Ann Harada originated the role of Christmas Eve in Avenue Q on Broadway, for which she received an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Ensemble and Artistry in Puppetry and the Broadway.com Audience Favorite Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She is currently reprising her role in the London production of the Tony award winning musical, the only actress from the original company to recreate her role in London.
I caught up with Ann in her dressing room backstage at the Noel Coward Theatre.
You've been with Avenue Q since its first workshop in 2000 and you're now reprising your role of Christmas Eve here in London. What made you want to do the show over here?
Basically just to have the chance to work in the West End. Obviously very few Americans get to do it if they're not big stars. I had left the Broadway company at the end of February and Cameron Mackintosh's office called; the original British actress had dropped out and they needed a replacement right away and I really couldn't say no. To have the chance to work in the West End..
Do you remember what it was like when you first read the script six years ago?
When we started there really wasn't a full script, there was more just a couple of songs and a couple of little scenes. I loved it. I thought it was so funny, so unlike everything else out there and I think that's why I've been with it for so long. It's really fresh and I think it speaks to people who are not musical theatre fans and I'm obviously interested in trying to find things that expand the audience's musical theatre!
Are you finding that the audiences are first timers?
It's not that they're first-timers but I get the feeling like it takes them a while to figure out what's going on, but once they do they really really like it. We get a lot of people coming back.
It seems to already have a big fanbase in London..
Apparently! I mean, they've had the recording I guess for a while, and I hear a lot of
people say 'oh I've had it forever, I can't wait'. I'm pretty stunned about it, but when you go out there and you talk to the people, they're really going for it.
How have London audiences received a show that's very strongly rooted in American culture?
They like it fine, I don't think they're struggling for any of the references. We've changed a few things around but they're so minor – if you didn't know the show really well you'd never know.
What changes have been made for London?
They're so minor – words here and there. We've got a joke about a Euro. I mean, so tiny! The Polack joke got changed to 'French people are such assholes' [laughs] That's gone down very well!
The cast of Avenue Q on Broadway seemed like a very close family. As an originating member of the cast, how are you finding working with new actors on the production?
Oh, they're amazing – they're so lovely, everybody's been so nice to me. It's great to start again with people who are coming to it fresh. Nothing will ever be the same as when we originated it and made it new for the first time - I mean we were all learning about it - but I have the chance to revisit it with a whole new group of people and know that in many ways it's the beneficiary of all of our mistakes that we've made along the way. This production is the best production we can make it. We've tried everything to get it to this point.
