Michael Malarkey Brings Elvis to the West End in Million Dollar Quartet

Michael Malarkey, a graduate of the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, is currently rocking out as Elvis Presley at the Noel Coward Theatre in Million Dollar Quartet—the sort of task they don’t teach you at drama school. Seen last year at the National Theatre in two mighty pieces of American esoterica (Spring Storm by Tennessee Williams and Beyond the Horizon by Eugene O’Neill), the 27-year-old actor is making his West End debut in this Broadway-to-UK musical transfer. Malarkey took time one recent evening to talk Elvis-style quiffs, Ohio roots and the excitement of a career that clearly is only just beginning.

Does it surprise you to have landed the role of Elvis for your West End debut?
It’s pretty nuts, man. I mean, I feel really lucky, but I also feel like I’ve earned it. The process was crazy: I had to do eight auditions, which was unlike anything I’d ever seen or heard about before, and I tend not to go up for musicals; they’re not my forte. But this one felt quite different because it’s rock ‘n’ roll, and before I was an actor, I was playing in bands. So I feel as if I’ve come full circle!

Have you always had an Elvis quality?
The truth is, I was initially going up for Johnny Cash because over the years people have said to me I looked like Joaquin Phoenix in [the film] Walk the Line. So I thought, OK, I can relate to Cash: his rebel image, his grounded masculine kind of energy. That’s me. But the casting director was like, "That’s great. Start thinking about Elvis!” [Laughs.] She must have seen something in me that I hadn’t actually seen, because I thought at first that Elvis was a little bit out of my playing field, to be honest.

So, Million Dollar Quartet must have been pretty daunting.
Maybe, but at the same time I felt safe because I was coming to it as an actor, and I do have faith in my ability to approach a role. Of course there are going to be people watching and going, “He’s not Elvis; that’s not working for me.” and everybody has their own understanding of what Elvis was. But I can guarantee you that if you dug up Elvis at 21 [the point in the singer’s then-fledgling career that we find him in the show], there would be people shaking their heads going, “That’s not Elvis!” As it is, I’ve probably driven my wife [actress Nadine Lewington] insane because she’s a real Elvis fan!

Do you feel as if you can relate to Elvis?
In fact, there are a lot of similarities between me and him, not least me being a country boy at heart. I’m a shy, sensitive young man, I like to think, despite being an actor, and you know what they say: “Acting is the shy person’s revenge.” [Laughs.] So I can completely relate to where Elvis is at, especially in a show that gives you Elvis before he became a star—an icon—when he had just done his first film and was this confused young guy who had aspirations and dreams to do something with his music.

Do you find the part exhausting, or exhilarating?
A bit of both! I definitely leave the stage after the show drenched in sweat from head to toe. The thing that’s difficult is changing my whole stance and getting into the physicality of the man—you know, with his head thrown back, and all. It took listening to the voice and to loads of interviews over and over to get it so that I was bringing something into the room that was sort of spot on!

What about the hair?
I do my own hair. I don’t want anyone else to touch that—especially since there’s not too much left up there! [Laughs.] It’s thinning a little bit.

So far, I’ve only seen you play American roles, first at the National and now the West End. Tell us about your background.
I’ve always been a bit of a mutt, so hopefully I fit in with all the mutts in London!

Meaning?
I was born in Beirut, but we were evacuated by the American marines when I was very young and I haven’t been back since. My mother’s half-Arab, half-Italian, though she was born in England, and my dad is Irish-American, which explains the name [Malarkey]. He’s a professor of classics at Antioch College in Ohio and is all wrapped up in that world, though he always takes it upon himself to study whatever I’m doing, even if it’s music. When I was playing in bands, he would study the culture of Metalheads [laughs].

That’s devotion! Your family must be excited about the rumors that are circulating about plans to bring last year’s production of Tennessee Williams’ Spring Storm to Broadway next season.
Yeah, though I’m sure they’ll want “names” playing the various roles. I’m always muttering to [director] Laurie Sansom, “You’re not going to find someone as good as me!” [Laughs] But, you know, I’m not bothered, man. I feel pretty good about the way things are going.