An Interview with Jessica-Snow Wilson

She's appeared on Broadway in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Les Miserables, Good Vibrations and Little Shop of Horrors, starring alongside a wide range of performers from Colm Wilkinson, to Nathan Lane, Whoopi Goldberg and Joey Fatone. In the Summer of 2005 though, Jessica-Snow Wilson is playing to smaller audiences, having just finished in the Fringe Festival, and next up – NERDS in NYMF.

Jessica Snow-Wilson's musical career seems almost fated, having been raised by a performing father. His genres of trade are Folk and Country up in Canada, a long way from the Great White Way that she's since found herself upon. Over a bite last week, she took us back to the beginning... Though she describes herself as singing and performing since the womb, what sealed the deal was watching the film version of Annie. "It's pretty embarrassing actually that that's what did it, but I think I was 7 when the movie came out, and I was completely obsessed with it. I saw it in the movie theater about 10 times, and remember thinking 'wow! – that's something that I could do!' and it all started from there.

It's therefore only fitting that Wilson's first on stage appearance was in none other than the title role of Annie in a community production. "It wasn't just a community theatre production, because it was a great community theatre. It was a beautiful house that sat a few hundred people, and it was an amazing experience. I feel like my childhood was that theatre there.

Annie was followed up by You're a Good Man Charlie Brown in school production of the show. What role did she play? "I played Snoopy… I know, I know, a girl playing Snoopy? School production."

After her gender-defying turn as Snoopy came multiple other community and school productions until Wilson hit high school, at which point she did the generally unthinkable for a teenager – she moved out. "I was living on my own throughout high school so I could go to a performing arts school, which was in Toronto. I tried to commute for the first year, which was a killer and then I moved out. I worked at a Canadian Rock and Roll theme park show during my summers, and I saved up $5,000 each summer living at home. When you're 16, 17, that's so much money! I would then live off that money for the rest of the year. The first year I stayed with friends, hopping around couches and didn't get my own place. The second year, I boarded and stayed with a really nice lady, and her husband who charged me $200 a month for rent, so I could afford it."

Her parents were supportive of the move, but then again – did they really have a choice? "Not really, because I knew what I wanted to do from the time that I came out of the womb. They were supportive, but I never asked them, I just assumed that it was ok. They're really lucky that I was a good kid, because I was 16 years old living by myself… All I wanted to do though, was work!"

There can be temptations when one is young, and living on their own, but as a self-described nerd, that was not a problem. "I am kind of nerdy! I've never done a single drug in my entire life, and I'll drink only on special occasions, but I'm a nerd that goes to bed early, does the Sunday Times crossword puzzle with my boyfriend, and plays chess. I'm that kind of nerd. My parents were very supportive, but they didn't really have much of a choice, because even if they weren't I would have taken my own way. They were great though, as many are, having to do all the driving to rehearsals, to dance lessons and all that. My whole family is still up in Toronto, but they come down to see everything I do here."

Living on her own in Toronto helped Jessica-Snow grow up, and she grew right into her breakthrough role at age 17, starring in Anne of Green Gables in Canada. In that show, which was based on the early 1900-novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery she played the lead character of Anne Shirley. "It was my first professional show, and it was a really big, huge deal in Canada, because people up there love the musical. That was a life-changing experience, and I almost had to quit high school to do it, but I managed somehow to stay in and to graduate."

That show's run lead directly into her next gig, in one of the most successful musicals of all time – Les Miserables, in which she was cast by none other than Richard Jay-Alexander. "I auditioned for Richard, and he hired me at age 18 to play Eponine. He was great, and hilarious during my Les Mis experience. I remember him getting into the Eponine coat, and singing for everyone – hilarious!"

She started off in the show's Toronto production as the cover, and went straight from that to starring in the show on Broadway. "I started out as the cover, and of course when you're 18 and you think that the world is yours, I thought 'oh my God, I didn't get the lead role,' but looking back on it now – I just wasn't good enough. I learned a lot as the understudy, and I got to go on a lot which was so important. Then, I got to do it on Broadway, so what's better than that? Not much really!"

Broadway brought Wilson into the spotlight alongside her childhood idle Andrea McArdle. "We did Les Mis together, and when I met her it was hilarious because literally, she taught me how to sing back in my room as a kid. I just listened to her, and imitated it, so to get to work with her was amazing. I loved working with her, and she was generous, kind and sweet, but she would sometimes also make me laugh on stage. I'm surprised that I didn't get fired!"

She's got no fewer than five different companies of Les Miserables under her belt, including the Canadian Production, the Canadian Tour, the Broadway production, the Broadway tour, and the tour's special six month engagement in Toronto. It was during that special engagement that Wilson got to work with the show's original Jean Valjean – Colm Wilkinson. "Colm is very serious about what he does, so committed but he likes to have a good time as well. He's a good guy, and we didn't interact very much because I had one scene with him for about 12 seconds. He was a good guy though, and he loved Canada. When we did the Toronto production with him, the Les Mis creators came up, Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil, and they told us the whole story about writing 'Bring Him Home' for Colm. When he sang it in rehearsal, the whole company cried."

