BWW Interviews: CHESS's Shona White

 

Hi Shona, welcome to BWW:UK. How's the tour going so far?

The tour is going very well indeed. We only have two weeks left now, I can't believe it has gone so quickly. We had a great week in Dublin recently! We have had fantastic audiences and seen lots of different cities.

Sounds like fun! This production of Chess seems quite different from others in the past; can you tell us a bit more about that?

The main difference is that it is an actor-musician show, which means we don't have an orchestra. The instruments are all played live on stage by the actors who also sing and dance and find themselves in all sorts of interesting positions. Craig's [Craig Revel-Horwood] choreography and direction is very ballsy and provocative, as you have seen, so this also sets our production apart from previous versions.

I did notice that gold lamé featured rather heavily, too! So it seems you're the queen of the glockenspiel in this production...how is that working out for you?!

[Shona laughs] Yes! I have become a whiz at the glockenspiel. Craig was determined that the principals should all play something. I have become quite attached to my Ggock...I definitely have acquired a new skill.

How does it feel singing the iconic 'I Know Him So Well', as well as other great numbers like 'Nobody's Side'?

I love singing these iconic songs. 'Nobody's Side' is my favourite, as I love a big belty number I can get my teeth into. I think they are really well written by the Abba boys, who incidentally came to see us in Glasgow last week. I hope I did them justice.

What's your favourite scene to perform and why?

I think apart from 'Nobody's Side', my favourite is the whole end section where I am left by Anatoly, who goes back to his wife. I am thrilled to get to close the whole show with a reprise of the iconic Anthem...it's a very powerful moment.

Any hilarious onstage mishaps that you'd like to fill us in on?

There have been a few mishaps but the funniest probably happened just the other week. In the boxing match scene, Molokov's line should be "I wish you would refrain from cheap political jibes....". However, Steve, who plays the character, was distracted by looking at my cleavage and said the word 'jugs' instead of 'jibes'! Such a fantastic Freudian slip! It was incredibly hard to keep it together for the rest of the scene.

I can imagine! Are there any venues coming up that you're particularly looking forward to, and why?

Dublin and Edinburgh have been my favourite venues so far. We finish the tour in Trieste, Italy, which I hear is a beautiful place so we are very lucky. We're also taking the show to Toronto later this year which is incredibly exciting...who knows, maybe after Toronto we will have a West End transfer...

I hear you have an album on the way; can you tell us a bit more about that?

My album will be a mixture of established musical theatre songs and new writing with a few standards and even a wee Scottish folk song thrown in there too. It will hopefully be released in the summer. It's been a long time coming but I hope it's going to be a good one...fingers crossed!

Sounds great! Thanks, Shona! All the best for the rest of the tour.

 

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