Ramin Karimloo on starring in the Elvis Costello-scored ‘A Face in the Crowd’ | London Theatre

Ramin Karimloo is leading the new Young Vic musical A Face in the Crowd. He explains why this show, which has a score by Elvis Costello, is essential for our turbulent times.

When you hear the plot of A Face in the Crowd, you’ll be convinced it was written for this febrile political moment in 2024. After all, it involves a charismatic outsider who becomes a populist media star, gets drunk on his own power, and tries to sway a presidential election. Astonishingly, however, Budd Schulberg’s satirical drama hit cinema screens in 1957, starring Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal and Walter Matthau, and directed by Elia Kazan. But it’s now coming to audiences in a new form: a stage musical, with an original score by Elvis Costello.

It’s a canny piece of programming by the Young Vic’s departing artistic director, Kwame Kwei-Armah, who also directs, while the two-time Pulitzer-nominated American playwright Sarah Ruhl supplies the book. Ramin Karimloo, beloved by musical theatre fans for his commanding performances in The Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables, plays that drifter-turned-demagogue, Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes. Anoushka Lucas, who recently shot to fame in Jesus Christ Superstar and Oklahoma!, co-stars as the journalist, Marcia Jeffries, responsible for putting Lonesome on the radio after spotting him in an Arkansas jail – a decision she later bitterly regrets.

When I spoke to Karimloo about this intriguing project just before rehearsals began, he was well aware that there are obvious contemporary comparisons to be made. In fact, he didn’t even want to say the name “Donald Trump”. As he put it: “There is easy, low-hanging fruit relating this to modern American politics. But it’s not just about who audiences think Lonesome or Marcia might represent – what’s more important is: who enables that? It’s us. Whether it’s a TikTok star, a movie star, a podcaster or a politician, we’re the ones who empower them.”

It’s a delicate balance, notes Karimloo. “We live in a democracy, which means allowing people to say stupid stuff. But controversy is currency. Give these people either hate or love and you fuel the beast. But if you become indifferent and leave it, you suffocate it with your silence.”

It is extraordinary, he agrees, that Schulberg was reckoning with these issues almost 70 years ago. “I watched the film and I was blown away. Lonesome calls himself an influencer!” The stage version will remain a period piece, but it should, Karimloo believes, be simple enough to draw comparisons with today’s media landscape – especially the pressure to produce clickbait articles, or fuel outrage. “It’s a universal story. Great art always feels topical because it contains fundamental truths.”

Karimloo explains he was in a place in his life and career where he was looking for something different, and working at London’s intimate, but creatively dynamic, Young Vic definitely fit the bill. Right now, his main focus is getting into Lonesome’s headspace. “I’m trying to figure out what he wants, when we first meet him, as opposed to who he is. He becomes a product of society, I think because it’s hard not to get caught up in that hype. How do big stars nowadays keep in line? It’s probably about the people you surround yourself with. It’s tempting to lose all perspective.”

Although Karimloo is no Lonesome, he can certainly relate to the power you suddenly wield when you have a devoted audience. “I’ve got 45 years of life, and I’ve seen the ripple you can create when you take to a platform. That’s why I stay off social media now. I’m not out to be controversial.”

Indeed, it would be difficult to find a more amiable and unruffled conversationalist than Karimloo. Clearly what fires him up is the work: unlike Lonesome, fame is not a motivator. He gets most excited when he talks about working with the legendary Elvis Costello on the new score for A Face in the Crowd, which will see Karimloo both sing and play a couple of instruments. An accomplished musician, he has released two albums, but he still had a sticky moment with Costello. “He asked me ‘You play the ukulele?’ I said ‘Yup!’ – and then went straight on Amazon to buy one,” laughs Karimloo. He’ll also be strumming a guitar in the show, but emphasises that his character is a troubadour, not a professional singer-songwriter. “He probably can’t even play the guitar that well, but he does it because it gets his story across.”

