Glitzy musical Evita comes to Newcastle

Jun 22 2009 by Barbara Hodgson, The Journal

SOMETIMES life can throw you a wild card – and new possibilities suddenly open up. That’s what happened to Seamus Cullen, whose chance visit to a London blues bar proved a turning point.

Until then, Cullen’s whole working career had been in sales and marketing and singing was very much in the background.

Now the opposite is true: Evita fans will see the 37-year-old playing Che Guevara alongside Rachael Wooding’s Eva Perón in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s hit musical which opens its two-week run at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle, tonight.

Cullen, recalling that turning point – about 10 years ago now – explains how he was working nine to five at the time in an events company in the capital.

He says: “I’d gone into the office on a Sunday to do some work and a university friend of mine called to say he was in a blues bar around the corner and to come for a drink.

“I ended up going and we were there until the wee hours and got very drunk!

“The next day I went back to say thank you to the owner who’d bought us loads of drinks – we’d had a wonderful time. He wasn’t there but I saw a sign saying they had jamming sessions on a Monday night.”

So along he went. He ended up joining in – “I sang a few songs” – and loved the reaction. It was then he questioned his career.

Seamus says: “I just thought, what am I doing?”

And once that answer came to Cullen, who was born in the US to Irish parents, his career move finally brought him to the attention of the viewing nation when he appeared on BBC talent-seeking show Any Dream Will Do. There he reached the final 10 in Lloyd Webber’s hunt for the next musical star of Joseph.

Much mention was made of the fact that, at 35, he was the oldest contestant in the competition, which was finally won by Lee Mead.