London Calling with Champagne Charlie:1/6/09:Samantha Spiro: The Bard and Dolly!

Summer's here and with it brings a host of theatrical events in new or as yet undiscovered places.
One staple of the UK summer scene, though, is the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre season. Open to the elements, come rain or shine, top creatives and cast stage classics, revivals and new work within its gorgeous grounds in the centre of London.

We caught up with lead Samantha Spiro preparing herself for her first preview of Much Ado about Nothing later that evening and the opening of Hello Dolly later in the season firmly on her mind.

Champagne Charlie: How did you get the part? 

Samantha Spiro: I got a call from the current choreographer of our show who had worked with me before. On the answerphone was the message, "I just wanted to plant the seed. What are your thoughts on Hello Dolly?" First thing I thought was, "Hang on, I am far too young." Then I looked at the history of the show, and actresses had played it at all ages. Then I listened to the score and I thought, "Gosh, it's fantastic. This is for me." I got all excited! 

Then the director Tim Sheader also called and left a message inviting me for a cup of tea to discuss possibly doing the role and more. I waited and waited for the final call but thankfully he came through and we met. Not only that, he offered me the part of Beatrice in Much Ado as well, after I came in and sang a couple of songs from the show. I very quickly heard I'd got it. I was over the moon.  

Champagne Charlie: What sort of preparation do you do for each part? 

Samantha Spiro: Well, learning it for a start! I'm performing as Beatrice in Much Ado now, but in four and a half weeks I have to get the words and songs for Hello Dolly right at least. It's getting the boring stuff out of the way so we can have fun in the rehearsal room. 

Champagne Charlie: What other performances have you used as background to preparing for your version of the parts? 

Samantha Spiro: I have to approach everything as if it is a new production. I had seen the Kenneth Branagh film of Much Ado about Nothing which I thought was wonderful and I played it on radio a few years ago as well. So I am aware of it as a play but I think the most exciting way for me to work is to read it as a new play and get rid of the ghosts of all the other productions and actresses that have played it before, which frees you up to play it as you want. 

With Funny Girl last year, I watched the Barbra Streisand film but I didn't go near it after that. I got rid of that completely. 

Champagne Charlie: So how about Beatrice, how do you play her?  

Samantha Spiro: I feel as though that she's a woman at the start of the play who has decided she is fine without men. In actual fact she thinks she is both equal and slightly above men. As a woman she is totally at one with herself as she can't have the man that she wants. She is an amazingly modern woman. The language she uses is modern and she is in a world that is confined by a society that isn't modern. But she's very, very happy with that - but of course there is something that is melancholic within her, as she hasn't got that man she would ideally like, because whenever they get together things turn into a catfight. He is the only man who has broken her heart. At the beginning we meet a woman who is very solid and we then see her start to crumble in the middle and by the end has her man (Benedict) but being tricked by her friends. They do manage to fall in love with each other and get more of an understanding of each other in the process. 

Champagne Charlie: Why do you think these Shakespearean classics resonate now? 

Samantha Spiro: They are very modern works. We have been up and running for two nights with Much Ado and we are seeing this with the audience reaction. It's very satisfying to see two people who have everything on the surface against them but at the end - getting it together. It's great for the audience. It's a true ensemble. What you see up there is a very modern play all dressed in Elizabethan costumes in the middle of one of the prettiest parks in Europe! 

Champagne Charlie: What about Dolly Levi in Hello Dolly? 

Samantha Spiro: I think she is a genuine, honest human being and I think she has come out of a period of mourning for her first husband. She has decided at this fairly young age of being a widow she wants another crack at life. The root of Dolly is that it's a woman who is looking at life and saying, "I want more." The first thing that she is going to do to get more is do what she does best and that is to meddle! 

Champagne Charlie: Why does Hello Dolly appeal now? 

Samantha Spiro: Dolly is a classic. The music is wonderful. The dancing is great. It's a real extravaganza but it's got heart and I think especially these days people want to plug into that. 

Champagne Charlie: Looking at your career, it's been so varied. Are you the sort of person who takes gambles? 

Samantha Spiro: I have never thought of myself as someone who searches out a gamble. When a certain job comes and you feel it's going to take you into the unknown - it's the sort of job you crave. Funny Girl was a huge job for me in terms of the fact that I am not somebody from a musical theatre background and I initially thought when I was actually offered it that it might be out of my reach. But it was something I thought, "If I can achieve this I am going to feel good about it." 

Champagne Charlie: Tell me about the times when things have gone wrong but you managed to rescue them. 

Samantha Spiro: Funnily enough, at drama school on our final production, the audience was full of agents and important types there to sign you up or not. During a routine my shoe got caught and I went head over heels and fell onto my back in the middle of the song. In the audience was Ian Talbot who then ran the theatre here at Regent's Park. Whatever it was that I did when I got up to rescue things he took a note of my name and said to me afterwards, "You are coming along to Regents Park this summer to perform!" 

That was 18 years ago and off the back of it I got my first job. Judi Dench directed me here in The Boys of Syracuse by Rodgers and Hart. I also got the part in a production of A Midsummer's Night Dream they were doing too! 

Champagne Charlie: What about the fact that you are in the open air and the rain can come pouring down? 

Samantha Spiro: If it's raining at 8pm when the show goes up, the performance is put on hold. If it rains we all stop and wait but it's amazing how everybody is good natured. There is something quite wonderful about it. The cast and the audience go on this journey together. It can be really be fun but as we are in for a really nice summer we should be alright. 

Champagne Charlie: Now imagine Broadway World could have you cast in anything else after this - what would it be? 

Samantha Spiro: I hate these questions! Funnily enough the last time I was asked this was after Funny Girl, and my answer then was "I'd like to play another fantastic lead in a musical." That was long before the offer of Hello Dolly came around. I suppose then I'd better make another one. I tell you what I'd like to do: as I have done a lot of productions of classics, I'd like to do a brand new piece of work that is very contemporary, at somewhere like the Royal Court. Just recently Alexi Kaye Campbell did The Pride there. I would love to do something like that.

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