Ahead of The Secret Garden – The Musical opening at YTR in March, we caught up with the some of the cast to find out more about their favourite past performances and what makes actor – musician shows so special.
Hear from Joanna Hickman (Lily), Henry Jenkinson (Archibald), Elizabeth Marsh (Mrs Medlock) and André Refig (Neville), four talented actor- musicians who have just started rehearsals for The Secret Garden – The Musical.
Where are you from/based? Do you have any York/Yorkshire connections?
Joanna: I was born and I’m based in London. My partner Antony is from York, and his family still live there. He played Seebohm Rowntree in last year’s show His Last Report. My dad was actually in the first year to experience York University! I last performed at York Theatre Royal in Angels and Insects, an adaptation of an AS Byatt novel, but we visit every year to see the panto.
Elizabeth: I’m originally from Portsmouth on the south coast of the UK and I’m now based in London. This will be my tenth production at York Theatre Royal, seven of which were directed by John Doyle (although there has been 30 years since the last one). I have many wonderful memories and am very fond of the City of York and the locals; and love the beauty of the surrounding Yorkshire countryside.
How did you get started in the world of theatre/playing music?
André: I started taking piano lessons from my mum at the age of 3 and also took violin lessons with a teacher from the age of 9. I was first in a play in my final year at school. After University, I retrained in Musical Theatre and have been working since then!
Henry: I actually started out as a boy treble in New College Choir. At the time the choir was considered one of the best in the world, and we toured several times a year to places as far as afield as Japan, made about 9 recordings and performed with some of the best ensembles and conductors in the world. The musical education that I was afforded as a result of this led me to be awarded a music scholarship to secondary school, where I was given free piano, singing and clarinet lessons. Then after my voice broke, and I left the choir, I was keen to keep performing but equally keen to shed off the deeply uncool image of being a choirboy, so found myself gravitating towards the (at least in my eyes) much cooler world of musical theatre!
I joined my youth theatre, determined that this was what I wanted to do with my life, and went off to university to study music with a view to going to drama school afterwards, which I then did. However, though I studied music and theatre, and have performed both disciplines separately, this will be the first time I’m bringing the two together to this level in performance.
What was your favourite past performance, and why?
Elizabeth: It’s completely impossible to single out just one to be honest (I have been doing this for over 30 years now) but I’m going to say playing both Rapunzel and Florinda in Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim, directed by John Doyle at York Theatre Royal. It has always been my favourite Sondheim musical, and I absolutely loved our production of it. I also loved playing Mary in Merrily We Roll Along, another Sondheim musical directed by John; being part of that production at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury was fabulous too, both funny and heart breaking. And I’ll throw in a couple of straight plays too: the Marquise de Merteuil in Les Liaisons Dangereuses adapted by Christopher Hampton and Fay in Iron by Rona Munro, both extraordinary female roles in extraordinary plays.
André: I was in the original cast of the current West End production of Cabaret. I originated the roles of Max/Herman and was first cover Herr Schultz and Emcee, so effectively Eddie Redmayne’s understudy. I got to go on a lot for both of those parts and it was quite thrilling!
This adaptation of The Secret Garden – The Musical is an actor-musician production, what do you think makes this type of performance so unique and special?
Joanna: Playing together brings a cast together on stage in a very special way. It makes everyone equal, a band of storytellers. And it really draws the ear (and eye) to aspects of the music. It also forces a creative, non literal approach, which is my favourite kind of theatre.
Elizabeth: I think it’s the nature of the storytelling. It’s honest, delightfully creative and collaborative, and is pure theatre. There’s nothing traditionally naturalistic about it, it can be unexpected, but it speaks deeply to the truth of humanity. Telling the story through both words and music is very special.
Henry: The true ensemble nature of the piece. As an actor I find it deeply moving to be in such a collaborative and supportive company, which is actually quite rare these days. Not because other actors, I’ve worked with are ungenerous (I’ve been very fortunate in this regard), but because most productions partition the company into their separate scenes and you can be left feeling completely unconnected to parts of the story with which you don’t interact. This is the opposite of that. Creatively speaking, the challenge of figuring out how to tell the story while playing your role, singing and accompanying results in some really ingenious and beautiful moments of theatrical magic. Creativity really does thrive under constraint.
André: I think it can make an audience listen to the music more, as they see it being played. I think it also introduces new devices for storytelling and means that every actor in the piece is involved in the whole story.
What do you hope audiences will take away from watching the show?
Elizabeth: I hope they get to encounter a story they might (or might not) already know through fresh eyes, told in a theatrical, fun and inventive way, with fabulous music woven throughout. I would love them to leave the theatre having had an enjoyable experience, appreciating their home, the people they love and the enduring power of the relationship between nature and the human spirit.
Henry: I don’t know yet, but I think something about hope. There’s a quote I came across recently attributed to Audrey Hepburn that goes “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” I think I’d like audiences to take away something along those lines.
The Secret Garden – The Musical opens at York Theatre Royal on 19 March with previews from 17 March and runs until 04 April.
Find out more information and book your tickets here.
Find out more information and book your tickets here...
