Starter For 10: Tom Rasmussen, Hatty Carman and Mel Giedroyc on their new musical for Bristol Old Vic
Exclusive: "The story isn't at its heart queer and it's the first piece of work I've ever made that's not linked to that," says Tom. "We're now writing about straight people, which is really how it should be"
By Simon Button
Non-binary and queer writers Tom Rasmussen and Hatty Carman are collectively best known as the founding members of the band Thigh High, whose music Tom describes as “pop punk opera, among many things”. So the duo (whose pronouns are they/them and she/her) never expected to be scoring a mainstream musical about a straight student competing on University Challenge.
But it turns out the show’s writer-director Charlie Parham and co-writer Emma Hall, who have adapted David Nicholls’ bestseller for the stage, were big Thigh High fans. And Hatty doesn’t feel the team-up, which see her and Tom providing the music and collaborating with Charlie amd Emma on the lyrics.
“With Thigh High we were on the underground London queer punk scene,” she notes, “and because it was this sort of intergalactic opera punk thing it was always quite inherently theatrical. So I think Emma and Charlie could see that our writing style maybe would lend itself to theatre.”
Tom relishes the challenge, saying: “What’s interesting is that actually the story isn’t at its heart queer and it’s the first piece of work I’ve ever made that’s not about something linked to that. We’re now writing about straight people, which is really how it should be.” They smile. “I think we’ve got a much better view on straight people than they have on us.”
Hatty chimes in with: “Musical theatre is obviously embedded in the queer community. We’ve had real fun digging into these characters who in some cases love musical theatre. There’s a campness that we’ve brought to it and a sort of fun that maybe has come from our queer culture and our queer roots – not taking itself too seriously, laughing at yourself and encouraging others to laugh at themselves.”
And she feels the straight-skewing story will resonate for queer audiences. “The lead character is a straight man but he’s also working class, so it’s about a struggle to fit in. He’s going to quite a prestigious university and attempting to find his people, if you like. That is something that we relate to as queer people.”
Rasmussen and Carman have been a creative team since the early 2000s, when they met through mutual contacts and started the band. Doing mainstream musical theatre wasn’t on either of their wish lists. “Because we sort of fell into this by mistake,” Hatty says, “there’s a freshness with us and our creative process. It’s like a new vessel for us to write our songs.”
The score they’ve written is very 80s in its synth lines and drum rhythms. There’s a character in it called Alice who adores musical theatre, so she has a couple of typical stage numbers. But elsewhere it’s a mix of traditional musical theatre styles and pop, with an eclectic roster of inspirations including The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Kate Bush, The Cocteau Twins, Erasure, Depeche Mode, Strawberry Switchblade and the Beastie Boys.
Sonically it’s very true to the mid-80s era in which 18-year-old Brian leaves Southend for his first year at Bristol University with the endgame of getting on the highbrow TV quiz show. What follows is billed as “a coming-of-age comedy about love, belonging and the all-important difference between knowledge and wisdom”.
Tom and Hatty have enjoyed the four-way collaboration with Charlie and Emma. “It’s been a really rich process,” Tom says. “We push them, they push us. We’ve had some unbelievable fights over the most stupid lyric, like ‘syzygy’ versus ‘garlic’. There have been ridiculous fights where people have to leave the Zoom session or walk out of the room, then we come back and its all good. The conflict drives the process and it’s been a real pleasure.”
Rasmussen agrees there are similarities between Brian’s journey and their own. “Hatty and I are both from regional towns and we didn’t necessarily fit in. Then when we both went to university we also didn’t really feel like we fit in there. In that process of leaving home and growing up, sometimes you can become quite self-obsessed. Basically that’s the journey of the lead character, who is really desperate to make his mark, to be seen and known and understood. What he realises by the end of the show is that the way to be seen and known and understood is to not have people know your name but it’s to have people who are your community. It might be a cheesy thing to say but it’s all about the people you meet along the way.”
With it being set in the Thatcherite era, Hatty believes: “It’s an anti-individualism story in that it’s about if you fail then we fail together. It’s not about one person. So many stories are about one person’s fight to shine alone and win or to overcome something. This story is about how actually that doesn’t feel that great and maybe it will feel better if we’re all shining together.”
The premiere production of the musical is playing at Bristol Old Vic from 29 February with a cast that includes Adam Bregman as Brian and Robert Portal as legendary University Challenge quizmaster Bamber Gascoigne. Also featured is Mel Giedroyc as Brian’s mum Irene.
The Surrey-born, Leatherhead-raised actress, comedian and mother-of-two says of the character: “Her parenting style is something I recognise as it’s very similar to my own.” How so? “It’s a real relationship, full of love, humour and teasing, but it’s not rose-tinted and it’s complicated and occasionally scratchy between them. He can disappoint her and they have huge a capacity to hurt each other. For Irene, this story is about kids leaving home and that heart-breaking moment in life when they finally leave, although you also suddenly realise that you finally have some space and time for yourself.”
Me’s theatre credits include the Sondheim musical Company as well as Eurobeat, Much Ado About Nothing, Luce, New Boy and several pantos. She said yes to Starter for Ten because: “To have the chance to be part of a brand-new British musical is such a privilege. I obviously knew David’s book and read it years ago. It has so much heart and oh my word, to have the chance to revisit the 80s, who wouldn’t want to do that?”
Now 55, she laughs. “I’m the oldie in the company. The cast have an average age of about 25 so the energy is off the scale in the rehearsal room. Just keeping up with them is a full-time job but inspirational at the same time. I am full of admiration daily.”
Mel is equally impressed with Tom and Hatty’s music for the show. “When they talked us through their inspiration for the music on our first day of rehearsal and explained how natural it felt to move from punk songs with really rich characters and stories to the world of musical theatre, it all made total sense. They’ve also dived straight into the 80s, which is just thrilling for me. It’s all original music but if you listen to the songs you can hear the influence of bands like The Smiths, The Cure and Bronski Beat. The music is so clever and the storytelling and humour in the lyrics are incredible.”
Asked how she’d fare on University Challenge herself, Mel says: “Well, I went on Celebrity Weakest Link once and Anne Robinson asked me ‘What is the bird with a red breast that is associated with Christmas?’ I went blank. Couldn’t answer. So I can’t think of a worse contestant on University Challenge than me, to be honest.” Another laugh. “Unless all the questions were Eurovision-themed.”
Starter for Ten is at Bristol Old Vic from 29 February to 30 March. Get tickets here.