The pro's on being con's!
November 2003 On November 1st, Ruthie finished her 20-week return to Chicago. She created the role of Roxie in the London production, and returned to the show as Velma, the role she played on Broadway. You can read our interview with Ruthie about her return here, but here some of the other cast members talk to us about working with Ruthie and what it's like behind the Razzle Dazzle.
ALEXIS OWEN HOBBS | AMY FIELD | FRANCES RUFFELLE | RICHARD ROE
Alexis Owen Hobbs
Alexis plays Mona ("Lipschitz!") and is second cover Roxie. She trained at Arts Ed., and has appeared in the London casts of Cats, Follies and Anything Goes.
When I was training at college, Ruthie was doing very, very well in the West End and she was someone I looked up to. I aspired to be like her, so to have the opportunity to work with her has been great for me. I love the way she works because every night is different. It's never a stagnant performance, she adds a little touch every single night and tries new things. She never gets staid or protective of herself in what I've seen her do as Velma. Every night she'll try something different, if it doesn't work she'll try something else. I love that, especially with a long contract. It could get very monotonous but she keeps it buoyant the whole time, so that's an advantage for me!
When you're bringing out the humour in a role, you need to be flexible in your delivery. I think you're very aware if your way of doing it gets an acknowledgement that particular night. But each audience can react differently to how you say certain parts of your speech. One night I'll get loads of laughs, another night I won't and somebody else will. In your head you may acknowledge that you haven't got a very good response that night, but it really doesn't matter because it's always different. With any dialogue, you go through transformations. Even though I think I'm probably doing a similar kind of speech to how I was doing it at the beginning, it's not. It will be different. So, sometimes it's good to go back to the beginning and remember what you did originally. It totally depends on what mood the audience is in, if the show's gone up on time, if it's gone up late, if they've had a few drinks before they've come in, if they've had a nice journey and everything's gone well, whether it's cold outside and they're cosy inside, or they're too hot ... there's so many different factors. It's not like a TV set where you turn on, you watch and that's it. But that's what makes it enjoyable to do.
Chicago is very much an ensemble show, so if you stand out, it's either for very good or very bad reasons. Recently I was in Anything Goes and I worked with Trevor Nunn, who obviously is a very well known director and is fantastic. From working with him, I realised that a musical, a play, any piece that's teamwork doesn't work unless you can differentiate. I always think it's like painting, like using different colours. You may use cobalt blue or aquamarine, but all the colours come together to make a masterpiece, and that's what I see with a show. I'll do my thing to make myself strong, but not necessarily to stand out. If I do, I try to find out whether it's for good or bad reasons! If it's for bad I pull back, if it's for good reasons I keep going with it, but we're all just ... colours. For example, Amy and Richard often get mentioned for their performances and they are both great personalities, their colour is particularly bright - and they're both very good at all three disciplines of acting, singing and dancing. I think even if you don't hear individual lines of speech or song, it's often enough to get an essence of someone's talent. Anybody, whether or not they're a seasoned punter, can tell whether somebody's got 'it' or not.
Dance is an integral part of Chicago. We have a Fosse essence, the show is Fosse-esque, but it's nowhere near as challenging as Fosse itself would have been. We have the spirit, but without the physical stress. It doesn't condition me aerobically as much as something like Cats, or even Anything Goes, as the pace is slower. It's more about looking right as opposed to looking right doing something. It really helps if you're 6 foot tall with long legs as you you can strike a pose and stand out and make an impact so much more easily. I'm not a model, so I just do the best I can! I have a good dance background, and I love dancing, but this is more stylised than physically demanding. People also don't realise that so much of the show is improvised. The audience aren't generally aware that we're doing our own bits and bobs here and there. After a few days of rehearsals, you realise that an eyebrow can be as effective as a high leg or some extravagant movement. It's all about suggestion rather than flamboyant movements. The minimal set really highlights the performer and brings the audience in close. It's all very Brechtian in a way, with the cast sitting at the sides, watching what's going on.
I thought Chicago the Movie was really good, I enjoyed it. I'd seen it before I was in the show, and I thought it worked as a transition from a musical theatre piece to film. I thought they did it really well. People often expect a musical theatre piece to be the same as a film and vice versa, but it doesn't always work that way. I'm yet to see anything on television or film where it's filmed for the benefit of the choreography! I think the decisions they made were good decisions, and it definitely worked for me.