Karimloo describes the score as “rhythm and blues rock, but with a country feel. This music, it’s so great – I said ‘Elvis, this should be on country radio right now.’ It’s forcing me to find a new way of singing, a new sound. I’m not too worried about that because I always find my character’s ‘voice’ through the rehearsal process. Like with Nicky Arnstein [in Funny Girl], this tone came out that was so different to Valjean [in Les Misérables] or Che [in Evita]. With Lonesome, it’s finding his dark passenger. Once I do that, it’ll feed into the music.”

There’s another interesting connection between Karimloo and Lonesome: both are small-town boys. “Lonesome comes from Riddle, Arkansas – I don’t know if that’s actually a real place, but I know it exists in my mind,” says Karimloo. “I was born in Iran and my family escaped [following the revolution]. We went to Italy, and then I mainly grew up in the small town of Peterborough, Ontario. I played ice hockey, I was trying to be a tough kid, I got into fights all the time, but I was always a daydreamer. I loved watching films with actors who transformed, like Brando, De Niro and Pacino. When I saw The Phantom of the Opera aged 12, I didn’t think ‘Oh I want to be a singer’, I thought ‘What a transformative role’. Colm Wilkinson played the Phantom, and I just knew I wanted to make people feel something, the way he made me feel.”

There wasn’t a theatre programme at Karimloo’s school, so instead he hit the library, reading books by practitioners such as Uta Hagen and Lee Strasberg. He got an acting job on a cruise ship and then moved to England, where his first professional gig was in that most British of art forms: a pantomime. But the real door-opener was getting cast in The Pirates of Penzance at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in 2001. Karimloo remembers seeing a fellow young actor by the name of Benedict Cumberbatch in A Midsummer Night’s Dream during that Regent’s Park season. “I thought ‘Well, that guy’s got something!’” chuckles Karimloo.

He continued his education by avidly watching his castmates, and at age 26, he won a very important wager. “When I was 16, I bet my buddy Scott that I would become the youngest Phantom. I held the phone up so he could hear the overture and said ‘Listen to this!’. I was manifesting before I even knew what the word meant.” Karimloo, who had also played Raoul in the West End production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s megahit, then became synonymous with the masked singer, returning for the 2010 sequel Love Never Dies. He also graduated from Enjolras to Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, reprising the latter role on Broadway and picking up a Tony nomination.

But you’d be hard pressed to pigeon-hole him. That’s deliberate, he explains, and he’s particularly proud that this year he’s gone from surprising audiences with his comic chops in The Addams Family (“I did keep telling people I’m funny!” he protests) to doing an opera and the New York concert version of Titanic. Plus he’s appearing in an upcoming Apple TV+ series, led by Jon Hamm, called Your Friends and Neighbours. That follows Karimloo’s two years on British medical drama Holby City. Although his schedule is teeming – he’s also doing The Pirates of Penzance on Broadway next year, a real full-circle career moment – he says he’d love to get in front of the camera again soon. “Especially if it’s in England. It hurts every time I leave England: this is home for me.”

Karimloo admits that he doesn’t talk about his own culture that often, but he’s touched when young Iranian performers come up and tell him how much his representation means to them. “It never dawned on me because as a kid, I didn’t think ‘Where’s the Iranian Phantom?’, I just thought ‘How do I become the Phantom?’. But if it helps open doors for others, that’s fantastic.”

His own sons, aged 16 and 20, are likewise creative but have a different focus: the older one is a budding music producer, the younger a film fanatic. “I’ve told him ‘OK, son, I’m going to try and get into a Marvel movie for you!’” jokes Karimloo. But he is proud that both feel supported to follow their passions – as long as they also work hard, he counsels. “You can’t wait for it to come along. If you want it, you’ve got to chase it down.”

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Photo credit: Ramin Karimloo. (Photos by Michael Wharley, make-up by Becca Lymbourides).