Matthew Seadon-Young on Playing Gerry Goffin in London's Beautiful, the Art of Taking Over a Role & Not Doing Side Show with His Brother

Matthew Seadon-Young's London musical credits include Billy Elliot, Urinetown and Les Miserables and now the ebullient performer is playing the American lyricist (and onetime husband of Carole King) Gerry Goffin in Beautiful at the Aldwych Theatre. A relatively new recruit to a production heading into its third year in the West End, Seadon-Young took time recently to talk about the great American songbook, performing at the Oscars and what it's like having an older brother who is in the exact same profession.

How does it feel to be part of Beautiful in London?
It feels good. I remember years ago being in the car with my mum listening to various tapes and one of them was "Take Good Care of My Baby" [written by King and Goffin] and thinking, "Those songs were just so big," and now I get to live with them eight times a week.

Did you know the show before you took over in it?
The first time I saw it, I had a friend—Andy Coxon—who was understudying [songwriter] Barry Mann, and me and a bunch of friends came to support him. I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy the show all that much but came away thinking, "That was a very classy show and so well put together—what about trying to get me in for an audition!"

Did you get one?
It wasn't available at the time. What later happened was that my brother, David, had gone in to audition for Beautiful, and then he got another job, so he couldn't do it and I thought it might be worth going in myself. I found myself attracted to the part of Gerry—something about the story made me feel I was connected to him.

Did it feel like a bit of a slow burn then as far as landing the role?
A slow burn that got hot very quickly! The last few weeks all happened so quickly—all of a sudden, there I was on the Aldwych stage. 

Did you have any reservations about taking over a role originated by someone else?
I've done [takeovers] a couple of times now, first with Les Miz and then with Billy Elliot, and there's always that aspect of just retracing someone else's footsteps and the various marks that you have to hit—the lighting cues and all that sort of thing. At the same time, I very much feel that the thoughts that get you there with any role are inevitably your own, so even though you may have seen another actor do the part, you're still reaching the character's thoughts and words for yourself. So, while there are some rules that you do have to follow, ultimately you have the freedom of your own discovery of the role and your own way into those thoughts. 

What is it like representing onstage someone who was very much alive until quite recently [Goffin died in June 2014]?
My feeling about that is that I am not physically embodying Gerry as much as I am trying to help the audience understand what he was going through, so that they can empathize with his choices because it would be very easy to make Gerry unlikable simply because of some of the choices he made and the things that he said. I think I'm there to make the audience see that when Gerry says some of these things, he isn't actually himself and he has these various issues. It's about people knowing that he isn't a bad guy, but, in fact, a good guy who made mistakes. 

Isn't the challenge in the piece that Gerry has to be seen to move aside in order for Carole to shine? 
Absolutely but the point is that Carole's journey wouldn't be so good in this show without Gerry: he may get chucked aside at the end, but if that didn't happen then we wouldn't love Carole as much as we do. I think you need to see both characters and the journeys they take. 

Were you at all apprehensive only because you couldn't check your performance against personal experience of the man himself?
That's true, but I feel like what I do is take the words I am given and try to be truthful to those words and to what the character's going through. If you do the right sort of research for the issues Gerry was having—his nervous breakdown, for instance—then with any luck you are doing this human being justice. It's about getting people to understand what Gerry was going through as opposed to trying to be like him or not to be like him. 

Did your predecessor, Alan Morrissey, offer any advice? 
Alan was lovely! As soon as it was announced that I was coming into the show at the end of November, he sent me something on social media saying, "If I can help with anything transition-wise, I'm more than happy to help. He also gave me a bottle of Gerry's favorite whiskey and a Texas Hold’em poker set: there's a brilliant scene in the show in Vermont where the four characters are playing poker, so that was a really nice thoughtful gift. He also sent me a lovely good luck card. I'd love it if he comes to watch the show, so we can talk about the character; maybe if he's reading this, he will come see [Beautiful], and we can go for a drink.

Was it fun performing at the Oscars in 2013?
We were out there for eight days all told but I can't say it was all that glamorous, unfortunately. What was great was that I got to tell [host] Seth [MacFarlane] how much I love him and I could do the crazy fan thing, and it was incredible to be there as part of the Les Miz segment and on a stage with Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway and Eddie Redmayne. [Brother] Dave was part of it as well, and if you look online there's loads of footage of him standing right behind Eddie Redmayne!

What is it like having a brother so near to you in age [the siblings are one school year apart] who is in the same profession? 
Well, it might not sound like it, but the last thing it is is competitive. We're actually very different performers and have very different casting brackets. Six years ago, for instance, I went up for Les Miz as my first job out of college and I got it, and he missed out. It may sound like I'm bragging that I got the part and he didn't, but since that time, the only other role we've both gone up for was Gerry, and that was at two separate times. When Assassins came up at the Menier, that was one of my favorite musicals of all time, but I couldn't do it because I was in Urinetown on the West End, so Dave got the part and then while he was doing Assassins, I got a job in Sweeney Todd, which is one of his favorite musicals. So, he ended up being in one of my favorite shows just as I ended up in one of his. He's coming up soon on the West End in An American in Paris.

Have the two of you ever thought of appearing together in a show?
There was something put out on Twitter nominating Dave and me to play the two leads in Side Show, but Dave didn't know the show and phoned me up and said, "Could we play those roles?" and I said, "No, Dave, they're female—it was a joke." 

Are you both finding there's enough work out there to go around?
There seems to be, knock wood, but when I'm not working, I do construction work as a welder-fabricator helping build film sets, which is what my dad does: he was production coordinator on [the film of] Les Miz. It's at moments like this that I want to thank Nigel, Sid and the boys because they are the guys I work with in construction, and whenever I finish a theater job I go back and work for them. It's great, really, I couldn't ask for more: when I get a job, they let me go off but they embrace me when I finish and come back to work with them.