I joined this ensemble directly from Anything Goes at the National Theatre, where I played Purity, one of Reno Sweeney's Angels. Chicago is quite dark, slightly macabre and sinister and Anything Goes is a complete contrast to that. It's bright, it's colourful, it's comedic, it's fun, and I just found it really enjoyable in terms of just being able to laugh on stage. Everything about it really works for me. It's such fun! And again, working with Trevor - he's such a clever guy. He's intellectual but he doesn't alienate and that was the bonus for me. Some of the cheesiest, oldest jokes in the book - he'll pull them out again just because they're the best and they do work. I loved the whole process. The beautiful costumes, the great designer, Trevor himself, Stephen Mear's wonderful choreography and a cast of really talented people who all got on well.
I cover Roxie and I would love the opportunity to play her every night. It's a role that has a bit of everything. She's vulnerable, she's hard, shes's stupid, she's wily, you get to dance with the boys and get to have one of those cinematic glamourous numbers. It's a gift of a part. I don't know what's next for me. I'm 28 now and I feel I'm getting into the young professional or motherly roles. I think I'm going to come into my own in this business with age. I'm not scared of getting older, I quite like the idea as I feel it's when I'm going to get my greatest successes. So maybe a mother figure would suit me.
I wonder what the future holds for Ruthie after Fosse? Personally knowing Ruthie is different to seeing her perform, and as a performer I've seen her do things like She Loves Me, in which she was very much the ingenue, the romantic lead, very bubbly and light. And then having seen her do something like this, which is so dramatic, she's a hardcore, bold, hard as nails type of character. I've also seen Ruthie the mother, bringing little Lily in - I've seen a person who's obviously only very recently opened up that whole new side to her personality and is loving being a mum. So there's the whole maternal thing, the softness as well, there's so many edges to her personality - perhaps something psychotic! *giggles* I get the impression she'd like something challenging, something to play with, something a little off the wall.
ALEXIS OWEN HOBBS | AMY FIELD | FRANCES RUFFELLE | RICHARD ROE
Amy Field
As well as playing Liz ("Pop!") Amy is first cover Roxie and second cover Velma. She trained at the Bird College of Performing Arts and has appeared in We Will Rock You and Starlight Express in the West End.
In July I played Roxie for ten shows while Linzi took a well deserved holiday. It went really well, I had a really good time and I really enjoyed it. I have to admit it was a little bit strange playing opposite Ruthie, because obviously Ruthie was the original here. It was daunting, but she was lovely. The first night we did it, when I came on to bow at the end, when Velma and Roxie run on from opposite sides of the stage, she held my hand and I laughed! I was like "Oooooh, get me!" It wasn't quite real.
I was quite lucky, I had quite a lot of warning as I knew Linzi was going on holiday, so I had the dates and I had time to prepare. But there are some things I'll always remember - like being up the ladder! You do your little entrance at the beginning of the show, but your first main entrance is for Funny Honey, up that ladder. The nerves! Your hands are like claws, you don't realise you've been gripping on to the ladder for dear life! How did I manage to sing with all that tension? I was up there like a parrot! But nothing went wrong, I just had an absolute ball. Ten great shows, with some lovely audiences. I feel so lucky, as some of the others haven't even been on, yet I got to go on with Ruthie!
It's often a great experience just to watch someone and learn from them. Ruthie is so different. I've seen quite a few Velmas, and hers is very very different. All the quirks that she gives Velma, yet it's so natural to her. She thinks and acts on her feet, she makes it different every night and not just for the sake of it. She comes out with them every night, and it's different every night. It really sets her apart from other people that I've seen or worked with.
I'm on every night so I'm watching the show every night. Naturally you pick up things like the speech patterns of the principals, which you're conscious of when you go on as an understudy. But I tried to play the role differently to Linzi. She was fantastic, I absolutely loved her, but there were some things that wouldn't have worked for me, as I was doing it my way. I played it differently physically, and there were little things she did that I loved that I incorporated, but there's always a lot of yourself in the role and I used them in my own way. You can benefit from seeing things that others do ... and there are signature things that others do and you can't touch. Linzi's timing and humour were very good, she was great to watch. I learned a lot from seeing how she's gauged the reactions of the audience every night to judge how to deliver her performance.
