FOUR stars of London’s West End will be coming to Kuala Lumpur for a one-night-only performance of Stars of the West End Sing the Rock Musicals on April 28 at 8pm.
The four – Shona Lindsay, Carole Stennett, Ricardo Afonso, and Mike Sterling – will be performing a medley of favourite anthems from musicals in which they were the leads.
These include iconic songs from smash-hit musicals like We Will Rock You, Thriller – Live , The Bodyguard, Tina: The Musical, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Dreamgirls and Motown: The Musical.
Produced and presented by the British Theatre Playhouse in association with Worldwide Entertainment, Stars of the West End Sing the Rock Musicals will be staged at the Sunway Hotel, Resort & Spa’s Grand Ballroom.
As an added bonus for the Malaysian audience, the show will also feature songs from The Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables, which will be performed by Sterling and Lindsay, the two leads of the current run of the West End production of The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London.
Sterling has enjoyed a long and illustrious career playing many iconic roles on stage, including the leading roles of The Phantom – in which he has performed over 1,000 times at Her Majesty’s Theatre – as well as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables.
His portrayal of both roles has earned him international acclaim.
He has even taken on other roles from those two productions, including Raoul (The Phantom of the Opera) and Marius (Les Misérables).
Other notable roles include a turn as Juan Perón in Evita, and in 2008, he took on the role of Fagin in the Chinese premiere of Lionel Bart’s Oliver! at the PLA Opera House in Beijing.
He also took part in the 10th and 25th Les Misérables Anniversary Concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1995 and O2 Arena in 2010 respectively, and has toured with his own Mike Sterling in Concert show repeatedly.
Sterling has over 30 years of performing experience across West End theatre, television, radio, classical stage and recording.
He has also shared the stage with a number of legendary artistes, calling those performances memorable moments.
“Performing alongside Dame Shirley Bassey, Eric Clapton, Barry Manilow, Michael Ball, and Engelbert Humperdinck were fantastic experiences, especially as a lot of those names were within the same performance at the Royal Albert Hall,” Sterling said in an email interview.
He also talked about the many roles he has taken on over the years, and his career highlights.
Asked his favourite role to date, he said: “My favourite has to be Fagin in Oliver!. By far the most colourful role with many sides and complications.”
Fagin was a wily villain in the original book the play is based on, as well as in every stage depiction of him thus far.
How does Sterling play a character like that, who is both nasty and funny at the same time?
“Just play it with the honesty of the respective emotion in the journey he is taking,” Sterling said.
“I never played Fagin for laughs; the humour for my direction with this character actually came from the darker side and vice versa.
“He was extremely clever and hyper-intelligent.”
As for his most frequent musical, The Phantom of the Opera, Sterling has played the roles of both the men vying for the love of the naive Christine, but in different ways over his many performances.
He said: “Raoul was, of course, more grounded, given his background, but meets quite a harrowing world when dealing with The Phantom, and the effect he had on Christine.
“The Phantom uses a myriad of emotional layers, all of which have their own unique effect and result. [Playing] The Phantom internally challenges the deepest of actors.”
Sterling added that he actually played both roles within the same week for about six months in one production run: four performances as The Phantom and four performances as Raoul.
The actor also revealed how he was asked to go on as The Phantom for the first time just 20 minutes before curtain-up.
He was playing Raoul at that time.
That performance turned out to be his most memorable moment on stage.
“Of course, having never played [The Phantom before that] at all, it was a bit overwhelming,” he recalled.
“But I remember eventually it becoming a very emotionally-driven and exciting performance for me, one which I don’t think has been equalled since.”
Asked if other actor or performer, especially those who had done a role before him, influenced his acting, Sterling said: “I take the thought process and vocal line as if it has never been performed before.”
He added that he does like to listen to and admire certain performances of roles he has played.
“Some initially were quite inspirational to me and gave me the drive to do it – but in my own way.”
Sterling stressed that “it has to be this way as an actor, in order for [the performance] to be an honest and original portrayal”.
For more, visit the British Theatre Playhouse website.
