Interview: Kyle Riabko - All About CLOSE TO YOU!

Hi Kyle, thank you so much for talking to us. The blurbs say that you began working on the show after meeting Burt Bacharach - what a meeting that must have been.

I was asked to sing some demos for him when he was writing some new material, so that was exciting, and I just assumed I'd be a hired gun, in and out and that's it. When I got to the studio, it was, not to sound cheesy, one of the most magical moments in my career. I realised I was in the presence of a genius and this was not something I wanted to just leave. Burt and I really got along - it was him and a piano, and me in the vocal booth, and the friendship started there. My friend and manager David Seltzer was there, and he said, "Wouldn't it be nice to hear Kyle approach some of your entire catalogue?" Burt said, "Yeah, I'd love to hear Alfie!" So I went home and started thinking about how to conceive this project.

If you thought about it too much, I guess you'd be really gobsmacked and spend your entire time thinking, "Wow, Burt Bacharach really loves what I do!"

It's unbelievable! I would go to my studio and arrange 15 minutes of the show at a time, and then I would take each of those chunks to Burt's house to get his approval. I was excited about that and ready to show him, then I got there for the first time and realised I was pressing play on a boom-box in Burt Bacharach's house - playing him me singing him for him in a room and all of a sudden my palms became as sweaty as they've ever been! It was nerve-wracking. Then he listened and looked up and said, "It's good, Kyle," and that was one of the greatest moments of validation I could ever have.

Everything I've ever read or seen about him indicates he's a really nice, really supportive person to work with, and it sounds like you found that.

He's become something of a mentor in a lot of ways, and I consider myself one of the luckiest musicians in the world to have him on my cellphone. It's amazing. The mission of this show is to show as many people as possible just how important Burt's music is to all of us. As much as the show is a great opportunity for us to be on stage and perform, it really is about rediscovering just how embedded Burt's music is in all of us - and to celebrate it. It's an amazing catalogue, and it's important to me that not only the generation who already loves him understands that, but also a new generation who perhaps don't know it yet.

You had a lengthy run in New York before you came to London - were you taken aback as to how well it's gone down, or were you expecting it?

I didn't know it would be received so well - it was just a passion project of ours, and it was really amazing the way that people responded to it, so it was an exciting and surprising experience, and then equally so bringing it to London and seeing how excited the London audience was and how earnest their love for Burt's music is. It was really special. That wasn't surprising - Burt always said to me, "You've got to get this to London," because he has an affinity for London - he feels the people here discovered him before they did in North America, so it was wonderful to see that translate across the Atlantic.

Have you made any changes for the Criterion run?

It's the same - minor tweaks for the setting - but it's the kind of show that's very mobile. It's the same bone structure as it's always had.

How do you go about casting for this show? What are you particularly looking for?

It's a tricky show to cast. What we're looking for is veteran musicians with a lot of experience who are in their mid twenties! You have to find people who were prodigies. It's a tough task. We didn't do traditional theatre auditions - we went to schools, like here the BRIT School, and search for students and alumni who were brilliant. Often we would meet a bass player who knows a drummer who's friends with a guitarist and we'd go on this journey. I brought over three of my friends from America to be in the show because I knew they worked so well. It's more like putting a band together than a show.

And do you have a favourite Bacharach song, or are you not allowed to?

It changes on any given night. 'Alfie' is probably my favourite, partially because it's Burt's favourite. The lyrical content - Hal David wrote that so beautifully - there's something about it you can learn from. It's a very deep song.

Close To You runs at the Criterion Theatre.

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