There are always things to keep you focussed, to keep you concentrating. Like Kevin Richardson playing Billy Flynn - he's a great mover, and adds a lot of choreography to Razzle Dazzle, so you have to pay attention to who you're performing with and avoid autopilot, especially if you've been rehearsing with someone else during the day! The casting director will audition and hire according to height and voice and all of those things and sometimes they might get a really good mix of personalities and at other times they might not. And this time they were lucky because we do all get on really really well.
I love theatre and performing to a live audience, but the only drawback is doing 8 shows a week of the same show for a year, after a while it becomes predictable. But having said that there are people who do the same job every day for years, and we tend to move on from year to year. TV does appeal to me, the constant turnover of learning lines to film scenes then starting the cycle over again. But I could never give up the theatre, that instant feedback. I remember the first time I did the Roxie monologue, I stopped for a moment and it was almost like having a person on my shoulder saying "they're all watching you!". I felt really exposed and for a split second I lost my concentration, I felt really scared. But I love performing, to have all those people focussed on you, with the pace under your control and you can take it anywhere - that monologue can be two minutes long or ten - it's great to have them in the palm of your hand. When I was on for 10 consecutive shows, I felt as though it was my own as the week progressed. You don't mess too much, but there's room for a little creativity.
I try not to pay too much attention to what the critics say, and I don't think the public really care either. If you look at some of the websites and what the public write, I think that's quite influential sometimes. People can be really opinionated on the internet! And really ruthless as well. I'm really frightened to go on there, particularly when I did my week of Roxie. People said that I would be talked about on WhatsOnStage.com, but I really didn't want to know! I was fortunate enough to be in the original cast of We Will Rock You and that show got absolutely slated. Love it or hate it, think what you like of Ben Elton's script, it packs out the Dominion, which is huge, and there's a great atmosphere. I stayed there for a year and I had a great time. It's just a fun show. It's not trying to be Les Miserables or Jesus Christ Superstar, or anything like that. I think audiences will always make up their own minds.
ALEXIS OWEN HOBBS | AMY FIELD | FRANCES RUFFELLE | RICHARD ROE
Frances Ruffelle
Frances joined the cast to play Roxie for the final twelve weeks of Ruthie's run. Frances, an established performer on the Broadway and West End stage, is known to many as Eponine in the original productions of Les Miserables in London and New York. She has appeared with Ruthie in Children of Eden and in cabaret at the Soho Theatre.
I saw Chicago on stage in the seventies. I saw Chicago on stage in the seventies ... ten times! I sat in the front row. It was a fabulous show, but not like this. This is so much better. I don't remember much about the staging really, I was so young, all I do remember is that it was what I thought were these two old ladies who've got *adopts Ethel Merman voice* broadway voices! It wasn't Chita Rivera and Gwen Verdon that I saw though. It was two english actresses, they must have been in their fifties and they had the old style broadway voices. I think one was Elizabeth Seal. In the movie I loved how they staged We Both Reached for the Gun, and Cell Block Tango was very effective. I think the whole movie was cleverly transferred from the stage. Most of the audiences who haven't seen the show love the film, and often come to the show.
I couldn't wait to work with Ruthie again. I saw Ruthie do Roxie, and I've seen her do quite a lot of stuff over the years, and I thought it would be so nice, just the two of us. I haven't been in the West End for a while, but we both have a solid musical theatre background and the idea really excited me. And whenever I mentioned it, everyone was really excited about it too! It's an amazing show where you can add your own stamp, really play it your way and do your thing. The last time we did a show together, I was playing a supporting role in Children of Eden. Ruthie's part was even smaller than mine, she was also my understudy, but neither of us were a major feature in the show. But now we're both leads in a high profile show. They often cast Velma really tall and Roxie really small, but I like the fact that we're around the same height, as it keeps the focus on the way we're playing the roles. When we did a charity cabaret, Late Night Divas, our sets were completely different, we tend to have different approaches to things, we're completely different types of performer.
I don't think they'd cast me as Velma. I watch the sister act number and I'm sitting there thinking I know this choreography by heart if ever they need someone! I think I could pull it off but I don't think they'd think of me like that because I'm pretty clumsy ... I don't know how I'd cope with that chair! It's bad enough as a puppet just getting on it and dancing, I nearly fell off it one night! But there's been no dramas so far. I had a terrible cold for a week, and as soon as that went I got the flu! But somehow I still felt OK to perform. There was one moment when I was up the ladder and I could actually see myself shaking.
