everybody's Talking About Jamie

SHANE Richie says the pandemic has helped deflate his ego and brought him closer to his children, but after long months feeling "disconnected" from fans, he is now dragging out every joyful, flamboyant second on stage.

The soon-to-be 58-year-old plays drag queen Hugo/Loco Chanelle in West End hit, Everybody's Talking About Jamie - running at the Grand Opera House in Belfast this week - and during our chat it becomes clear that enforced seclusion had not diminished the actor's trademark cheeky-chappy brio.

In fact, Richie, best known for his EastEnders alter-ego Alfie Moon, was as loquacious as ever, cheerfully telling me he even missed talking to random shoppers in supermarkets during the great Covid close-down.

"I spend a lot of time around the general public and so I found it difficult, not getting out-and-about and just chatting to people," he says.

"I go to Morrison's and stand in the queue and talk to strangers, just because I love talking to people. When we started back with the Jamie tour again and saw the theatres filling up and saw how people were just buzzing, it was a real wake-up call. It was like, 'Wow,' how easy is it, to become disconnected from other people - and we were."

In another sense, though, the famous Cockney (who adopts a perfect Sheffield accent in the musical) believes he benefited from something akin to an existential crisis during lockdown by "re-evaluating" his life and re-connecting with his children.

"It kind of checked my ego, if I'm being honest," he reveals. "After doing this for 40 years, you kind of fall into a trap where the lines become blurred between what you do for a living and your personal life.

"Whether it's playing Alfie Moon, doing theatre, doing game shows, TV shows, whatever - you suddenly see it's not that important, so, in that regard, lockdown did me the world of good."

More than anything, he realised "what was important" with the lockdowns allowing him to re-set his inner clock and take life at a slower pace - playing board games with his children, taking a walk or just listening to music together.

"The pandemic made me realise how unimportant what I do for a living actually is," muses Richie, who finished fourth in the 2020 series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! at Gwrych Castle in north Wales.

"It's not that great a deal. All I am is an entertainer, but we're not essential and a lot of people who said they missed the theatre in lockdown found they could still exist without it," he says.

"When the theatres closed and when the entertainment industry shut down, the only ones who really cared were the people working in it."

It might have been a rare, introspective moment for the usually upbeat actor, comedian and father-of-five because now that he's back under the stage lights again, he is enthralled at all things theatrical, particularly at reprising his role as Jamie's (Layton Williams) mentor - despite a few hiccups with five-inch heels.

"The show's amazing," he enthuses, "and it was so great coming back for this second leg of the UK tour and seeing everyone again. We ran through everything and, you know, the muscle memory kicks in when you're singing songs and delivering the dialogue - but I forgot to put the heels on and practise walking in them, and my calves don't have muscle memory.

"First time I wore them was when I walked on stage and I was starting to have a panic attack. I was like a child taking its first steps; I was all over the place.

"I'm now twirling perfectly and high-kicking and all that, but on that first night, it was like someone had just planted me there and I was stuck to the floor.

"I didn't move and I could see people staring and going, 'What's the matter with him...?' So, the lesson is, always practise in your heels."

Shane Richie as Hugo in Everybody's Talking About Jamie, with Layton Williams as Jamie
Shane Richie as Hugo in Everybody's Talking About Jamie, with Layton Williams as Jamie Shane Richie as Hugo in Everybody's Talking About Jamie, with Layton Williams as Jamie

Inspired by a true story, Everybody's Talking About Jamie opened in 2017 in the West End (Richie also starred in the West End run) and tells the story of 16-year-old Jamie New who lives on a council estate in Sheffield and doesn't quite fit in.

"I think it's even more a story for our times now, but it's not about someone coming out and being gay," says the actor, who penned his own ups and downs in his Sunday Times best-seller Rags to Richie autobiography in 2003.

"It's about being different and celebrating people's differences.

"I see a joy in audiences coming back to the theatre; it's a different climate now and they - and us - are all just thankful to be here. And this show is liberating with its message, 'Be who you want to be'.

"There is a sense of, 'You know what, I might be a grown man, but I'm going to have my hair dyed, I'm going to have my ear pierced - I think that's what lockdown did; it made people determined to be who they want to be."

In his own case, Richie tends to follow that advice and, as well as acting, he is a keen musician with The Shane Richie Band, releasing A Country Soul album in 2017. Currently, he is considering an offer to perform in a play in India and, in keeping with his new work-life balance, wants to combine it with a bonding travel adventure "with my boy".

"Out of everything I've done, Everybody's Talking About Jamie is definitely one of my favourites shows," adds Richie, who "grew up around drag queens" when his Irish father ran clubs in London and some of the cabaret acts "turned up with drag queens".

"I also belonged to a youth theatre as a teenager and one of the directors, a lovely Welsh director, would occasionally dress up in drag," he recalls.

"And, as a comic, I toured in a show called Shane Richie's Ladies' Night Out when I was 18 or 19 and it had two drag queens and three strippers... perhaps I was born to play Loco Chanelle. I've gone from being Alfie Moon straight into drag – it was a big jump, but I love surprising people."

So, I have to ask, where is Alfie Moon? (last seen on EastEnders in January, 2019, current whereabouts unknown...).

"He's working as a drag queen in Benidorm," comes the wisecrack reply.

"I've really no idea, perhaps he might still be running a bar in Spain... It's hard to shake off the Alfie persona, but during the lockdown, when I saw everyone struggling to find work, my missus said to me, 'If you're going to be remembered for one thing, that's great - and if it's Alfie Moon on my headstone, then I'm proud of that."

Everybody's Talking About Jamie runs at the Grand Opera House in Belfast until Saturday March 12, goh.co.uk.

Shane Richie an his Everybody's Talking About Jamie alter ego Loco Chanelle
Shane Richie an his Everybody's Talking About Jamie alter ego Loco Chanelle Shane Richie an his Everybody's Talking About Jamie alter ego Loco Chanelle