I spoke to Adam Garcia & Sidonie Smith from The Bodyguard as show arrives in Blackpool tomorrow

The international, award-winning smash-hit musical The Bodyguard heads to the Blackpool Winter Gardens between Wednesday, October 1 and Saturday, October 4.

Only the second stop on their year long tour, tickets are still available and can be purchased online here.

Before the show arrives in town, we sat down for a chat with lead stars Sidonie Smith (Sister Act, Chicago, Jesus Christ Superstar), who plays Rachel Marron, and Adam Garcia (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Wicked, Coyote Ugly), who plays the eponymous bodyguard…

How are you feeling about taking The Bodyguard to Blackpool?

Sid: “I think the most exciting thing about the tour for me [is that] this is my first time really getting to see the UK properly. Because in the past, you know, you pop over for a weekend and maybe see a show in London, and you go home and you're kind of in a whirlwind. I'm finally going to really get to know cities and I'm super excited because it's our first move. You know, we came to Birmingham to start, but this is our first time picking up the show and moving into a new place.”

Adam: “I went to Blackpool for the first time last Christmas for Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang so this is my second time. But this time it'll be, you know, hopefully warmer, even though the weather was actually really nice when I was up there. And yes, it's really, it's lovely. The Winter Gardens is a magnificent building for a start, the crowds are always really great in Blackpool, like we had an amazing experience there. There's a really nice cafe right on the water, I can take you to, it's got a really good breakfast. It's a really big city as well, like you can go up Blackpool Tower, and you'll see just how big it is.

“It's a famous city in the UK, and you know, it was like the seaside town of the Victorians. So, yeah, there's the famous Blackpool tower, and there's a ballroom underneath it where people still go in the daytime and dance with each other. It’s a really historic place so, you know, I found it really fascinating. I really am into that sort of stuff, like history and stuff like that so, yeah, I always like going back to Blackpool.”

You sound very knowledgeable Adam but I'm assuming, Sidonie, that you've not been to Blackpool before then?

Sid: “I haven't and coming from such a young country, sometimes I talk about the United States as a toddler, you know, in the worldscape. Really getting myself into history, it feels a little bit like living in a storybook so I'm getting quite giddy. I have to say.”

Adam, you mentioned a cafe already but is there anything else in Blackpool you'd love to take the cast to whilst you're up?

Adam: “The zoo is really good! There's obviously the beachfront, the promenade and that's great. I went down to - there's a very beautiful town in the south… St Anne’s. That's really pretty, had a really nice time down there, yeah so there's a few places. And of course, the Winter Gardens itself is an enormous structure, and you can do a tour of that. There's a ghost tour with that. There's the Blackpool Tower tour. There's lots of stuff. We're only there for a really short time, like we're there Wednesday to Saturday, it's a super quick jaunt so we'll have to pack it in.”

So what can the people of Blackpool expect from The Bodyguard?

Sid: “The thing about The Bodyguard is that it's kind of got a little bit of something for everybody. It is thrilling -I mean, I would describe it as a musical thriller- but it's high energy and incredible dancing; it's highly romantic, it's just everything for everyone.

Adam: “It's not a strange musical, but it is because it's not traditional in any sense. It's a jukebox musical. It is romantic but it's also a thriller and a mystery. It's got quite a lot of danger. It's relatively adult in its sensibilities… and it's got phenomenal music, and Sidonie failed to mention, as well as the amazing dancers. It's got ridiculous singing! Of which I do none of. I do sing. It's not in the same league, somewhat deliberately.”

Sid: “Definitely, deliberately.”

Adam: “ I've found a talent. I think I've really hit my mark with tuneless singing. I'm going to become the new Rex Harrison. I'm just going to speak everything.”

Sid; “To the music, It's just phenomenally written. It's just good music. It's stood the test of time, and to revisit it in the context of the piece is just so nice because, you know, there's still radio hits all these years later, but they apply so well to the scenic work that it's almost unbelievable. It feels like every night I'll hit another lyric that I think ‘Oh, I actually didn't feel the depth of how this really, really rings true in where we are in the story’ and so that's something really wonderful to experience. If you already know the songs, to listen to the songs and the texts anew and just see how alive they are in the situations.”

Do you both have a favorite Whitney Houston song, whether it's personally or in the context of the show?

Sid: “For me it changes every day. Lately, I've been bouncing back and forth between ‘One Moment in Time’ and ‘The Greatest Love of All’, depending on where I am that night but it's just fantastically written music.”

Adam: “Yeah, I'm going to go with ‘Queen of the Night’, it’s such an exciting moment in the show. It’s just a great, very sexy tune. And then ‘Run to You’, it's just got such a beautiful sentiment, and it's so wonderfully performed. And as Sid was saying, it's the weaving of these tunes into the narrative itself, there's new added layers because the lyrics are so poignant.”

For people who perhaps don't know The Bodyguard, can you tell me what your characters are like and whether you relate to them as well?

