The BWW Q&A: TOP HAT's Gavin Lee

Tell us a little bit about the play and the role you're taking.

I'm currently playing the role of Jerry Travers in the musical Top Hat which is based on the 1930s movie of the same name starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

The show has been running in the West End for over a year now and I started playing Jerry three months ago. We just performed at the Olivier Awards and WON BEST MUSICAL. Yay!

When were you happiest?

The happiest year of my life was 2009. My wife and I were both performing in the first national tour of Mary Poppins. We loved working together every night and we got to see so much of the great United States of America.

What is your greatest fear?

Unemployment. (So why did I become an actor, haha!?)

What is your earliest memory?

I used to have this recurring dream when I was a little kid in which a big black bear used to steal my baby knife, fork and spoon out of my hand...? Random, I know. It really scared me. I think that's my earliest memory.

Which living person do you most admire, and why?

Bit showbizzy but, Meryl Streep can do no wrong.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Laziness.

Where would you like to live?

My wife's family have this kinda crappy cabin on a beautiful small lake in the middle of Minnesota. I love it there. We take the boat out, barbecue, eat s'mores around the firepit and I learnt to get up on water skies there. I'd like to bulldoze the cabin, build a beautiful big house with lots of big windows facing the lake on the plot, then move the whole thing to about 30 minutes outside New York City.

What makes you unhappy?

Seeing my two and a half year old daughter's sad face when I say 'I've got to go to work now' on a matinee day.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

I say 'like' unnecessarily in sentences a lot. Like, all the time!

What is the best job you've done?

While I was in 'Poppins' in London we got asked to take part in a TV special honouring the Queen. I got to start the whole show off singing 'chim chiminy' with my legs dangling off of the roof of Buckingham Palace. It was very high, three tv cameras were filming me, the playback music was blaring out across London, hundreds of people were at the gates looking up and the views were spectacular. It was very, very surreal and cool indeed.

If you could go back in time, where would you go?

To 1893 and visit the Worlds Fair in Chicago. My favourite book is 'Devil in the White City'.

Where would you most like to be right now?

Back in my lovely house in New Jersey. We live in Maplewood - couldn't be more 'the 'burbs' but we love it there.

Gavin Lee stars in Top Hat at the Aldwych Theatre.

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