Revisiting the show multiple times exposed Jessica-Snow to some of the perils of long running shows. "It was my temp job really for many years, and it saved my butt as far as money goes. I think that the show is one of the greatest musicals of all time. I got sick of the 'bullshit' that sometimes surrounds people who are in long running shows, and stop caring about it. Of course, putting dirt all over your body was tiring, as was the show, but I dreamed of playing that role, and when you get to do that 8 shows a week, you don't get tired of it. I never stayed with the company long enough though, to be pardon the pun, miserable."

It was during the Broadway run of the show that Wilson started using her middle name as well, 'Snow.' "Right after graduating from high school, I had 5 days off and went right into the Toronto Les Mis, and right after that I came to Broadway. I came to New York with a Broadway show, right out of high school. How many people does that happen to? I was so lucky, and so blessed, because it was the best way to come to New York. Everyone at home calls me Jessica, but when I got here, I didn't know anyone, and there were 3 Jessica's in the company at the time, so people started calling me "Snow" and that's who I was in New York. All of a sudden, I was using my middle name, and everyone thought it was really neat. It just stuck, and now it's weird if people call me Jessica, it's like all of a sudden I'm back home."

Les Miserables was followed up by Zombie Prom off-Broadway, a short experience, but one she describes as 'the best.' "I got a lot of flack for quitting Les Mis for Zombie Prom, but it was such an amazing experience that I'm so glad I did it. It was my first time creating a role, and nothing beats that, nothing. It's hard, but I loved it, and even though we closed, we made an Original Cast Recording, so it lives on forever."

Multiple stints in Les Mis were followed up by a standby role in another Broadway hit, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a role she got due to a bit of costuming luck. I auditioned for the production when it starred Nathan Lane, as a standby for which Jerry Zaks hired me on the spot. He said to me, 'I want to hire you, but you have to fit into the girl's costume, so you need to go downstairs right now and see if it fits you. If it does, you have the job, and if it doesn't, I'm sorry.' I was so scared, and I marched downstairs, tried on her costume and it fit me perfect! I wound up moving to LA for a year and a half, and during the year that I was out there, I flew back a lot to do Forum a lot as a sub. I got to do it with Whoopi Goldberg, and with David Alan Grier, and getting to go on, I loved it. Whoopi Goldberg was amazing, as a person, as a performer – just incredible."

Back in New York full-time, Forum was followed up by the Off-Broadway show I Sing, and the Encores production of Hair! during which she got to work with the always-inspirational Kathleen Marshall, and Rob Fisher. Then came the big New York break – Little Shop of Horrors. "The experience of taking over the part was truly the highlight of my career. The standby thing was hard, because you just want to be up there doing it, but when I took over, it was definitely the highlight of my career thus far. I think that the musical is just perfect, and has no flaws. I think the part is just amazing, and so was the whole cast … I just can't say enough how amazing it was. Joey Fatone was great, he's such a good guy, fun to work with, funny and talented too."

Moving into a role originated by as iconic a personality as Ellen Greene isn't easy, but nor was it too hard. "I was a fan of Ellen Greene, she's brilliant – who isn't a fan of hers? I tried really hard though not to go back to her performance. I used to rent that movie and to watch it religiously when I was growing up. It was a revival and you always steal from the best, but I didn't want to copy her, so I didn't watch it that much. I actually did a benefit that she sang at as well, and she sang 'Somewhere That's Green' which was wonderful but strange for me to watch it after having done it myself."

The Little Shop revival ran its course, and then came the now notorious jukebox Beach Boys Musical, Good Vibrations. "It was a lot of hard work, getting a show up like that so fast that it was underdeveloped, so it was bittersweet because you work so hard, and that it's over before you even start to enjoy it."

Something good did come out of Good Vibrations however, Jessica-Snow met her current boyfriend, the show's director – John Carrafa. "I've been with John since opening night, because he wouldn't date me until the show was up and running, which was actually brilliant, considering all the stress and mayhem. The funny thing with Good Vibrations is just how many people found love during that show. I feel that it wasn't a commercial success, but it did at the very least produce a lot of solid couples that are still together, not a "showmance," they're in love, living together, and that's something to me even if the show wasn't a success. In a way, I like to think that there might have been a greater purpose there to bring some people together."

Audience expectations for the show didn't appear to be too high, but for the cast expectations and hopes were changing constantly. "We were really unsure about what to expect, because the show was changing so drastically from day to day that we had no idea what to expect from the reviews, and all that. Realistically, I knew the critical reaction that the show would get, because it's not their kind of show, it wasn't a show for the critics – especially the Times. The Beach Boys musical? Come on… I expected the critics to be hard on it, but the audience response was actually shocking because they really seemed to have a great time, and that made it so much fun for us. They literally went pretty crazy during that show every night, and loved the Beach Balls that came out at the end. That was surprising and completely enjoyable for us up on stage, because it was kind of like instead of doing a Broadway show we were doing a rock concert with people screaming and singing along."

So would she have done anything differently? "No, I wouldn't change the experience for the world, because you learn during something like that, and I learned a lot during my first time creating a role on Broadway."