I know Anita and Paul and Vanessa and Ruthie, so I felt instantly comfortable in rehearsals. It's so nice, and there's a real family atmosphere. It's nice not being the only new cast member and joining the same time as someone else. Everyone's really welcoming and it really boosts your confidence. A lot of us hang out after the show and have champagne in someone's room - Ruthie had a martini evening! - it's all very camp. It's such good fun. I can't think of anyone that doesn't get on with someone in this company. There's usually one! Ruthie and Kevin leaving is hard, but I'm sure I'll soon be buddies with Tiffany and Alex!
People have said that I play Roxie differently when I'm playing opposite Vanessa (Ruthie's understudy), and I suppose I tend to play off people. I find in this show it's very difficult for a director to come in one night every two weeks and give you notes, because they'll tell you "last Thursday you did this there or there" and I won't remember what I did last Thursday because each night is different! It's always pretty much the same, but if the audience is different, you'll try out different things with them. You just may not be in the moment to say the line as quickly one night as you will another, and I think it's important that when you act it comes from within. I'm not a robot! Sometimes it's hard to deal with the notes as you know some nights they won't work, so you keep them at the back of your mind, other times they're really useful. The important thing is you've got to feel it.
I think I have more enthusiasm for performing now than when I started out in the business. When I started, when I was really young, everything was offered to me on a plate and it was always very easy. I couldn't really give 100% to whatever I was doing because as well as my stage work I was writing music, and I was a mum very young. Coming back, my children are a lot older, and I can't tell you how utterly excited I am every night. It's unbelievable, and particularly before I go on for We Both Reached for the Gun or Roxie, I turn to my dresser and giggle with excitement! I just get a real buzz, and I'm getting shivery just thinking about it now. I'm absolutely over the moon to be doing this. I'd love to do it on Broadway.
When I look back on my career, Les Mis was incredible. But I'm loving this more than I've loved anything. Of course above all else, having children has been the highlight of my life. My daughter Eliza, 15, is a singer songwriter already, she has written quite a few songs, R&B style. I've booked her a studio next week, she's going in on her own to get them recorded. Natty, my son, he's 13 and has decided he wants to be a director or an actor, he's not sure yet. The little one is 8, so he doesn't really know yet! Two weeks ago he decided he wants to go to theatre school on Saturdays, so he's doing acting, singing and street dancing. He's been going for a couple of weeks now. It was his decision. My mum runs the Sylvia Young theatre school, and he just called my parents and told them he wanted to give it a try!
The best career advice is something I actually didn't follow myself! I think perhaps I should have, and it's this - take jobs! Of course, you can't take everything and you have to be selective - don't go from the West End to do a summer season at Butlins! - but I have been offered things that I haven't taken because I wasn't particularly excited about them, or I didn't need the money at that time, or I had lots of other things going on. But jobs lead to jobs, and those jobs could have lead on to other exciting things.
ALEXIS OWEN HOBBS | AMY FIELD | FRANCES RUFFELLE | RICHARD ROE
Richard Roe
Richard plays The Jury, as well as dancing the Tap Dance and Me & My Baby specialities. He appeared in the original London casts of We Will Rock You and Closer to Heaven, and in Cats, Notre Dame de Paris and Rent in the West End.
The last 5 months with Ruthie have been fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. I've got to say it's been really enjoyable watching her do Velma because I saw her originally as Roxie. I came to the first midnight matinee they had and was blown away by the show and by her performance. I found it a real inspiration to see such a triple threat, someone who can sing, dance and act to such a high standard. To be working with her is such and inspiration. That she gave birth only three months prior to coming in to do the show is an amazing feat. Sitting there watching her nightly on that chair, watching her change her character slightly every night, watching her change the way she does things, it's never the same. It's an absolute joy to sit there and watch her do it because there's always something new and entertaining to watch.
It's great to be part of this show, as the calibre of people that are coming in provides a golden opportunity to learn and develop. I was going to audition for Les Mis, but I thought after all these years it's not promoted again and again, it just sells on its name and you wouldn't really get as many casting directors seeing it now as you would have done in the first three years or so, they've all seen it, it's the same. With Chicago, because there's such an influx of people coming in and going out they will always have someone new to see, something different to see, so you'll get more casting directors in, you'll get more producers in, and you also gets lots of different members of the public who wouldn't necessarily come to the theatre if there wasn't a certain person playing. Like with Kevin Richardson, you've got all the Backstreet Boys fans coming in, and Frances and Ruthie have their loyal fans too. It's a very good showcase for anyone that does it. I even have a website now! There's a lovely girl called Ash who set up an MSN group about me. I'm famous! YES!
