WE DIDN'T MAKE IT TO DISNEY!

ADAM MAIDMENT TALKS TO SAM BUTTERY ABOUT PLAYING THE LEAD ROLE IN UNFORTUNATE THE UNTOLD STORY OF URSULA THE SEA WITCH AND THE INSPIRATIONS BEHIND THE CHARACTER

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Melissa McCarthy as Ursula in the live action version of The Little Mermaid

ONE of Sam Buttery’s very first acting roles was portraying the late, great club kid legend Leigh Bowery on Broadway. In terms of early gigs, it doesn’t tend to get much greater than that.

In the years following, Sam, originally from Tamworth in the West Midlands, has starred alongside the likes of Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman, shimmied across the London Palladium as Uncle Fester in The Addams Family, taken on Audrey II in The Little Shop of Horrors and played the Greek fate Atropos in Netflix’s Kaos. The list, quite frankly, goes on.

But for Sam’s next big performance, she’s taking on the role-of-all-roles in the form of the villainous sea witch Ursula.

In fact, it’s a character she says she’s been waiting to play for a long time now.

“I actually applied for this role a few years ago,” Sam tells the M.E.N. as she sits in the auditorium of The Lowry where Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch will play this December and January.

“It didn’t go my way the first time round but when they announced they were bringing it back, I felt like they just had to give it to me this time and that’s what I basically told them. And it's worked out quite well for me!”

The critically-acclaimed parody musical, which is very much not suitable for children, delves into the backstory of Ursula as she explains exactly what went on with Ariel, the Little Mermaid. It’s been described as ‘wickedly camp’ and ‘hilariously naughty,’ which sounds about right.