Interview: Emma Williams of GATSBY - A MUSICAL at Cadogan Hall

Having performed in a semi-staged concert workshop back in 2019, Emma Williams is returning to play the role of Myrtle Wilson in Gatsby - A Musical, adapted from F Scott Fitzgerald's iconic novel by director Linnie Reedman with music and lyrics by Joe Evans.

A concert production filmed and performed under COVID-19 guidelines at Cadogan Hall, it will be available to stream online for three days only, Feb 12-14.

Williams chats to us about juggling acting and motherhood, writing her first novel and the roles she'd love to play.

How are rehearsals going and what can audiences expect from Gatsby - A Musical?

We don't really know right at this moment in time. Because of COVID-19, we've had to do most of the rehearsing from home, which is so bizarre when you're used to being in the room with everybody. It's been a very different process in many respects, and I think it's the third time we've rescheduled. Originally it was meant to be a concert for everyone to come and see, as well as streamed, and it just keeps shifting.

Hopefully this time we've managed to make something completely COVID-secure, because right now there's a real need for people to get live theatre, but the only way forward for us at the moment is streaming. I miss being in the theatre!

Those cancellations must have been hard to deal with?

I think it's been very hard for everyone across the industry at the moment. Streaming is the safest way to guarantee that the work happens.

We've had lots of time to work on this, though, and we're going to have a fantastic live band with a full proper line-up, which is amazing. The result is providing a lot of employment for people: this will be a much fuller production than the previous one I was part of.

Speaking of the band, your husband James Newton will be playing drums in the show. Are you excited to share the stage together again?

Yeah, it's really lovely for us that we get to work together. We don't often get to do that, as we don't tend to do the same kind of shows.

It's actually a big help too, because it means there are fewer households involved. Charlotte Wakefield, who's playing Daisy Buchanan, and her fiancé Marc Rhys is playing Tom Buchanan, so that's nice as well.

Does appearing in work adapted from another format - so in this instance, something that began as a classic novel and has spawned four films - help or hinder the creative process when you're trying to immerse yourself in the character?

I'm known for working on new productions, but when I look at my CV there's very little work that's actually been a brand-new concept. There are shows like Love Story, Mrs Henderson Presents, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and even Bat Boy The Musical was derived from an article. I suppose it goes back to that concept of seven basic plots, and everything stemming from those concepts.

Most work is often derived from other things, and for me it just provides an additional set of reference points to look at and research. Then I strip back what the author intended, what's necessary for the character and what interpretations they invite so I can put my own spin on it.

When you take over a role, it's so much harder because you have to look at what the actor who came before you did, decide what you want to keep, what you don't, what's theirs, what's yours and unpick all the thread and restitch it back together again.

Do you think the themes within Gatsby - A Musical resonate now in particular?

There's a lot of darkness to Gatsby! Sometimes people forget how tragic the story is, because it's all dressed up in the beauty of the 1920s.

But it also has an element of hope to it. We're going to really see the impact of Gatsby's story on Daisy, because the timeframe takes place between the early and late 1920s, so you really go on a journey with her. I think that will give it a bit more of a positive spin, because you see her having come out of this experience.

I think it's probably a more fulfilling ending than you necessary get with Fitzgerald's novel.

You've taken part in a couple of online theatre productions over the last year. Are there any you've watched as an audience member that you've really enjoyed?

Yes, we've been watching both new and old ones. One of the first ones we watched was One Man, Two Guvnors, as I loved that show when I first saw it and it was really nice to see again with my husband because we didn't know one another back then.

The National Theatre performance brought back so many wonderful memories, and I think we forget that's something theatre does: it ignites and sparks your memories, especially with music in particular. It's one of the reasons I've loved working with dementia projects in theatre, because you don't realise quite what impact live theatre has on someone who has memory issues, and you can't escape that emotional feeling that music brings to a person, which lasts and resonates long after the visual memory has disappeared.

It's been interesting to see online theatre developing, and it shows just how resilient our industry is in terms of adapting and changing. I hope we'll do more digital theatre in the future, alongside the live productions. It's the first time I've ever done something which my family in Yorkshire can see at the same time as my friends in London. That is the beauty of this format.

At the moment, it's about trying to find the positives in a really terrible time for our industry. I don't think digital replaces live performance in any respect - I don't think you can ever replace the feeling of sitting in a theatre - but sometimes when that's not possible, this gives people more options.

How have you been coping with the lockdowns?

During the first lockdown I was approached to do some concerts from home, which was thrilling to be asked and I would have loved to, but unfortunately at that point I had a four-month-old baby. I had to say, I'm really sorry but I have nowhere in my house that I can sing where my baby won't be screaming and trying to sleep.

It's been pretty intense. My poor daughter, I stole her nursery the other day for a readthrough because it was the only place I could do it.

You made your professional debut at age 18. What's been the biggest change in the industry since you started out?

Those types of changes happen so gradually that you don't necessarily see them happening.

