2 days Ago
Joe Alessi is reflecting on the special relationship he has had with the Royal Exchange over the years. The Accrington-born actor is currently appearing in the musical Spend Spend Spend at the famous Manchester venue. “I’m so proud to be back in this theatre,” he said.
“It’s really where it all began for me. It would be 1985 or 86 and I was brought to see Edward II directed by Nicholas Hytner with Ian McDiarmid, Michael Grandage and Iain Glen - these incredible actors. I couldn’t believe what I’d seen.
It was so crystal clear and so beautifully done. I knew then this was what I wanted to do. Joe Alessi “Cut to however many years later and I ended up getting my first job here and now I’ve been back eight or nine times since.
This theatre really is one of those special places. The whole building is geared towards the show. It feels like an extended family.
” Joe’s career has seen him perform in the West End and on Broadway as well as enjoying numerous roles on TV including Coronation Street paedophile Kel Hinchley. Not bad for the tailor’s son from Accrington. “Initially I had no idea about making acting my career,” he said.
“I worked in Blackburn in the menswear shop Lord John where I started off as a sales assistant and ended up becoming the manager. “My assistant manager Julie and her mum Maureen were both involved in Blackburn Arts Club and Maureen kept inviting me down. I wasn’t interested but then she got me by saying the classic line, ‘there’s lots of girls there’.
“I really enjoyed it and they kept telling me I was very good and should look at taking it further. “Unlike most of my mates at the time who were married or had kids and a mortgage, I was still living at home so I gave up my job and signed up for a new, two-year theatre course at Accrington and Rossendale College.” The course - run by Martin Cosgrif - instantly became a breeding ground for new talent proving the starting point for many well-known names including Julie Hesmondhalgh, Mina Anwar, Connie Hyde, Dominic Brunt and Lee Ingleby.
“When I went to college it was all new to me,” said Joe. “I felt very much like Rita in Educating Rita; it all happened by accident. “I was so fortunate to meet Martin Cosgrif who we sadly lost during Covid.
He was amazing. He prepared us for auditions to drama school, we had our audition pieces nailed down so much so that the colleges would contact him and ask what was happening in Accrington..
” Joe was offered places at three of the country’s leading drama schools - LAMDA, Bristol Old Vic and Webber Douglas. “I still had to go to County Hall in Preston and do another audition to try and get a grant. It was bizarre.
” Joe Alessi (front left) and the cast of Spend Spend Spend (Picture: Helen Murray) Joe got a full grant and also a maintenance grant which allowed him to go to LAMDA and his career took off. He has worked at some of the country’s leading theatres and also at the RSC but the Royal Exchange clearly holds a special place in his heart. “We did Animal Crackers here which became a big hit,” he said.
“That show was very special for me and opened a lot of doors.” Based on the Marx Brothers, the show transferred to the West End where Joe was nominated for an Olivier Award for his portrayal of Chico Marx. “It’s amazing that you can trace a direct line from me seeing Edward II to Animal Crackers and all the other shows I’ve done at the Royal Exchange right up to today,” he said.
Spend Spend Spend, the current production, is based on the story of Viv Nicholson who with her husband won £150,000 on the football pools and promptly blew the lot. Read also: Rachel Lescovac on being reunited with Viv after 25 years Review: Spend Spend Spend at the Royal Exchange “It’s a great show,” said Joe, “there is a lot to take in. Rachel Leskovac and Rose Galbraith are the two main characters as Viv the narrator and the younger Viv but the rest of the cast all have to contribute for the thing to work.
“It works like a beautifully oiled machine and it goes like the clappers. It feels like no sooner are you on stage than you are taking your bows. It’s a beautiful, bitter sweet story.
” Joe is a great storyteller and time in his company flies by. “I did Brief Encounter in New York and we were at this fashionable theatre in Brooklyn,” he recalls. “In the front row of the audience was Lou Reed sat next to Laurie Anderson.
“We returned the following year with the show, this time to Broadway,. We were actually in the former Studio 54 nightclub which had reverted to being a theatre. “Pre-show the cast would pretend to be ushers and walk around the audience and I found myself face-to-face with David Bowie.
Now if I could just meet Iggy Pop, I’d have the holy trinity!” It was while doing Animal Crackers at the Royal Exchange that Joe got one of his strangest invitations. “I got a letter from the BBC sent home to Accrington with a contract inside it to appear on Radio 3’s In Tune programme to play Rachmaninov’s Elegy in E Flat minor - on the trombone,” he said. “In Animal Crackers I did play the trombone - but only three notes to signify the punchline of a joke.
I thought it must be some sort of publicity stunt but none of the cast knew anything about it, the marketing team didn’t and even my agent was clueless. “I rang the producer for Radio 3 and said I was a bit confused. “He said ‘you are Joe Alessi aren’t you?’ which I told him I was.
Then he said ‘Joe Alessi, principal trombone player with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra?’ “Turns out he was giving a masterclass at the RNCM at the same time as we were putting on Animal Crackers and because I’d done some radio plays when they sent the contract my address was on the system.” Several years later Joe got to meet his namesake in New York. The cast of Spend Spend Spend (Picture: Helen Murray) “We met for lunch and he laughed his head off when I told him about me being offered a Radio 3 slot,” he said.
“He invited me to a rehearsal. I was in the Lincoln Centre on Boxing Day, the only person in the audience - the New York Philharmonic were playing just for me. “It was another of those great coincidences which all started with the Royal Exchange.
” Joe is clearly someone who loves being an actor but he admits he has one major regret. “Even though I found what I love doing in life I have one big regret that I didn’t follow dad into tailoring,” he said. Joe’s dad Giuseppi made suits for celebrities and sports stars from his small shop on Derby Street in Accrington and was still working until his death at 82 in 2015.
“My dad kept saying ‘why don’t you come to the shop’ but I just wasn’t interested. I love clothes and fashion. Cooking and fashion are my big things in life.
I would have loved to have been a tailor and I realised it far too late. “I never told my dad that and that’s a big regret. I have a tattooed black armband which I did as penance when he died.
Once a Catholic albeit a lapsed one, you never lose the guilt.” But Joe is clearly relishing being part of a notoriously unreliable profession. “I’m just happy being a jobbing actor,” he said.
“It’s a job I love doing but over the years I’ve also learned when to say no to things when they aren’t right for me. I’m comfortable with what I am. “Anyway,” he laughed.
There will always be parts for me because I’m a good actor...
..” Spend Spend Spend is at the Royal Exchange, Manchester until Saturday, January 11.
Details from www.royalexchange.co.
uk.