Sid: “Well Rachel is a superstar. She's very much in the public eye, and has kind of created a persona for herself that keeps the business side running, keeps her safe, keeps her feeling like everything's okay, but at the end of the day, she's somebody's mum, she's somebody's sister, she's somebody's employer, and she's got a whole lot of heart, and it takes a minute for that to show.

“I guess I do relate to her in the fact that I kind of throw myself wholeheartedly into things, like, I love really hard. You know, if I'm hurt, I hurt deeply. If I'm in love, I love with all of me, and so that's somewhere that we really see eye to eye.”

Adam: “I play Frank Farmer, who’s the bodyguard, and he's an interesting character. Being either socially withdrawn or very socially active, I can be both but Frank is not and it's really nice to play. He's a very still character, he has a lot of water running underneath this very calm surface, which for an actor, is really, really lovely to be able to play with, because we don't really get bits of his backstory, but he's emotionally removed for reasons both professional and personal. And I have, you know, a complete aversion to intimacy in my real life, so that's really easy for me… that’s not true! I love psychology, and I like reading about it so it's interesting to see, for me, where the lines do cross over and how I can relate to him in other ways, when I do search for the reasons why Frank the way is the way he is. But I like his stillness. Yeah, I like his calm. I tend to panic a lot more than Frank.”

Why did you both say yes to doing the UK tour for The Bodyguard?

Sid: “Well, there are a number of reasons. I love this show. I first saw it in London in 2012. I flew over to see one of my heroes on stage and at the time- and actually still- I was based in Germany, and I didn't know if the show would come over and there'd be an opportunity for me to do it, but it eventually did. I was overjoyed. I did it in a city called Cologne, and also in Stuttgart. I said goodbye to it, I thought it was over, and when the opportunity presented itself again, I thought, you know, to have the chance to play Rachel these years later, in this phase of my life -because things change over a span of 10 years, I don't have to tell you that- I just wondered what my Rachel would be like now, and I was so thankful to do the whole piece in English. I'd never done it in my native tongue, and so I jumped at the chance to come over and see the beautiful UK and do this piece again in English.”

Adam: “Cold hard cash. That's the one thing I do have in common with Frank. He does everything for money. No, look, I saw the show also in 2012. I remember sitting next to our director Tracy- who I've known for many, many years and by coincidence, we were sitting next to each other- and I wasn't sure what I was going to see, because how are they going to do a musical with The Bodyguard? At the time, it was Thea Sharrock who was directing it, who I really respected, and I was beyond surprised and delighted. I thought it was exciting and thrilling and something really different for a musical to take on. So when they asked me if I want to do this, it was one of those things where, again, character wise, he's such a different character to anyone I've really played, particularly in a musical. I had just played Caracticus Potts, who is a man child inventor, completely irresponsible, very loving, affectionate person to a fault.Frank Farmer is kind of like the polar opposite and that's always a nice thing to have the challenge to do something in opposition.”

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You have had a few nights in Birmingham so how have audiences reacted so far?

Sid: “They were so enthusiastic. The thing with me is it takes me a little bit to kind of digest what happened and if the reactions were there. By the time I get to my dressing room, I go, ‘huh, I think they liked it!’ and they really, really did like it. When I think back to the show, they were so responsive, they were so with us. You know, there are moments in the finale that are really, really interactive and I didn't have to ask them to engage. They were already with me. So I was like ‘well, that's half my job done. Come on, let's clap together.’”

Adam: “Yeah, I think, as Sidonie said before, there's something for everyone: it’s part concert, it's part thriller, it's part musical, it's part romance. People pretty much get a concert right off the bat in this show, which for an audience member is just super exciting and then you're on the ride. They certainly responded to the songs and the vocals and the power of those things but then there's a lot of comedy, there's a lot of really dry comedy, there's a lot of shock, there's moments of real fear and danger. And, yeah, the audience really were responsive so hopefully audiences in Blackpool will experience it and we hope they enjoy it.”

If people in Blackpool haven't bought tickets yet to see The Bodyguard, why should they?

Sidonie: “I don't like to make promises, but I'm going to do it anyway. It's going to be an unforgettable evening, it truly is. And we're only there for four or five days, so just get there, just to get there. It's hard to describe it. You just have to experience it. It's an amazing evening.”

Adam: “Yeah, I mean, I think it's only five shows so it's like doing like a concert stint in a city. And, I mean, you'll see it when you get there, but the Winter Gardens is, it's big. It's a really big place. It takes a lot, you know? And if it's full, this music will fill that place in itself. It's a really spectacular show. So, yeah, I think audiences will love it.”

Is there anything else that you want to mention to the people of Lancashire before we finish?

Sid: “One thing that wouldn't be fair not to mention is that Sasha Monique is singing the house down! She plays my sister Nikki and she is just gorgeous as a human and as an artist, and you just have to come. I don't want to spoil anything, but you just have to come hear this woman sing.”