Ben's having the time of his life (From News Shopper)

Ben's having the time of his life

3:05pm Wednesday 8th August 2007

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IT DID not all come to an end for 18-year-old performer Ben Ellis when he finished fourth in BBC 1's Any Dream Will Do competition to find the West End's new Joseph.

In fact, job offers have already been rolling in; his first post-Any Dream show will be The Music of Dirty Dancing at Pops in the Park at Crystal Palace Bowl this weekend plus he has landed the lead part of Link in a massive forthcoming stage production of Hairspray.

When I call Ben for our interview, he is, rather glamorously, in Paris just taking a few days off before embarking on a hectic few months, possibly even years.

So how does he feel about getting his first professional stage job?

He said: "They rang up my agent and said we'd like to see Ben for a part in the show. So I went along for a casting and I sang a song, it was fine and I got the job.

"It's my first job out of Joseph which obviously I couldn't believe as I'm still a wee bairn.

"I was hoping I would start getting some more auditions and castings than what I was before and I was completely right. It has really paid off.

"I think Dirty Dancing, to get at 18, is such a good job and it's such a good learning experience.

"I was just training at college, I hadn't done much really. Just amateur stuff, nothing professional."

Ben hadn't really begun concentrating on his career before he stumbled into the Any Dream. He was just completing his performing arts training. That was until his proud mum intervened.

"It's funny, my mum put me through for it and I wasn't aware that she had.

"So I found out I had an audition for it. I thought I would just go along and a few months later here I am.

"It's all a bit of a blur. It was a great experience, a great time and I learned so much."

Although he was just taking each stage as it came, Ben admits as soon as the competition reached our screens he started taking it far more seriously.

He said: "I didn't expect to get as far as I did, I suppose. I didn't expect to get through the first round. I was just thanking my days I was there. But as soon as I hit the live shows, my competitive streak came out and I just went for it."

Despite gleaming smiles from the wannabes during filming, Ben says it was by no means an easy ride.

"It was very tough and demanding. We were all on our last legs by the end of it.

I found it such a rollercoaster of emotions and physically it just completely drains you.

"But now we've had the TV exposure and people have seen our faces. So people can see us and respect us for our talent now. And that wouldn't normally happen unless you were on TV. I thank everyone for the experience and the exposure."

Exposure isn't a strong enough word, really. Millions of viewers, camera crews and a handful of musical theatre's biggest players; namely composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and producer Bill Kenwright.

Based on this, you would think fighting for your place in a world-famous musical on TV would be a scary prospect but Ben admits he was so pleased to be there he barely even noticed.

"To be honest, it wasn't something I thought about because my background is very theatrical.

"When I went out there on a Saturday night I was performing to the audience in the TV studio and forgetting about the cameras and the seven million people watching.

"But afterwards when you sit and reflect on it, and think My God, eight million people have just watched that', then it's very daunting and it starts off really nerve wracking but it loosens up towards the end."

"I think the most nerve-wracking bit for me was going up against those guys the judges.

"They're very high profile but they're also very well-respected, but to have people like that critiquing you every week has got to be a good thing.

"Sometimes it was constructive and sometimes they were just being rude," Ben said of the panel's criticism. "At first I would get really affected by it but towards the end I was better at getting over it.

"It made me a stronger person. I can take good and bad criticism and I can walk away from it thinking, that's just gone over my head'."

There was never a moment Ben didn't take the competition seriously but he admits, although they were his rivals, he had a great relationship with the other contestants.

"We got on really well," he said. "Obviously, like in any job, you meet a few life-long friends; Craig, Chris B, Dan and Lewis, because I knew him before."

He was there supporting winner Lee Mead on his opening night, too.

"I thought it was great," he said of the West End show. "You know Joseph is Joseph, it will always be the great family show and it will always be loved. I've seen Joseph before and it was just like seeing it then. It wasn't anything new and wasn't anything different. It was a good show and that's what it will always be."

But now Ben is ready to forget about Joseph and concentrate on his very own West End debut.

"Joseph is good but I've just got Link in Hairspray in the West End which is more my kind of part," he said "Hairspray is going to be the next massive musical to hit the West End. I went to a few auditions and have just found out that I've got it.

"It's going to be massive. The film's just come out and the musical is due in October. I'm tied down to that for a year."

In the meantime he's enjoying his current tour and thinks everyone else will too.

He said: "Dirty Dancing is the most well-loved classic film ever. People love it no matter how old they are. Mums love it, grandmas love it and kids love it. That's the beauty of the music. Women, especially, just go mental for it."

"It's hard, because at 18 you never expect these things to be happening," said Ben, trying to sum up his experience.

"A few months ago I was at college, I was doing my ballet, singing class, then all of a sudden I'm on the West End. To be honest, I'm caught up in a whirlwind my feet haven't quite hit the ground.

I'm still not taking anything in. But oh God, I'm loving it. I wouldn't have it any other way. It's just out of this world. I'm getting these offers and opportunities and the fact I can do all of these things, is just amazing."

See Ben in The Music of Dirty Dancing, August 11. Pops in the Park, Crystal Palace Bowl. 7.30pm. For details, call 0870 060 2520.

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