David Behrens talks to the stars of a sensational production about to be re-launched in West Yorkshire

DON'T BE surprised if Stephen Weller's contemporaries hate his guts. In a profession where most people are out of work most of the time, CVs like his tend to rub their noses in it.

Stephen is just 26. He hadn't even graduated from theatre school when he was offered a part in the West End production of Les Misrables.

Now, while still under contract, he has breezed into the title role of another musical blockbuster. What's more, he has the composers on hand to rewrite it for him.

"I've been lucky, yes," he acknowledges, somewhat unnecessarily.

Two days from now, this talented actor, singer and dancer will find the eyes of the theatrical world upon him, as he steps out in Cameron Mackintosh's all-new production of Boublil and Schnberg's medieval masterpiece, Martin Guerre.

It's a completely re-conceived version of a production which played 700 performances in the West End. Never before has Mackintosh, the legendarily successful producer behind almost every hit musical of the last decade, allowed one of his shows to be re-staged in Britain.

Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schnberg, whose other masterworks are Les Mis and Miss Saigon, have been installed here in Yorkshire to assist in the adaptation and supply new material.

Short of asking Rodgers and Hammerstein to pop over and rewrite South Pacific for you, theatre doesn't get any better than this.

"It's a clich to say it, but this is a dream come true," says Stephen.

He was offered the part just a few days before rehearsals began at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

"I'd managed to get an audition a couple of weeks earlier. I didn't have a chance to think about it - I was just pulled out of Les Mis and brought up to Leeds."

Pantomimes aside, Martin Guerre will be the biggest Christmas stage attraction Yorkshire has seen for years. The musical is based on an oft-told story of a man returning from war and assuming the identity of a comrade. The backdrop to this is the sweeping march of Protestantism through 16th Century France.

The show opened in London in 1996 and, following a wobbly start (wobbly, that is, only by Cameron Mackintosh's standards) was closed briefly and reworked, before winning that year's Olivier Award for Best Musical.

"The staging this time is radically different," says Stephen. "It's focussed more on the people and their emotions, and it's less of a wide, sweeping thing about love and passion.

"One of the problems people had with the original West End production was that the focus went on to the dance section and to the scenery flying in. It drew people's attention away from the characters and the story."

The composers, he says, have worked closely with the cast on this new incarnation.

"They've altered parts of the songs to suit our voices and our performances. To be there while Claude-Michel sits at the piano composing new music is indescribable. It's just amazing to see that raw, creative composing talent happening in front of you."

He acknowledges, though, that there is tension in the air at the Playhouse. "At the back of people's minds there's the feeling that this has been done before and rewritten before, and that perhaps we have to prove ourselves a bit. "So yes, there's apprehension. You just never know how something is going to be received."

The nervousness is shared throughout the company. "I think I'd be lying if I said we didn't all feel a certain amount of pressure," says Hull-trained actor Matthew Cammelle.

"The received knowledge within the theatrical community is, 'They're doing it again'. But I don't think they realise what a different show this is - new staging, new music, re-focussed story. It would be invidious to even think of it in terms of what happened in the West End."

Matthew, another veteran of Les Misrables, plays the Catholic mercenary Arnaud du Thil, who masquerades as the warring Martin Guerre and falls in love with Martin's young wife Bertrande.

That the show will succeed in its new form he has little doubt. "Cameron Mackintosh is such a successful producer that you absolutely can't doubt his eye and ear for what works. And I think he is so successful because he's not driven by money. He's driven by a love for what he does."

Stephen Weller, too, takes comfort from his mentor. "At the end of our last run-through," he says, "Cameron actually cried.

"He's never cried at anything before."

Martin Guerre is at the West Yorkshire Playhouse from Monday until February 13, prior to a national tour. There is a ticket hotline on 0113 213 7200

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