When this ensemble started, few stayed on from the previous cast so there was a lot of us that were joining at the same time, and we quickly bonded. We all kind of new each other and because it's a slightly older cast, everyone had been there, got the t-shirt, and didn't have anything to prove and just went out there and did the job. We all hit it off. Because it's such a lovely company and everyone gets on so well, it comes across to the audience. You can tell if people are feeling awkward, or if there's any animosity, but we get on so well together, we always have a laugh together. When we're on stage we're so sultry, but as soon as we're off we have such a giggle. We do get told off every now and then for being a little too loud backstage! It's just one big happy family really. A show like this is pretty barren - there's no lavish sets and no lavish costumes, it's very black and all about the performers and because of that it'll only be as strong as it's weakest link. Everyone's standard is so high, that's why it works so well. Everyone's learning different things all the time and you can always catch people backstage improving on what they're doing already ... or just doing their hair! *giggles*
After my audition I got told that the director Scott turned around and said "He's going to be the Jury, he's got to be the Jury!", because I had been asked to do some Amos Hart and Mary Sunshine numbers as they were the parts I was set to understudy. I did various different things with Amos because I feel I'm not really old enough to play the part so had to make it very charactery, and Scott loved it. Consequently. my direction for doing the Jury was basically that I had no direction! I was told to change into character at this point and the rest of it, just make it up! Do whatever you want to with it. So I had a very free rein. It's great fun! One time I saw it, I came out the theatre and I didn't remember the Jury at all - the actor couldn't have been having a good day. So I didn't think too much of it when I got the role as I didn't understand what it could be. But now I just love doing it. And it's nice not to have to stand there on those bright lights after doing Razzle Dazzle and do those funny hand things. I look up at the others, sweating and out of breath, while I'm sat there with a fan (and a lovely turban) - it's fantastic!
Chicago is a lot more demanding than Closer to Heaven! It's such a different experience. The whole experience was very unruly, very uncontained and there was a lot of emotions going around in that theatre, mainly because we had battery actors, all shoved in tiny little dressing rooms. The stage was small, there wasn't much we could do with the choreography, but it was a very rock and roll experience! People used to turn up for the vocal calls with cans of special brew and rollup fags! Very classy. And that was just the ladies!
Before I joined the ensemble, I didn't really realise how sexual in nature the show was. Obviously it's very sultry, it is sexual, but I didn't realise how sexual I was going to feel! We had our costume fittings and afterwards I thought I need to get down the gym and start doing situps! But I didn't realise how it was going to make me feel until I was up on that stage in that costume with those lights and it just kinda takes you over. I mean it is ... in Closer to Heaven we stripped down to g-strings and were very naked, we were trying to be provocative ... but in this ... I've never felt so sexy doing a show as I have in this one. I love it. It makes you feel sexy, the way the choreography oozes out of you, you do feel a million dollars.
I just don't see the point of doing live theatre if you're going to do 8 shows a week in robot mode. I don't understand how people can stay with some shows for years, where they literally play eight shows a week where nothing changes and I think they would be thrown if someone was in a different place because they wouldn't know what to do. For me, the whole point about live theatre is putting whatever emotions you're feeling that day across to the audience. There will always be a different edge to your character depending on how your day's been or whatever, or what you want to do with the show. You've got Chicago the Movie if you want something that's the same every time.
What will I take away from the Chicago experience? Oh, I'll have lots of laughter lines I think! Just lots of good experience. I'll be taking with me a very warm feeling, I'll remember the personalities in the show, the closeness, I really do look forward to coming in to work. And now I feel physically at quite a good peak. After doing the show and exploring certain things that my body would do, I'm doing things now that I couldn't do when I first started. Hopefully I'll take away lots of memories but no injuries! A big smile. And Frances' advice to do Yoga to keep me supple!
It's strange when a principal performer leaves the cast, it's really bizarre, because by the time they leave you've been rehearsing with the new person for two or three weeks. So it's sad to see them go but it's exciting about the new person too. We're all so used to leaving and joining casts that you know you're going to bump into that person again in years, months or hours down the line. I wouldn't really sad about people leaving because they need to go and do something different, something that will hopefully better their career even further. It's the nature of the business. People come and people go and you just take as much experience as you can. I'm just left feeling very lucky and very privileged.