ANDY McGregor is regarded as one of Scotland’s best theatre writer/directors/musical composers, with soaraway hits such as Crocodile Rock and Spuds in his canon.
Right now, his latest panto, Jack and the Bean Pie, is in rehearsals at Glasgow’s Oran Mor. Yet, remarkably, when growing up in Largs, the young Andrew never believed for a moment that one day his relationship with theatre would extend beyond placing an eager bum on seat.
Despite that world calling out to him like a siren. “I remember dragging my dad to the Citizens’ to see Macbeth when I was about 12,” he recalls, grinning. “And I was such a geek that aged 14 or 15 I pushed my pals to go along to the Theatre Royal to see Henry V.”
What? Did he have to bribe them? “I was a good goalie,” he says, smiling. “I could jump so high. Corners were never a problem.” So, they trusted him? “Exactly,” he laughs. “And the thing is they really enjoyed Henry V.”
McGregor tried to become an actor, auditioning for the Royal Conservatoire, when he was 16. “I never got in.”
He pushed that dream aside and opted for academia. “I did theatre studies at uni, but I still didn’t believe that working in theatre was something I could do for a living. And I hated the course. It was all theory-based. Nothing of it prepared you for the real world. I left convinced that theatre was something for other people to do.”
Out of university, McGregor, unknowingly, created a skill set that would set him up for life. He did some teaching, he was in a pop band (Blind Pew, which suffered the usual travails of landing a record deal and being ripped off mercilessly). He set up theatre schools in Largs and Greenock, which became super successful. “Young people would come in and I’d write a show for them. But I never appreciated that this was a skill I had, that I could do more with. “It wasn’t until I was 30 that I applied to the Conservatoire to do a masters in directing, and that course was great. It also introduced me to people in the business and my first gig was writing music for a producer. I realised that I’d been doing this for years, either in the pop band or creating songs when working with kids.”
He adds: “It took me a long time to realise I had something unusual, that I could do something with it.”
After the awakening, there was no stopping McGregor. He formed his own theatre company and wrote comedy musicals such as Spuds, the Breaking Bad-inspired story of hallucinogenic soft drinks – set in a fish and chip shop – and greed.
He wrote the quite brilliant Crocodile Rock, the story of a young gay man growing up in Largs who becomes a drag star, which was funny and incredibly poignant. Proof you don’t have to have lived the life of the person you create. “I’m not gay, but I did grow up in the west coast of Scotland – and I’m a bit of an oddball, so I understood what it was like to be a bit different.”
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Now, his talents for comedy writing and songs have been channelled into summer panto. Panto, of course, has long been about the poor and the oppressed going up against the financial tyrants. “That’s right,” he agrees. “Our focus this year is on the electricity bills. Every single person in the audience will be able to relate to that.”
The storyline sees plucky young Jack McKack (Rebecca Flynn) enter the Best Pie contest at her local festival, reckoning her bean pie is tastier than a Fray Bentos best. But deranged local farmer Frank (Richard Conlon) reckons he has the top prize in the bag. The devious farmer steals the pie, kidnaps Jack’s mum and tries to uncover the secrets of the wondrous pie of beans. However, Jack and his ageing pop star friend Farty Pellow determine to get Jack’s mum, and more importantly, the pie, back home. Outside of panto land, McGregor’s new autumn show, Battery Park, is set in the Britpop era, featuring a local band in Greenock. It will open at the Beacon in Greenock and tour Scotland. With original music. “Yes,” he says, anticipating the question. “It comes out of the experience I had in my 20s.”
Now McGregor has achieved success, as a writer, director and composer, can he feel part of the theatre world? “I can,” he says. “Now it’s about growing and doing lots of new work.”
Does he ever have a hankering to appear on stage? A sense of feeling he missed out? “It happened last year in the summer panto,” he exclaims. “The Dame became ill, and I had to go on. But I realised I didn’t want to put on all that make-up, take it off and then put it back on the next day.”
He laughs. “I don’t have the discipline. Or the time. It’s not for me.”
Jack and the Bean Pie, Play Pie and A Pint, Oran Mor, Glasgow, July 4-22.
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