INFORMAL: INTERVIEW WITH STEVIE DOC

INFORMAL - AN INTERVIEW SERIES

STEVIE DOC

Stevie Doc won the 2023 TV show Mamma Mia! I Have A Dream alongside Tobias Turley and then joined the West End company of Mamma Mia! as the show celebrated its 25th anniversary, playing the leading role of Sophie. Stevie was nominated fothe WhatsOnStage Award for Best Professional Debut Performance for her role in the ABBA based musical.

She is now reuniting with Tobias for a special one-off concert STEVIE DOC & TOBIAS TURLEY: HERE WE GO AGAIN at London's iconic Cadogan Hall on Saturday 10th May 2025.

After we'd chatted about our shared love of dogs we began discussing her upcoming concert. I was interested to know how the idea had come about: "Tobias messaged me and suggested the concert and I thought it was an incredible idea, so we have him to thank. I agreed and went with it and here we are!"

And how did they even go about making the idea a reality?: "Tobias put the idea to the producer Jamie (Lambert) and then our agents got involved and from there it was working out what we're going to do and how. It all happened very quickly and I'm excited."

I wondered how much imput she had into the content of the concert: "It's very much collaborative. It is our baby and our concept. We've had a chat and shared ideas about what we want to do, but it has to all be signed off. We're hoping to finalise the set list next week, so it's all happening."

And what can we expect from the concert?: "We've got some special guests which are being announced very soon. There'll be some duets, some performances with the guests and there'll be some solos too. It looks like there will be quite a lot of duets and I think they're a bit more interesting than someone just standing on stage and singing, and if there's two of us then we may as well utilise that."

-- Since this interview took place it has been announced that the special guests are Jacob Fowler and Esme Bowdler. --

Having followed their journey through the TV show and onto the West End, this is a wonderful opportunity for the audience to see the two perform together again: "We're very aware of our situation and how we've been catapulted into this industry and it's been an incredible experience. We're very conscious of the fact that we won a competition together and now that Mamma Mia is done we probably won't work together again. We might but it won't be a common occurrence so I think it's really nice to have a little concert together. There might be some ABBA stuff that people have seen us do before but we'll also get to show our friendship and how we perform outside of Mamma Mia."

I wondered how Stevie felt about her experience of being propelled into the public eye and onto the West End stage, joining an established show for its 25 year anniversary: "It was incredible, I loved every second of it. Musical theatre is something I discovered when I was about 14 or 15, so quite late really. When I got into my school my biggest dream was to be a lead in the West End and it happened straight out of drama school so it was like a whirlwind. That year of being on the TV show and having my West End debut was the best year of my life so far, and I really think I'll struggle to have anything that will top that excitement. Maybe I will, I'm only 23! It's actually hard to explain how amazing it was. I actually find it really hard to put into words how that year was for me. I wish I could relive it all again."

Stevie is a warm and friendly character, full of energy. But did she get nervous or daunted at all?: "I never really got anxious or worried, it was all just excitement! I felt excited the whole time! They say you get the same symptoms whether you're anxious or excited. Shaking and all those sort of things that come with those emotions are the same, and I think it purely depends on your outlook on what's going on at that point. Yes, it was my West End debut and yes, I was nervous, but I was so excited about it that all of my emotion for it was joy and happiness."

A big moment for Stevie was her WhatsOnStage Award nomination for Best Professional Debut Performance: "I cried. I came out of a class, looked at my phone and had a message saying "congratulations" and I didn't know what I was being congratulated for! I couldn't believe it. To be in the category for Best Debut can only happen once in your career so the fact that I got nominated was just amazing. Knowing the nominations came from the public was incredible, and the fact people wanted me to win this award was such a lovely feeling. It was really special because it meant people saw me as a musical theatre performer and not just the winner of a TV show."

Coming off of the TV show and then into 8 shows a week must have been a daunting experience and I wondered how Stevie managed to adapt and look after both her mental and physical health at the time: "It was a lot harder than I expected it to be. I knew it was going to be hard and in my head I tried to prepare for it but it was harder than I thought, in ways that you wouldn't actually expect it to be. It wasn't physically if I'm honest, it's the mental exhaustion and that then does affect the physical. Mentally it was actually really hard."

She recollects a moment a couple of months into her contract: "I remember a performance where in 'Money Money Money' all I had to do was lift my arms up but I felt that I couldn't even do that because I was so tired. It was as if my arms weighed twice my body weight, I just couldn't lift them. I didn't understand what was wrong with me. Our choreographer asked me if I was okay and I burst into tears. Emotionally I'd hit a wall. My character Sophie barely left the stage and I just didn't realise the mental toll it takes to be switched on constantly for the two and a half hours of the show."

A true professional though, Stevie managed to work through it and always got a tremendous buzz during the show's finale: "It was my favourite part of the show! The audience would be up on their feet, singing along and dancing. You can tell everyone's enjoying themselves and it was always a massive eruption of joy and fun."

I wondered how she'd learnt to deal with the mental exhaustion: "The director spoke to me and said it was to my detriment that I was doing every show like it was my first one, and went through the show with me and looked at times when I would be able to relax a little bit. It was always an option for if I was really struggling on a certain day. My singing teacher was also really good, giving me different vocal techniques to help me manage."

As she says: "Musicals are a marathon! At the start it is crazy tring to figure all these aspects out but by the end it has become second nature."

Looking to the future I asked Stevie if she has any dream roles or shows: "Looking at shows that are on right now, I'd love to be Cady in Mean Girls. That would be very fun. It'd be great to do some new musicals and originate a role. I'd also really love to do a live-action Disney film - specifically I'd love to play Rapunzel."

STEVIE DOC & TOBIAS TURLEY: HERE WE GO AGAIN

Cadogan Hall, London

Saturday 10th May 2025 | 7:30pm

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

Interview conducted by Neill Kovacic-Clarke for Pink Prince Theatre on 03/04/25

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