An Interview with Ann Harada

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.

Has the rehearsal process differed in London? Obviously a lot of the actors in New York had come from Sesame Street so had already had a head start..

The puppeteers started rehearsals first. I came late anyway because I just couldn't get my Visa in time! But it's been pretty smooth. We've changed it a little bit but nowhere near to the extent where we were rewriting in New York.

There's a lot of references to race in the show. As an ethnic actor yourself, what are your thoughts on colourblind casting?

I think it's great if there's a reason, or if it's not just being done to be different. I think there are some plays and musicals that lend themselves more easily to it than others, obviously. I'm not interested in it in a sensational kind of way, like.. "just for the hell of it let's do something all black, because we can!". I think there has to be some sort of artistic vision behind that sort of thing.

Obviously as an Asian actress I'm very interested in colourblind casting, I support colourblind casting, I don't think there's enough of it. But I also feel that as an actor all you really want to do is serve the text, so if it doesn't make sense there's really no point to doing it. That being said, I think it's really important for specific roles to be cast specifically; I wouldn't want to see the non-Asian Christmas Eve or the non-black Gary Coleman.

At the moment in London there's a Chinese Billy Elliot and a black Billy Elliot.

Well that's fantastic! I mean, how universal is that? Everybody feels that the whole point of Billy Elliot is you're trying to be all that you can be, you're trying to express yourself – and that's universal, so why wouldn't that be fine?

You recently filmed a role in the independent film Feel, can you tell us a bit about that?

It's set in an Asian massage parlor and it's all about four men and the women that they're paired up with - their masseuses - and the relationships they have with each one of them develops over the course of the day. I'm one of the four girls, and I got to do most of my work with Kevin Corrigan, who you might know from Grounded for Life on Fox.

Do you prefer stage work?

I do, I prefer stage work. It's more immediate and I feel like so much of your work on film can be manipulated by camera angles and the director, and – for me - film is so much a director's vision because you're looking through his eye and he sees what he wants to see. On stage, yes, there's a director's vision and you see what he wants to see but you are allowed to bring so much more of yourself to the whole process and I feel it's much more collaborative. I just like the process of rehearsing; there's rehearsing done in film – I'm sure there'd be much more rehearsing done if it was a big budget film – but it feels much more like you're on your own, whereas theatre is completely collaborative.

Avenue Q famously won the Tony Award over hot-favourite Wicked. This year you'll both run against each other for the Laurence Olivier Award as well. Why do you think Avenue Q was the ultimate winner?

[laughs] I don't know that it is! I feel like there's a lot of other competitors in that pile, a lot of things are opening this season. I don't really think of it as competition! [laughs] I know everybody says that but I mean you cannot compare – it's ridiculous. I think people will like both. I think they always have and always will like both. They're not the same piece at all, and.. it could be Spamalot! It's just what people like that day.

It's a good time for Broadway stars to come over – Idina Menzel, Nathan Lane, Tim Curry and now you..

[laughs] Oh yeah.. and me(!). Me bringing up the rear on that one! I'm here through the middle of November. And then? Nothing! I just want some time off.

Have you managed to see any shows whilst in London?

I haven't yet.. I'm planning to go see Dame Judi Dench in Hayfever and I'm very excited about that! We just haven't had a whole lot of free time. I really want to see Billy Elliot, I want to see Sunday [in the Park with George].. I mean, there's so many things I'd like to see.

What are your favourite shows as a performer and as a fan?

That's a good question.. I loved doing Falsettolands – I think as a performer that was one of my favourites to do, that was an all-Asian production and that really worked for some reason. As a fan? I loved Sweeney Todd and Nicholas Nickleby. The Broadway revival is really wonderful, it's great. I think there's something about those particular plays; they're Victorian London plays, there's something about the storytelling in both of those shows that I think is really lovely.

Are there any messages you have for your legion of fans out there?

My legion of fans(!). You know, I know that there are fans out there… [laughs] I'm just a Mom, I just feel like a Mom who goes to work and goes home. I'm thrilled that Avenue Q is coming to London, I'm hopeful that London will give it a chance, and if there's anybody on the planet who hasn't seen it yet now you have two places you can see it!