This summer, Jessica-Snow Wilson has been adding some credits in smaller shows to an ever-varying resume, appearing in some of the hottest festival shows of the season, starting with Swimming Upstream in the Fringe Festival. So what was it like going from Broadway to the Fringe? "Well, it was different, and it was liberating in a way because doing something for a festival like the Fringe Festival you can get away with a lot, so you don't have to worry. There's no worries like when they're spending 8 million dollars on a show, and everyone has to please everybody. It was an experience of a performance that you could do for yourself, and that was great, because the freedom of the festival was something that I'd never experienced."

One may not think that pressures of that nature fall on actors as well as creative teams, but they do. "In a Broadway show, you do worry as an actor not so much, but actors, directors do confine you to what they think is ok for a Broadway show, be it PG or whatever it's going to be. You're confined to the fact that people are paying 100 dollars a ticket, not 7 dollars, so they have to experience 100 dollars of entertainment. Performing in the Fringe was sort of a chaotic, frenzied experience. Before the first performance, we'd never done it with the set, or in the theatre, and there was no stage! One guy in the cast walked into the set flat on and cracked his nose, so it was all a bit terrifying. It was also very different to get there, and to have another show going on in the theater, so we couldn't even get ready until 15 minutes before the show started. I liked the experimental part of it though."

Performing in shows in the development festivals provide their share of challenges, as well as collective opportunities. "Swimming Upstream was fun, and the cast was great, and so was the 18 year old genius kid who wrote it. Writing a musical when you're in high school that gets produced with Broadway actors, has to be a pretty neat experience, and I think that show can find its audience, and the venue for that audience."

Swimming Upstream represents another milestone in Wilson's career – the last time that she intends to play a teenager. "That was my last, my final fling, I told my agent that I'm not going to do it anymore. I find that it's starting to hold me back, and that I'm not finding it fulfilling anymore to play, because there's only so much that you can do with a character that's 17. I'm really trying to grow up, and it's hard because I've been playing teenagers for my entire career, but I don't only want to be seen for doing that."

Next up to finish out her Festival summer is NERDS://A Musical Software Satire for the NYMF Festival. "It's another Festival show, but the experience has proven to be a lot different, because it's an extremely organized experience. They cast me for NERDS after my first audition, and we're in middle of rehearsals at the moment, and it's going great! I am Steve Jobs' love interest, and Bill Gates' too, sort of, but he doesn't get me, so I'm basically Steve Jobs' love interest."

Is there any chance of the famous pair coming to the show? "We've been joking about how we'd fly out on a private jet, and go perform it for Bill Gates in Seattle, but I don't know. We give him a pretty hard time in the show though, but I'd love it if they came though because it really is hilarious. It's based on a lot of facts, but it's ridiculous, and I would hope that they would find it funny. If they've got a sense of humor than they absolutely will. There's a lot of book scenes, which is great because the book for the show is so strong, and that's really rare in musicals these days. What's best is that I just get to be my inner-nerd, and I'm just blossoming – my dweeb self is coming out in full form!"

How much of a real-life nerd is she? "Oh, there's a huuuuge inner-dweeb, not even so much inner really, but oh yeah, it's there. I'm also a Mac user 100% all the way, sorry to anyone on PCs, but it's great, because I play Steve Jobs' love interest in this."

Performers with a slew of professional credits like Wilson have aided in the legitimacy of theater festivals these days, and that's important because of their place in the future of theater. "I think that they're really important… I don't think that all the shows are good, but I think that they're extremely important. Musicals, especially musicals, are in a crisis right now with all the jukebox musicals, and with people who are putting millions of dollars into them being afraid to not do something safe. I think that this is a way for people to not spend a lot of money, to get to experiment with audiences, with Broadway performers, and hopefully to help in a rebirth for musical theater. I think that they're very important which is why I'm doing it for $350 for 4 weeks of 10-5 a day work. It's tough, but it's worth it."

It's worth it as well, because aside from helping to advance the future of musical theatre, the casts are having a great time as well. "You hope that this is the cast, and they'll move the show with this cast if the show gets moved. That's the Equity rule, so you do it in the hopes of that, and if you really believe in the show, and you want it to get a run, and if it gets a run then you have a great job, so you do it. It's a lot of work, it's a huge gamble, but I'm having so much fun, so who cares? I'm so excited to go to rehearsal every day now."

One wonders what the future has in store for Jessica-Snow Wilson, especially since she's already played what she says are her two dream roles. "I think I've already played my dream roles, because Eponine and Audrey were my two dream roles, and now I'm really dying to create a role. The new trend right now is moving movies into musicals, but what I'd really love to do is to do something that's never been done. That's what I want to do. That's another reason why these festivals shows are so important. I'm really interested in creating a part from scratch, that's what interests me the most – because it's creative, and fulfilling, and that's my dream future role. You don't get much better than the roles that I've gotten to play so far, so I think that my dream role hasn't been created yet. I want someone to create a musical for me, something new, and fulfilling, and that's got some heart, and some depth."

No doubt that the role is out there, and that it'll be only a matter of time before Wilson gets the chance to play it…

NERDS://A Musical Software Satire runs September 20th – October 1st at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. For more information, visit www.nymf.org.