The X Factor Winner Matt Cardle on 'F**king Going For It' in London's Memphis

Hockadoo! Memphis the Musical has a new leading man. The West End incarnation of the Tony-winning Broadway hit recently welcomed stage first-timer Matt Cardle to the cast, playing radio DJ Huey Calhoun opposite soul singer and Olivier nominee Beverley Knight as club singer Felicia Farrell. Having come to fame in Britain for winning the seventh season of The X Factor, Cardle has replaced Killian Donnelly in the production at the Shaftesbury Theatre. The genial star spoke to Broadway.com about treading the boards—and learning lines—for the very first time.

How did your new theatrical life come about—and Memphis in particular?
Doing theater had never crossed my mind! I loved it but it wasn’t on my radar. I had never acted before and it wasn’t something that I thought I would be able to do in the future. But having finished [The X Factor] and been halfway through album number four, my manager called me and said that he had just had Beverley [Knight] on the phone to say that they were looking for a new Huey in Memphis and would I be interested?

Were you?
In fact, I’d been down to audition for another show in town and things didn’t get very far with that one so I went along and saw Memphis and instantly fell in love with it, as everyone who sees the show does. I was watching Bev very closely, and Killian [Donnelly], and then one thing led to another. It was a case of, I love the show and I had come down and read through the script with the resident director, Tara Wilkinson, and I spoke to my mum and decided that it would be rude not to give it a go.

In what way “rude?”
Inasmuch as Beverley is such a lovely woman and it was a huge honor to be thought of for something like this, given that I had never in my life picked up a script or ever learned a line!

That is amazing, alongside the challenge of playing Huey, who is from an entirely different country and culture.
The challenges were coming thick and fast, literally one after the other. First, there was the American accent, and I thought, right, I’ve messed around with accents my entire life but this was the deep south so I had to swerve around that one but I think I managed to do OK.

Not to mention tackling a sizable part that brought both Tony and Olivier nominations for its Broadway and West End originators.
My dresser told me I’m only ever offstage for 11 minutes, and that time is spent running underneath the stage at full pelt or doing the quickest costume change, sometimes with only 15 seconds or less to spare. There’s no time to sit and think about how things are going, which is good [laughs].

How did you actually learn the part?
I was watching the show on DVD twice a day and when I went to bed, I would have an audio of the show on my bedside table filtering into my subconscious. I lived and breathed Memphis before we started and then we had three weeks of intense rehearsal. It was like, “Where do I stand? What do I say? How do I say it?” And then, on top of all that, acting with props.

Talk about a baptism by fire.
I was like, bloody hell. I’m not so much a fish out of water as a goldfish that had landed on the carpet [laughs].

At least you only do a seven-show week so you have that eighth show off to catch your breath...or watch from the audience.
I get Wednesday afternoon off, but I’m more likely to be lying in bed!

What do you think about those who complain that reality TV show alumni are getting cast in musicals over drama students who would give their eye teeth to star in the West End?
I would say the same thing in their position! These roles aren’t easy to come by, and people who go to drama school train for years for this kind of thing. So I would not only empathize with their point of view, I would apologize to these people if the reports were coming back that I was rubbish but I think I’m holding my own at the moment. I hope so, anyway!

Did your predecessor Killian [Donnelly] give you any advice?
He just said, “You gotta f**king go for it!” It’s one of those roles where there’s no point thinking too hard about it. You’ve got to know what you’ve got to do.

And of course the material addresses some major themes, beginning with racism in the United States.
What I love about the show is that it manages to deal with these issues and to get the message across while also being consistently entertaining. But there are also two or three moments—more than that, actually—where the message comes and stabs you in the gut. There’s no messing about.

Had you seen many West End musicals prior to being in this one?
Not really. I saw Tommy a long time ago and Les Miz, and I saw Shrek, but I have to say that I was genuinely blown away by Memphis and thought it was just incredible. If I had thought there was no f**king way, I wouldn’t have done it, but I did think there was a slim chance I could pull it off.

Now that you’re up and running in this, are you keen to make musical theater an ongoing part of your career?
I’ve been given the golden egg here, as you can understand. This is one of the best companies, the best casts, the best shows—these roles don’t come around very often so now that I’ve got this, I’m not looking any further than tonight’s show or tomorrow night’s show.

So we’re not going to see you donning a cat suit alongside Beverley [as Grizabella] when Cats returns to the West End later this year?
I don’t think so but you never know. I never thought I’d be standing on a stage saying “hockadoo!”

Do you even know what that word means?
I don’t think anybody knows what it means!