The advent of reality TV shifted a lot of things for performers. It gave them a platform in terms of the shows that were put on and allowed people to finally step up to roles they should have always been playing. I was very fortunate that I was in the right place at the right time to be discovered.

But reality TV also brought back some of the difficult things of celebrity that isn't necessarily earned or warranted, and that's made it harder for other people to get jobs because of a saleable name. Let's be honest, though: this is a business and you can understand why that happens, and that some people get roles that ordinarily, thirty years ago, would have gone to somebody completely different.

The industry is constantly changing, and we have to change and adapt with it; you adapt, or you don't thrive.

Digital theatre when it first started was an incredible thing, because there are so many people that don't get to go to the theatre, and it's not just the cost of tickets, it's everything that goes with it. I'd only seen three West End shows before appearing in my first West End show and that's crazy.

I'd seen Chicago on my 16th birthday, Blood Brothers when I came down to potentially sign with my London agent when I was 17, and The King and I on my 18th birthday. I remember sitting at the very back of the London Palladium, up in the gods with my mom and my brother, and I said to my mum, "I'm going to be on that stage one day", and less than a year later I was [playing Truly Scrumptious in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang].

You've been nominated for four Olivier Awards and appeared in a range of hit West End productions - what would you love to do next?

There are so many roles that exist that I'd love to do, particularly Rodgers and Hammerstein: that golden era sits very nicely in my voice.

I would love to play Dot in Sunday in the Park with George, or Anna in The King and I. I'd love to do Sweeney Todd, and as much as I'd like to play Mrs Lovett, I'd love the chance to try and sing Sweeney.

I love creating roles and new characters, so whenever they announce new shows, I'm thinking, "ooh! could I play that?'".

I'd also like to try my hand at directing. I've worked with some amazing female directors and been fortunate to learn from them, and there need to be more in our industry. I've worked with Rachel Kavanaugh twice [including Love Story, pictured above], Hannah Chissick and Ruth Carney, and it's really important that those female voices get heard, because they change how you approach a piece.

On the flipside of that, are there any roles you'd love to revisit?

It'd be nice to play Meredith in Bat Boy The Musical, just so I've done both of the female leads in that show [Shelley Parker is the other].

I'd also love to revisit Annie Get Your Gun. I loved playing Annie [on touropposite Jason Donovan], and I wish we'd had longer to do it because I had such a blast on that show.

I have been fortunate to be able to revisit a couple of roles, and it's interesting how you play the same role in a different production and it changes the experience entirely.

During lockdown you wrote and shared an emotional reading about coping during the pandemic - did you intend to share it and what was the response?

I write a lot, and most of it is just written in notes on my phone which I delete and don't do anything about. I've been editing my first novel on and off for about a year now, because trying to find time to edit when you've got a baby has been really hard.

I wrote that poem late at night on my phone, and it was just stream of consciousness. I struggle with sleeping and sometimes I just have to get out what I'm feeling, write it down, and then I can sleep. The following day I told James what had happened, read the words out to him and he thought I should record them. Then the baby went down for a nap, James went to the supermarket, and I thought, "sod it, why not?'" I recorded the poem and uploaded it before I had given it too much thought: the point is, you don't know who might need to hear what you've written and who might benefit.

The response to my video was interesting. Some people sent messages saying I was just acting, or that it was just baby blues. But there were other people that reached out to say they felt that way too, so the ability to offer comfort was important, as well.

Can you tell us a bit more about your book?

It's called The Death and Life of Agnes Grey and is about a slightly eccentric and wayward octogenarian, who in a bid to live a little before she dies goes on an adventurous gap summer with her eighteen-year-old grandson. It's about challenging the concept of the place of women in society and particularly the place of older women and how we brush them off.

I put it out for an agent probably about a year ago, and I had a couple of full manuscript requests. The feedback was that it's good, but I needed to do a little bit more work. Since then, I've taken some brilliant courses and am with a group called Jericho Writers who are fantastic at helping novelists.

My hope is that I can get through this edit and fix those tiny fundamental issues that were getting in the way and hopefully find a book agent for it. I'd like to adapt it for TV as well. At the moment, though, time is bizarrely not available, mostly because I have a tiny person to look after.

Lastly, why should people buy a ticket to Gatsby - The Musical?

At this moment in time, we all need a little bit of escapism, and how better than to go 100 years into the past and witness amazing music with glorious performances. Just let yourself breathe for a couple of hours, forget what's going on at the moment and live in somebody else's experience.

Whilst you can't sit in a plush velvet seat in the darkness, you can turn the lights off in your own room, sit close to the television or your computer and maybe get yourself a wine and pretend you've paid a lot of money for it in a plastic glass. Why not get dressed up for the night and treat it like a date, because that's all we can do at the moment and we've got to do everything we can do to make it feel special and to enjoy being taken away for a couple of hours.

Gatsby - The Musical is available to stream between 12-14 February 2021. Tickets are on sale now.

Photo credit: Ruth Crafer

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