We sat down for a quick chat with Henry Naylor about his latest project, The extraordinary true story of Elton John’s infamous libel case against The Sun newspaper,
featuring Ferraris, punch-ups, gangsters, bugged phone calls, a £10million divorce suit, Princess Diana, Michael Parkinson, the Vice Squad and a pair of Devil Dogs.
https://www.arcolatheatre.com/event/monstering-the-rocketman/
This show is inspired by a real and very public story involving Elton John. What drew you to this particular case as a one-man show?
I remember it! I lived through it; was at Uni at the time it happened.
It’s an extraordinary David versus Goliath story.
At the time, the tabloids were at the peak of their powers…
The Sun and The Mirror regularly sold around 4,000,000 copies a day. They had as many as 12 million readers each. So they had an enormous influence upon the British public.
That’s why, when The Sun falsely accused Elton of having rent-boy sex and drugs parties, he feared his career was on the line.
You’d think it would be obvious that he would sue.
But at the time the established wisdom was that it was inadvisable to fight the tabloids. They were huge, wealthy corporations with deep pockets. And they could drag a court case out for months.
But Elton took them on, and it became the biggest libel court case in British history.
The show moves at pace and juggles an extraordinary cast of characters — editors, celebrities, gangsters, even Princess Diana. How do you approach switching worlds so quickly without losing clarity or control?
I was very lucky to work with the actress Filipa Bragança. She was the master of multi-character performance, and I was very lucky to watch her work on a couple of projects. And I’m heavily influenced by her techniques.
In this show, I play around 20 different characters. When you’re doing that – it’s essential to give each character their own distinct vocal and physical tics – so that the audience know exactly who’s talking.
Lighting and blocking are also extremely important. And my director, Darren Lee Cole plays a key role in this.
Although the story is rooted in the 1980s, audiences clearly find points of recognition today. What do you think resonates most strongly with people now?
When you write about a ‘historical’ story – there’s a compulsion to make it relevant. I deliberately chose a tale from the past which shed a light on today’s issues. Perhaps we can learn something, perhaps encourage the debate.
In this case, Press Accountability is a key theme – and massively relevant issue after the hacking scandals. Similarly, Intolerance and Homophobia are still rampant. And we’re more obsessed by celebrity than ever…
You’ve had great success at the Edinburgh Fringe with this piece. What did those early audience reactions tell you about how the story was landing?
It was really exciting. You’re never really sure how the show is going to go down, until you put it in front of an audience. I knew I found this story interesting, but wasn’t sure that others were going to. My instincts told me that they would – but you can never be 100% sure.
In this case, the audience built very quickly, so I knew we were onto something. We were selling out by the fourth night.
I think it’s a ripping yarn, but also it strikes a lot of chords. It attracts those who are fascinated by the 80s, those who are fascinated by celebrities, those who are fascinated the press. It’s by turns funny and shocking, moving and thrilling.
If audiences leave Monstering the Rocketman questioning one thing they read tomorrow morning, what would you hope that question is?
I hope they have more than one question! We need to question everything!
We need a reliable source of Truth in these uncertain times; we need to hold the Press honest and accountable, because we need a press we can Trust.
We can’t take all our news from social media. It’s too important.