From Corrie to The Commitments, and some Yiddish in between, Nigel Pivaro will tread the boards at Leeds Grand Theatre this month.
Returning to live theatre for the first time in nearly 20 years, Nigel Pivaro admits: “There’s a slight hint of apprehension.” But the Coronation Street legend is thrilled to be starring in the 2022/2023 tour of Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments at the Grand Theatre this month, enthusing: “What’s not to love about it? It’s such an iconic show and I’ve always loved the story and the music. It means I get to spend nine months going up and down the country, and I’ll get to stretch my acting muscles again on stage.”
Having worked mainly as a journalist for the past 15 years, the man who came to fame as Terry Duckworth in the beloved soap hasn’t been on stage since 2003.
Nigel plays Da, the father of aspiring Irish music manager Jimmy Rabitte. Based on Doyle’s 1987 bestselling novel and Alan Parker’s hugely popular 1991 film adaptation, it revolves around working- class Jimmy’s bid to transform a bunch of amateur musicians into Dublin’s finest-ever soul band, much to his father’s dismay.
“Da provides the dramatic tension,” Nigel says of his character. “There’s lots of friction between Jimmy and the members of the band, but the constant tension in the narrative is between him and his Da. The latter thinks his music is a load of rubbish because it’s not Elvis, basically.”
The show is packed with great tunes like Try A Little Tenderness, In The Midnight Hour, I Heard It Through The Grapevine, and Mustang Sally. Much of the singing is left to the younger cast members. But Nigel, 62, says: “I get to sing a few bars of Elvis rather than the old Motown and Stax classics. That’s probably just as well really.”
The Manchester-born actor studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, made his stage debut in Short Of Mutiny in 1983 and that same year landed the role of bad boy Duckworth in Corrie. He left the soap five years later but returned on a regular basis until 2012.
“It was so much fun behind the scenes, especially with screen parents Bill Tarmey and Liz Dawn, and Brian Mosley, who played Alf Roberts. He was so funny off-set. He’d always try and make you corpse when you were waiting to go on. He’d stuff a grape up his nose and daft stuff like that. He was nothing like his stick- in-the-mud character.”
Over the years Pivaro has also done a lot of stage work and cites ground-breaking drama Just Frank, about an AIDS sufferer, at the Theatre Royal Stratford East as a personal favourite.
Another theatrical highlight was winning the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 1st award for No Further Cause For Concern, of which he says. “That’s probably the thing I’m most proud of. I found the play myself, put on a reading at Stratford, got the money together to put it on in Wales, Edinburgh and then London, and it was so well received.”
His decision to embark on a second career as a journalist at age 39 might have surprised his fans. “I’d always been intrigued by journalism and good journalists, and interested in history and politics.” After finishing a postgraduate course, he worked for regional papers and now freelances for national publications as well as making documentaries for the BBC.
A return to acting wasn’t on the cards but in 2019 Nigel bumped into writer Jim Cartwright who pushed him to returm. He secured representation, scored some auditions, and did plays on BBC Radio 4, including The Corrupted opposite Toby Jones.
“I thoroughly enjoyed it,” he says of doing radio work, “and it was a great reintroduction into acting. From there I did a few adverts and a lot of voiceovers. I really started to believe in myself again as an actor.”
In 2022 Nigel worked with the Alevai Jewish Women’s Group to create a unique North Manchester Yiddish Dictionary and an accompanying short film, Alevai, directed by Salford born film maker, Rafe Conn screened at the Manchester Jewish Museum with a live five-piece klezmer band, Klezmorim. The short film also uncovered the hardships and antisemitism faced by the women and their families,
But now Nigel is back on stage in an all-new production of a show that originally opened in the West End in 2013 before embarking on a countrywide tour three years later. The London production garnered such rave reviews as “Wonderfully funny and touching” from The Daily Telegraph and “A sweet-soul, solid-gold, five- star blast” from The Sunday Times.
The actor is modest about starring in the new tour, saying: “The show, the story and the music are the real stars. And the music is so beloved by people who grew up with it and younger people who have been introduced to it over the years.
“Theatres full of happy punters who are having a rollicking night out and really getting into the show, letting themselves go with the music, and being able to forge their troubles, at least for a couple of hours, I’m sure they’ll go away feeling uplifted.”
Leedsheritagetheatres.com