Its fault of the telly (one can blame almost anything on television). There cant be many who didnt once see him stealing from the rich and giving to the poor during his stint as Robin Hood in Robin of Sherwood in the early 80s. Admittedly, I was too old to be one of his adoring teen fans, but I did drop into Sherwood Forest now and then to admire his boyish looks and his tights. At this point, he raises a point of information. They werent tights, actually, he says, They were green trousers with slits down the side, which was the sort of fashion statement. But they were cold as hell and itchy, so I always wore tights underneath even in the summer and I think they did look quite good.
Good in a sort of medieval-80s kind of way. And if, by some chance, you didnt catch him galloping through the greenwood, his mullet flowing in the breeze
The what?
Mullet mullet hair.?
Is that what it was called?
He must be having me on: But no, he doesnt recognise the description.
Mullet, he muses, it that pejorative?
No then, maybe a bit now.
Bloody hell!
Anyway, if you didnt catch him, youre bound to have seen him playing the ill-fated Prince Michael of Moldavia in Dynasty, who was gunned down at his own wedding. I saw an episode of Dynasty about a year ago and I thought it was dreadful. Still, we were number-one in the rating in America for a while, so Im quite proud of that.
Does he ever wonder if his god looks have worked against him? Is he glad that he has moved on from the romantic pretty-boy parts?
As you get older, there is more diversity. Frankly, its hard to play the guy who always get the girl, because those roles are always predictable. The
But his role as F Scott Fitzgerald in Roger Cook and Les Reeds new musical Beautiful and Damned allows him to be both, and to look very handsome in a black tie ans, as they in America, tux. The musical introduces us to Scott and Zelda, the Posh and Becks of their day, but with ten times the glamour. As the pre-eminent Jazz Age couple, their star quality is only heightened by their genius for self-destruction. He was an alcoholic who was dead at 44 and she was plagued by mental illness.
I play him from the ages of 18 to 44, so I have to do some young acting Im figuring out how at the moment. The role also requires me to sing. I havent done that for a while, but Im looking forward to it. In some of my leaner moments as an actor, I have considered a career in music.
Im fascinated by the idea of a couple who simply cannot be separated but probably should be for heir own sakes. Theres something very enviable about having a relationship of that intensity even though you know its going to go tits-up at the end. I think his heart was completely shredded by what happened between them, which is maybe why he drank himself to death.
So how do you play the genius who wrote The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, and he book which gave the musical its title, The Beautiful and Damned? Not only was a great writer, he also, as the New York Times wrote after his death in 1940, invented a generation, and the christened the era the Jazz Age.
Fitzgerald himself once said, An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterwards. Though he has been set text for years, he still speaks to the youthful part of us, for surely we all have our Jazz Age moments.
If I met him or someone as brilliant as he was, I wouldnt know what to say, admits Praed. Im not going to try and play genius. Ill just concentrate on what each scene says about his relationship with Zelda. Does he have a favourite Fitzgerald novel? I tried to read The Great Gatsby when I was
Seite 2Michael Praed was brought up in Iran where his father works as an accountant. It was a wonderful place then. For my parents, it was an endless stream of cocktail parties. You can imagine what went on lots of booze and other peoples wives. Everyone dressed up. Very Noel Coward. I loved it.
He was sent to boarding school, Eastbourne College, which also produces Michael Ball, showbiz agent Jonathan Shalit and Eddie Izzard. He went on to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, had a short spell in rep, and in 1982 appeared in The Pirates of Penzance at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. He was spotted by the producers of Robin of Sherwood and offered the leading role. It might have looked then as if fame and fortune were his for the taking, but, like many in his profession, he has known some lean times.
As you get older, not only do you have to face getting older, but with age comes all the things that you acquire in life- property, kids and if youre not working, life can become very intriguing indeed, he says as though from the bitterest experience.
He met his wife, Karen, who was then a dancer and is now a choreographer, when he was in California. She returned to Britain before him; when he came, she just a fiend at the time was the first person he rang. It was the best phone call I ever made, he says. They noe live in south London with their two children, Gabriel who is 10 and Frankie, eight. Frankie was born premature and spent many weeks in intensive care. This put a lot of thing in perspective for Praed.
She was so tiny that her fingers fit on my thumbnail. Someone wrote to me and said that premature babies have a special fighting spirit. My initial reaction to that sort of thing is that its rubbish. But Im not so sure now. Maybe theres something in it.
Praeds career has been centred in live theatre for some time now. He has just finished a run in a new Carl Djerassi comedy at the Kings Head with his former co-star Leigh Zimmerman from Contact, the Susan Stroman musical that ran in the West End last year. In Beautiful and Damned he is reunited with another of his Contact co-stars, Helen Anker, who plays Zelda.
When I ask him if Dynasty was fun, he shakes his heas. TV shows arent fun. When I ask if he knows what hes doing next, he shakes his head. Im not Tom Cruise. My work commitments are not planned out for the next 10 yeard. Neither can I enjoy living on the interst of my interest, as Im sure he does. But even so I like to think that Im the sort whose glass is always hals full.
His immediate problem, though, is having his hair dyed to play youthful F Scott Fitzgerald. Its a bit of a pain having in tinted, tough its most annoying when the jobs over and its starts to grow out. Still, he adds with the air of an old touper, We all do what we have to do.
