The iconic film Pretty Woman hits the stage as Pretty Woman The Musical on a tour which takes it to Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre from July 22-27.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Really lovely
00:07today to speak to Ori Aduba, who is on the road with Pretty Woman. Now, that is fabulously
00:12exciting in itself. And what was so interesting, you were saying just now, part of the process
00:18of staging this was you were told to go back and watch the movie. What was that like to
00:22watch that movie?
00:23I mean, it's a different thing watching a movie, knowing that you're going to be in
00:28the stage adaptation of it. It's one thing being just a person watching a movie and enjoying
00:37it and another trying to get inspiration from it. The movie is iconic, it's a classic, and
00:45it was one of the biggest rom-coms of the 80s, of recent times. So it's not a hard sell.
00:55We were definitely very excited to go back and watch Pretty Woman as part of our research
01:01material. And what's great is now putting it on its feet on stage, is we have the same
01:09energy from people who loved the movie. And, you know, 35 years later, we're able to kind
01:16of bring that to life today and people are just as hyped. So yeah, it's been wonderful.
01:21It sounds a lovely prospect. And the key thing when you distill it then, you were saying
01:25that you've got to think of this as a fairy tale. That's what it is, isn't it?
01:29Yeah, this is a story. I mean, it was set in 1980s, 89. It's a story of a woman who
01:38finds herself in one place in her life and dreams of being in another. You know, we're
01:42lucky when a show and the story has been so well loved over so many years, that everyone
01:50is already excited to see it. We get to add all the magic dust and the bells and the whistles
01:54and we get to bring it to life. So yeah, my character, Happy Man, I play two characters
02:02at least. That's what we're billing anyway. And then there might be a few surprises to
02:06come when people come and watch the show. But my character as Happy Man, his role is
02:12to kind of sprinkle the magic dust on Vivian's journey. And everybody loves to see a fairy
02:17tale and see a happy ending.
02:20What a fabulous character to play, Happy Man.
02:23It is a fabulous character to play. Yeah, there is a lot of room for having fun. And
02:31actually, you know, as a performer, to contrast that to the Mr Thompson character, who is
02:37a very straight laced, very conservative guy, it's a real contrast. And so that's a real
02:47joy of a challenge to play every night.
02:49And obviously, when a film is becoming a musical, you think, how on earth can they turn that
02:54into a musical? And obviously, the key is the music. Tell me something about the music
02:57in this. What have we got?
02:59Well, we have a brand new score written by Brian Adams and Jim Vallance. The two of them
03:07have worked together for decades. And they're an iconic pair. So yeah, we get to, you know,
03:16bring this kind of brand new pop rock soundtrack to life. And it really does, it just really
03:24complements the story beautifully. I mean, you know, from what I'm told, Brian and Jim
03:31were part of this process going back for a really, really long time, and fused the music,
03:36wrote the music perfectly to sit with this age old story. So yeah, it's a lot of fun.
03:43It's a great thing. But only yesterday, I went to the gym, and my Spotify turned on
03:48music from Pretty Woman. I mean, it's good. The algorithm, they know what I'm doing. And
03:55I was quite happily in the gym, singing our own songs. So hopefully, the audience who
04:01come to watch us will be doing exactly the same thing on their way out.
04:04Fantastic. Well, it sounds a truly lovely prospect, and really lovely to speak to you
04:09too. Thank you very much indeed.
04:10You too, Phil. Cheers.