Children’s favourites Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Kanga and Roo are taking to the stage in a new family musical set in the Hundred Acre Wood. What’s On recently caught up with one of the show’s actors - former Birmingham Ormiston Academy student Alex Cardall... 

As a child, actor Alex Cardall’s second home was Birmingham Hippodrome. Each Saturday he would join a weekly amateur dramatics club for youngsters and, together with his family, regularly watch productions at the theatre.

So this month, when he steps onto the Hippodrome stage in the touring production of Winnie The Pooh, it will be a very special moment for the 26-year-old from Solihull.
“Birmingham Hippodrome was where it all started for me,” says Alex. “I began with BSS Spotlight, which became BSS Showbiz, and it was where I started to sing, act and dance. It was such a special place for me because it’s where I started to learn that this was what I wanted to do as a career. 

“I was five when I first went to do am-dram with Ian Sandy, who used to do BSS Spotlight. My dad was a trumpet player, a very dramatic showbiz man, and he said it would be good for me and for my confidence. I didn’t think I’d want to do it, as I just wanted to play football, but I walked around with my dad and I saw the classes, saw the acting, saw the dancing, and I fell in love with it. So I did BSS Showbiz on Saturdays, then every fortnight I would go to London to see a show.”

Alex set his sights on a career on the stage and gained a place at Birmingham Ormiston Academy, where he studied for a BTEC in musical theatre. He also performed with National Youth Music Theatre and gained a place at Arts Educational School in Chiswick.
Graduating in 2018, he has since performed in a number of shows, including taking the role of singer Andy Williams in the tour of The Osmonds, which visited both Birmingham’s The Alexandra and the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton. 

Winnie The Pooh will be his first time back at the Hippodrome.
“What I always said when I was really young was that I really wanted to do a show on the Hippodrome stage. I remember seeing Slava’s Snowshow there and all the pantomimes, but I never thought I’d be bringing Winnie the Pooh to Birmingham! This is just an amazing experience, an amazing opportunity, and I’m excited to be in a kids’ show at the venue where I started as a kid.”

The hour-long stage adaptation of Disney’s Winnie The Pooh features puppets of all the much-loved characters from AA Milne’s classic stories. It also includes, alongside new music, a number of well-known Sherman Brothers songs, among them The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers and Rumbly In My Tumbly. Premiered off-Broadway in 2021, the production showed at London’s Riverside Studios before embarking on a UK tour this spring.

“It’s primarily a story told through the eyes of Winnie the Pooh, and we are actors with puppets attached to our bodies. We rotate the characters, so one day I play Owl, Eeyore and Rabbit, and that’s mixed in also with Tigger on another day. So each day I’ll have different characters to play. 
“The puppets are quite heavy, so it’s a massive challenge. There’s a lot of self-discipline needed, to make sure you’re looking after yourself, because you are giving so much. Seeing the amazing responses of the audience, you want to make sure you’re giving the best performance every time, as it makes such a difference to people.”

Alex was keen to add another string to his bow by mastering puppetry on stage. 
“Puppetry was new for me, so I had to learn it in four weeks of rehearsal. It was very hard work to make sure we were lip-syncing as well. But learning a new skill was one of the reasons that I took the job - puppetry is a much-needed skill now in theatres. I feel like I’m learning on a daily basis how to make it better every time.”

Although aimed at children aged three and older, Winnie The Pooh is also attracting adult audiences who are keen to take a walk down memory lane.
“There’s an element of mystery and childhood within it, and it’s a really beautiful show for any person of any age. If you’re a child, you certainly relate to it. If you’re an adult, it just takes you straight back to a memory - like a mug in your nan’s room or a cuddly toy that you had as a kid. I think that’s what we are searching for as people - an attachment to our childhood; a memory that takes you back. 

“There are lots of characters in the show that people can connect to. For me, I loved Tigger as a kid - I thought he was such a wonderful character. I think when I was a kid it was the fact Tigger was so sporadic and so frantic - but now I’m older, I feel more Rabbit. I like things to be more inline and tidier!”
Alex is hoping Winnie The Pooh and his part in it will inspire other children to love theatre.
“I’ll be looking at the kids at the meet & greet and thinking ‘that was me’. Being a professional actor and coming back to the Hippodrome and doing a kids’ show there really is a bit of a pinch-me moment.”

by Diane Parkes