How different will Fatal Attraction seem 30 years after the film?

Part of the fascination will be just how differently we will view Fatal Attraction more than 30 years after the film originally came out.
Fatal Attraction - Kym Marsh, Oliver FarnworthFatal Attraction - Kym Marsh, Oliver Farnworth
Fatal Attraction - Kym Marsh, Oliver Farnworth

The 1987 movie, which so famously starred Michael Douglas and Glenn Close, has now been adapted for the stage, coming to Theatre Royal Brighton from Friday, January 14-Saturday, January 22.

It will star singer and TV actor Kym Marsh (Hear’Say, Coronation Street, Morning Live) as the iconic Alex Forrest and soap star Oliver Farnworth (Coronation Street) as Dan Gallagher.

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When happily married New York attorney Dan Gallagher meets charming editor Alex (Kym Marsh) on a night out in the city, they both commit to a night of passion they can’t take back.

Dan returns home to his family and tries to forget the mistake he has made, but Alex has different ideas.

Dan’s about to discover that love is a dangerous game, and Alex has only one rule: you play fair with her, and she’ll play fair with you.

“Theatre is something that I’ve not done as much of as I would like”, says Kym.

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“When I made the transition from music to acting it was on the back of six months in the West End with Saturday Night Fever and I absolutely loved it. I had the best time and I got a lot of discipline from that, but in terms of plays I have not done an awful lot.

“This was something that I was really missing from my CV and actually this feels almost like my debut when it comes to doing a play.

“And this is a wonderful play, and it is a wonderful opportunity certainly as far as my character is concerned.

“You can’t live up to Glenn Close certainly.

“They are big shoes to fill and I’m not going to try to. If you went into it and started to try to copy, I think that would be an issue.

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“Besides you want to try to bring something new – especially when someone else has played it before and played it so unbelievably well.

“You want to do it rather differently, but also the stage version is not exactly the same.

“There are little differences, but really I think it’s just really important to tell the story.”

And it will have different resonances now.

“A lot of people are talking a lot more about mental health these days and I think that’s important to raise.

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“The 1980s were a long time ago and things were different then.

“Obviously no one should go around boiling someone’s pets! There are extremes!

“But I think now we would try to understand why she is like that. And you get that in this.

“You do get a sense that something has happened in her life. She has not had an easy time, and certainly in the stage adaptation it all digs a little bit deeper into Alex. She is someone who needs help. She really does.

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“She wants to be loved. She definitely needs to be loved and would love to have a family that she has so longed for. She is a very vulnerable character.

“She comes across as very confident certainly at the beginning but as time goes on you chip away at that. She is very, very vulnerable and not very well.”

One of the lingering questions has always been what happened to Dan at the end: “Did he just go back to his old life? Glenn Close gets shot in the end. She was trying to kill everyone. But what happens to Dan? He did something and he gets away with it.

“I do think it will be very interesting especially if you if you have not seen Fatal Attraction before. I watched it with my son.

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“He’s 26 years old. My children all grown up apart from one.

“And I think it still transfers so well. It is not one of those movies that used to be so brilliant but now you watch it and you are disappointed.

“You still have that sense of wow. And my future daughter-in-law said ‘I am scared of that woman!’”