Hattie Curl speaks to Mark Newnham, the actor playing Dave ‘the rave’ Davies in the hugely popular musical, Sunny Afternoon, as it continues on its epic UK tour
The Sunny Afternoon Tour has been underway since August, and with its conclusion thankfully not coming until May 2017, the cast are certainly being put through their paces. The West End show was the winner of the 2015 Laurence Olivier award for 'Best New Musical' and has received high critical acclaim. The story is set against the background of political and social change in the 1960s, and examines the early years of legendary British band The Kinks.
Even though he has been on the road performing 8 shows a week since the summer, Mark Newnham (playing lead guitarist and occasional vocalist Dave 'the rave' Davies) is in incredibly high spirits when I talk to him on the phone, excitedly explaining how they have been really lucky, packing out houses everywhere they go.
“Everyone seems really up for it. They’ve got their clapping hands and singing mouths on. It’s great, you get a good buzz back from the audience, which helps us because it’s quite an energetic show, so it makes a huge difference when the audience are getting into it.”
This has been Newnham’s favourite show to date, as he explains, “Ray Davies is the poet laureate of rock and roll. His words are so moving and songs like You Really Got Me are so exciting, visceral and angsty, I think that they still resonate. It’s brilliant, because every time I pick up the guitar and plays the opening chords [at this point he excitedly shouted the opening chords to You Really Got Me down the phone] I know I'm about to have great fun, especially in the funky costumes of the 60s."
Owing to the show's musical nature, all of the performers play their instruments live onstage during each song. Newnham first started to learn how to play guitar after one of his mates at school asked him to be the lead singer for a band. The only glitch was that he didn’t know how to play guitar, and his friend desperately wanted him to be able to for this band.
Luckily, this wasn’t a problem for Newnham, as his family were in the music industry themselves. “Both my parents are musicians, so I went back to them and said ‘hey, mum, can you buy me a guitar?’ and they both jumped and said ‘yes, we’ve been wanting you to get an instrument under your belt for ages!’ So they went out and bought me a guitar the next day.” And from then on he’s never looked back.
Growing up in such a musical household meant that Newnham developed a passion for music from an early age, enjoying everything from classical to rock. “I’m a 90s boy,” he explains, “So I grew up listening to Blur. Damon Albarn is sort of my hero. Blur and Radiohead, all sorts of stuff like that, that’s my bag really.”
With the important role of the flamboyant Dave Davies to play in this show, Mark clearly enjoys the experience as there are lots of comedy lines and a whole plethora of swearwords, making the whole audience laugh. “I think that’s a good pride buzz for my mum and dad” he observes.
Having performed the role hundreds of times already, and with well over double the amount of performances left, many might find it a challenge to keep the part fresh and maintain passion for the role. However, as Newnham strongly asserts, he is still finding new things every night in his exploration of his character.
He’s not doing it for himself though; rather he is doing it to keep the show fresh for everybody else onstage. He tries to affect his fellow actors with his lines and keep his performance exciting for them, which in turn will have a catalyst effect and ensure everyone, including the audience, is fully excited and engaged. “It’s like spinning plates. Keep spinning it and mixing it up and changing it slightly every night.”
The show finishes with quite the finalé, and as Newnham explains “My favourite part of the show is the ending. Wait I don’t mean it like that!" he jokes. "There’s a lovely little moment where we play Waterloo Sunset at the end and it’s a nice culmination of the band. They’re kind of getting back together and putting all their differences aside and just getting back to playing music how they did when they were young boys.”
He goes on to describe, “it’s just a really nice moment when they’re inventing the song in front of you and it has a real nice poignancy, plus it’s one of the most Kinks songs going, so it’s fun to play.”
As Mark summarises, "With the combination of great music and if I do say so myself, some phenomenal acting, there really is a great vibe to this show that gives the audience a wholly encompassing feeling of the band and its social context." I'm certainly looking forward to a Kinks themed boogie at the New Victoria Theatre come November.
Sunny Afternoon is playing at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking November 1-5. For tickets visit atgtickets.com
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