My Week - OK Magazine - January 2001
After an eight month break from the limelight, Adam Rickitt started rehearsals last week for his starring role in the first ever touring production of Rent. The 22-year-old star who played Nicky Tilsley in Coronation Street for 18 months before leaving to launch a pop career, says he's glad to get back to acting. "I've found the pop music business quite hollow," says Adam, who had a top five hit with I Breathe Again. However, enthusiastic Adam who says he "loves working hard", told Julia Davis that he has been struggling to cope with the early mornings....
"I've been staying with my parents for the past few months and on Saturday, I said goodbye to them and warned them that I might not see them for a few months. I drove to London and checked into a hotel for the night, then on Sunday morning, I did a live interview on T4. It was freaky getting back into the early mornings.
I drove to Leicester on Sunday afternoon and moved into the house I'm renting for the next six weeks. We have a few weeks of rehearsals here before the first show at the Leicester Haymarket on February 9.
We started rehearsals on Monday and I was more daunted about that than I was about the idea of being on stage in front of an audience.
It's such a respected play and it's got the cream of the West End actors in it. I came down here as a complete rookie and they've all been doing it for years - I didn't want to look like a fool, but they were all nice and put me at ease. I play Mark, one of the two lead roles in Rent, which is about a group of artists living in New York.
I'd never thought too much about doing musical theatre and then I got asked if I would do the part. I wasn't sure so they flew me out to New York to watch it and it took my breath away. You expect to be tapping you foot and humming the tunes but it really does grab the audience. It's so transfixing that I instantly said yes.
There isn't much time to rehearse, so on Tuesday we got straight down to it. We all sat round the piano and started figuring out the harmonies. You have to almost relearn how to sing when you're starring in musicals because ,when you're doing eight shows a week, you can't sing in your normal voice as it will give out after a while. I had to get some training in how to sing in such a way that you still belt out the songs but you don't kill your vocal chords.
On Wednesday I did some press for the local papers and radio stations and we started rehearsing solos and duets.
By Thursday we'd decided it was time for us all to go out to do some cast bonding. We had an excellent night - all the people in the show are friendly and easy to get on with.
I had a talk with my agent on Friday about everything I'm doing this year. I'll be in Rent till at least July, but I'm also starring in an episode of the BBC series Doctors next month. I've also been offered the lead part in a film about Alexander the Great in America. I'm glad to be getting back into acting, but I won't be going back to Corrie. It was a great job, but I want to pursue other acting projects now.
