carlos tseng

For many musical theatre fans, Rob Houchen represents a pinnacle in musical theatre talent. Since he made his debut as Marius in Les Miserables, Rob has established an enviable career as one of the West End's finest leading men taking on roles like Fabrizio in The Light in the Piazza and Joe Cable in South Pacific. As well as being highly sought after actor though, Rob Houchen is also one of the most exciting young producers after establishing West End Does / Chorus Presents, staging sell-out concerts at venues like Cadogan Hall featuring some of the West End's most popular stars. One highlight was producing a 30th anniversary concert of personal favourite: Children of Eden with the blessing of composer Stephen Schwartz and also brought together original cast members: Ruthie Henshall and Ray Shell. Here, Rob also made his directing debut and audiences got an insight into another talent of the multi-talented actor. Now, he is currently preparing to star in a new musical theatre concert: At Last, It's Summer, where he will also be making his London Palladium debut before also returning to Cadogan Hall for West End Does: Hollywood The Sequel.

In this special interview, Rob Houchen opened about the last decade in his career on the West End, both as an actor and as a producer. We get to see a personal side to Rob as well, as he opened up about his relationship with fellow actor Jack Butterworth as well as his past struggles with body image and a difficult relationship with food. Rob also shared his thoughts on audience behaviour and his experiences with fans in the past. Still, he shares his gratitude for all of his experiences during his career and remains ambitious for the future. After turning 30 during the pandemic, he seems to have found a new sense of security within himself and looks forward to new challenges ahead as well as setting new goals for his career. 

After playing the actor both on tour and in the West End run in The Woman in Black, Matthew Spencer has returned to the Fortune Theatre to help celebrate the show’s 13,000th performance. As part of the celebrations, the production opened a wave of tickets for £13, allowing a wide range of audiences to see Matthew Spencer play opposite Julian Forsyth, another veteran actor associated with The Woman in Black. Since 1989, The Woman in Black has been spooking and delighting audiences with it’s classic set and timeless script. For most, it's not surprising that the show remains one of the longest running in the West End and in 2022, Matthew tells us about what a treat it has been to get to return to the show when it's experiencing such a glorious milestone.

Matthew Spencer in this interview reflects over his career as he returns to The Woman in Black for a third time. In his 17 year long career however, Matthew has also worked with the likes of Robert Icke on Animal Farm  and 1984  as well as featured in productions at some of our most prestigious venues like the Almeida Theatre, the Watermill Theatre and Theatre Royal, Bath with the Peter Hall company. He compares the experience of performing for different audiences around the country and also shares his hope to do more screen work for the future. Throughout the interview however, he re-enforces the point on how The Woman in Black remains a masterpiece in the theatre and hopes that the West End run will carry on for many more years.

The Woman in Black is currently playing at The Fortune Theatre in London and is currently booking until 29 April 2023.