Linda Lusardi's Very Special Birthday Present

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The mention of Everton strikes a mischievous chord with Regtransfers' photographer, who just can't resist asking a question that has obviously occurred to Sam and Linda before. When Sam is in Carousel how does he reconcile singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' with his Evertonian loyalties? “Well, the good thing is I never have to sing it, I'm dead. Billy Bigalo is the lead character in Carousel and he's dead by the time that's sung.” Linda points out: “Although you do have to lie on stage dead, listening to it every night!” “Yeah, I do have to listen to it,” Sam admits. “But I wear my Everton shorts under my trousers while I'm onstage.”

For the moment Sam is resting from his stage work, but at Christmas he and Linda are appearing in pantomime in Woking. “We direct as well,” he says. “So it's a really big gig for us this year.” With all this theatrical commitment, Sam must love acting and singing. “It's a ruthless business, it really is. It's full of so many people who want to get in your place, overtake you. I think it's really important just to keep your feet on the floor, and just to treat it as a job - which is what it is, you know. It's a very nice job, it's got lots of trappings, and how many jobs can you do that you wanted to do all your life? But at the end of the day it's still a job and it puts the bread on the table.

“But don't get me wrong: we love it. It's something I've always wanted to do; and Linda's been acting now for seventeen years… which is a lot longer than I've been doing it, so she's got more experience than me, but you know I've just had a few lucky breaks.”

One of those breaks seems to have been the demand for Sam's man's-man aura. “I think there's a shortage of leading men who look like leading men, you know?” he says. “Blokes who look like blokes on stage. But I think it's just important now, I think it's going back to the way it used to be where men looked like men and acted like men. When you're up there doing your role and performing your piece, you've got to look like the part you're playing.”

pantomime

The next project for both of them is the pantomime of Snow White in December. “If it weren't for pantomimes, theatres would close,” Sam says. “They give the theatres six or seven weeks, guaranteed full bookings.” So what kind of production will Snow White be?“Oh it's fantastic,” Linda smiles. “None of your cardboard cut-out horses in this one. It's certainly not your old amateur dramatics type thing. This is a big, lavish, West End style production.” Sam nods. “It's beautiful to look at. It's beautifully lit and the sound is fantastic. Linda plays the wicked queen, she's just sensational.” “And the effects are great,” says Linda. “We have a big flying butterfly this time. Flying rigs are really massive in theatres, and a massive cost too. Then there are all sorts of magical illusions that come in for the transformation from me to the hag. “Then there's the mirror! I did Snow White for seven years as Snow White, and t hen I've played the wicked queen for five years.

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