West End Wicked Vet Oliver Tompsett on Why Rock of Ages Is the Most Challenging Musical Ever

Oliver Tompsett made his West End debut in the Madness musical Our House before moving on to Mamma Mia! and a long run as Fiyero in Wicked. The engaging 30-year-old is now getting the vocal workout of his career as aspiring rock god Drew in Rock of Ages, the ’80s-themed musical at the Shaftesbury Theatre. Broadway.com spoke to Tompsett early in the run about the vocal chops his new role requires, sharing the stage with theater first-timer Shayne Ward and cultivating the long, black curls necessary for the part.

Your current look is perfect for the big-haired 1980s era that Rock of Ages is all about!
Yeah, my hair is fairly long, and I’ve got an additional piece that gives me a bit more of the ’80s rocker look; I’d show it to you but someone’s upstairs perming it at the moment so that it’s curly enough to match my actual hair [laughs].

Full, flowing locks are one thing, but what about the musical requirements of this role?
I’m singing songs by Twisted Sister, Journey and a lot more, and all of it is just in-your-face rock. For me, it’s been about learning to put that vocal distortion on top of a high tenor sound; it’s been a massive learning curve but something that I’ve taken to very well, I think.

I would think the vocal demands of this part are pretty new to you.
This is the most demanding singing role that I’ve ever known in musical theater. You can’t get away with singing back on a nice “mix-y” falsetto, as in Jersey Boys. There’s also none of that sort of poppy sound, where you’re allowed to riff around or run off on a note or fade out. It’s more the continuous top notes that you have to hit: You’re constantly on Bs and Cs and you flick up to, like, an E-flat. This is serious stuff.

Pretty different, then, from Fiyero in Wicked.
It’s completely the opposite! Fiyero is a romantic Prince Charming role, and this is just in-your-face rude stuff. Compared to [playing Drew], that was a cough and a sneeze; they’re not really comparable. What’s interesting is that I’ve always been drawn to singing rock and pop more than the theater side of music but, maybe because of the way I look, people have always thought of me as the Fiyeros and the romantic Tonys in West Side Story; the rock stuff tended to go to the edgier-looking guys, even though I knew that when it came to this show, it was about having the combination of experience and range and comic timing so you automatically think, “Maybe I have a chance.”

So, how did this part come your way?
It was first and foremost about finding a guy who had the range to do it, and that’s always been one of my strong points: having a high, high register. But there were some pretty amazing people who I first heard at the auditions, so I have to say that I was very, very chuffed [pleased] when I got offered the role.

What’s your take on the character of Drew?
He’s a guy who wants to be a rock star but has too much inhibition and doesn’t quite know how to unleash it; he’s quite a shy fella. Then he bumps into a girl called Sherrie [Amy Pemberton] who has moved to L.A. to become an actress, and she’s totally the opposite: She’s got the ballsiness to go out there and get it, so she helps him find his inner rock god and they start to fall for each other. She ends up with the bad boy, Stacee Jaxx, who already is a rock star, so there’s a load of miscommunication before they eventually find each other again. It’s about Drew and Sherrie forgiving all the baggage and realizing that they are soulmates.

You mention Stacee Jaxx, who is played by Shayne Ward, a rock and pop person with scant theater experience. He is pretty much the antithesis to you, in career terms .
Yes, but Shayne came in and worked so hard and surprised all of us. I mean, we all knew he could sing, but we didn’t know he could embrace the character side of it. He’s done such an incredible job and has worked harder than anybody else.

You’ve been in London versions of New York hits before, notably Wicked, so did this feel familiar from that point of view?
Well, Wicked had such a big buzz about it over here. It was so much about the fantastic score and the imagery of this green girl and, of course, Idina Menzel, who is musical theater royalty and was coming to open the show in London. It felt as if anyone who had an ounce of theater interest was going to come and see that show. This one maybe scares away some of the theater folk, but it embraces people who maybe wouldn’t normally go and see theater. Rock of Ages feels to me like a word-of-mouth musical where people will tell their friends about it and send them along.

How much of the material of this show did you already know?
I grew up listening to a lot of it on VH1, so the majority of the songs I already knew. My brother, who’s a bit older than me, listened to a lot of Prince and Elton John, and I just remember VH1 being on all the time. And because I had a high register and a high tenor, it was clear that the best songs for me to sing were from the 1980s. They don’t write them like that anymore and not many people sing like that anymore; it’s almost considered to be not very masculine to sing that way—or it was in the ’90s.

How are you handling a performance schedule that includes back-to-back shows on Friday, with scarcely any time in between?
That’s the toughest! I remember the first one: We were on stage doing the finale, “Don’t Stop Believin’,” and there they were, calling our half-hour offstage in preparation for the next show. I got up to my dressing room and they were calling the quarter, so it was like,  “OK, change the T-shirt and back downstairs!” It’s like doing a four-act play, but you just carry on through.