After Riverdance

RING up the Tees, East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service on non-emergency business and chances are the phone will be answered by a pleasant-voiced young man, saying: "Good morning, TENYAS, how can I help?"

What you probably won't realise is that a year ago, this same pleasing voice was belting out Irish folk songs in the hit Broadway show Riverdance.

In the parlance of professional actors and performers everywhere, Ben Stubbs is 'resting'. He's in between singing jobs - and has been for eight months.

The Riverdance show, after a year's run on Broadway and a tour of Europe, is now in the UK. But eight months ago Ben decided a year and a half with the same show was long enough.

"I decided it was time for something new," he says ruefully, "but I've only had four auditions in eight months! So I keep phoning them up and saying 'I'm available'."

The 28-year-old son of Bill Stubbs, former owner of York hardware store FR Stubbs, first got the performing bug as a pupil at St Olave's school, where he was a chorister.

Then he went to Bootham School and began to take part in York Light Opera Society shows at the Theatre Royal.

After a degree in geography at Durham University, when all his friends were becoming bankers, lawyers or accountants, Ben decided that wasn't for him.

Instead, he fired off an application to the Guildford School of Acting - and almost to his surprise, found himself being accepted. He trained initially as an actor - but it was his singing that really took off, thanks to the help of his friend and singing coach Rowland Sidwell.

He was lucky after drama school to find work almost straight away, appearing in light opera and G&S, shows such as the touring production of the Pirates Of Penzance which brought him to the Grand Opera House in York in 1999.

He was in York again, sitting in a coffee shop, when he got the call about Riverdance on his mobile.

"They said we don't have anything for you now, but if you would be interested in a Broadway show next year, we will send you a contract," Ben recalls.

It was the beginning of what he describes as "the best year of my life".

There were six weeks of rehearsal in Dublin before Ben and the entire cast of the show were flown out to New York.

There was a $100,000 opening night party, complete with champagne and red carpets to which he invited his parents, Bill and Irene, and then he was thrown into the gruelling life of the Broadway theatre performer.

Ben admits he landed on his feet. He and the rest of the cast were put up for the first four weeks in a hotel, but after that they were on their own. He managed to find an apartment at a reasonable rent that was just ten minutes from Central Park and ten minutes from his theatre, the Gershwin.

For the next year, he led what he describes as a 'nocturnal' lifestyle - late shows (he was one of ten singers in a predominantly dance-based show) followed by sessions at New York's bars and restaurants.

And then there were the parties. "We certainly had our parties," Ben says. "I remember for the Christmas party they hired a boat - it had a big dance floor - and we cruised up and down the Hudson River about six times."

He made friends with other cast members and performers in other Broadway shows - "some people are a bit pretentious, but the people in Riverdance are much more grounded, they're not really from a show background" - and admits he loved being a foreigner abroad. "You get noticed more easily," he says with a grin. "People notice that you have a different accent."

Ben was aware before he went of New York's reputation as a violent city, but stresses he never had any problems. "A friend went there ten months before I was there and was mugged, but I had no problems. I think like with any big city, as long as you keep off the old side streets at night, you're OK."

All good things must come to an end. After a run of a year on Broadway, the show prepared for a European tour. Ben went with it, taking in Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands. But then, after a few months, he decided it was time to move on - and found himself back in York, 'resting'.

He has no regrets, however. Spells without work are part of showbiz, he admits. "This is a hard time. But I've had friends who have been out of work for two years. And before this I was very lucky. I had four years of virtually uninterrupted work."

Ben has been back to New York to see friends, most recently last August. It was two weeks before September 11 - and he went shopping in the World Trade Centre. He was back in York when the buildings were destroyed in the terrorist attack. He was glued to the TV screen, watching the tragedy unfold. He was unable to get in touch with many of his New York friends in the days afterwards, and it was a couple of weeks before he knew they were all right.

He is sure New York will bounce back. "Friends said the atmosphere was bizarre for a while," Ben says. "People were walking around in silence for a couple of weeks. But I think New York people are very resilient and very determined."

He himself is now 'filling in' between theatre jobs with a series of temporary jobs - a necessity familiar to all actors and performers. The latest job has brought him to the ambulance service as a temporary receptionist.

He prefers that to working on a computer. "At least you're meeting with people, dealing with people," he says.

But Ben is determined to make a go of his stage career. "There is no career ladder," he says. "You're either going up or down all the time. But ten years from now in some form or other I certainly hope that I will still be singing as a professional. I cannot imagine anything else I would enjoy so much."

His agent has been trying to persuade him to move down to London, so that he will be closer to the jobs. But Ben is reluctant. His roots are all in York - and in Sutton upon Derwent, where his parents live - and besides, it's cheaper here. "And you generally get 48 hours to prepare for auditions, so I don't think it makes that much difference," Ben says.

Let's hope not.

Updated: 09:06 Tuesday, March 05, 2002