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| Gemma during rehearsals |
Gemma Sutton is currently starring as Julie Jordan in Morphic Graffiti’s bold new interpretation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel at the Arcola Theatre.
Gemma has had a whirlwind year; after starring as Amber in Hairspray (UK Tour) she recreated the iconic role of Roxie Hart in Paul Kerryson's new production of Chicago at the Leicester Curve Theatre to tremendous critical acclaim.
Next Gemma created the role of Ice in Drew McOnie’s Drunk (Leicester Curve/Bridewell) and starred alongside Sharon D Clarke and Clive Rowe in Blues In The Night at the Hackney Empire.
Her theatre credits also include: Enid and first cover Elle in Legally Blonde (Savoy), Laurey in Oklahoma! (UK Tour), Careen O'Hara and understudy Melanie in Trevor Nunn's Gone with the Wind (New London), understudied and played Rebecca in the London premier of Imagine This (New London), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Lady Be Good! and Fay in Sandy Wilson’s The Boy Friend (Regent’s Park Open Air), Children Will Listen (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), Ruby in Dames at Sea and Babe Botrelle in Crimes of the Heart (Union) and Constance in The Kissing Dance (Jermyn Street).
I recently spoke to Gemma about what it’s like to recreate such iconic roles such as Julie Jordan and Roxie Hart, why she’s having a wonderful time in Carousel, her whirlwind year and Legally Blonde memories…
You have had a crazy year playing some incredible roles, have you had to digest it all?
It has been a very mad, brilliant year! I managed to get a holiday in before we started Carousel because I needed to take a little break and have some time away; I knew that Carousel was going to be intense!
Carousel is completely different to anything else you’ve done recently, was Julie Jordan a role you had your eye on?
I’ve always loved the show, I remember it was one of the productions I did in amateur dramatics – way back in the day! But I played Carrie (Pipperidge, played by Vicki Lee Taylor in this production). When this opportunity came up to play Julie, I knew now aged 28 it felt like the right part for me. During rehearsals I realised that in some respects she’s very similar to my personality. I’m finding a lot of Julie in me [laughs]!
Do you think those who already know and love Carousel will have their eyes opened by this new, bold interpretation of the show?
I think it’s really important to keep approaching this classic material in different ways, otherwise what’s the point? We’ve set it between the years of 1929, the start of the great depression, and 1945 which is the end of World War II. It fits really well; ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ has so much resonance when you’re thinking post World War II when people have lost those they love. Also from a personal point of view, women were more sparky and had more about them from 1929 onwards because they lived in prohibition which is very liberating for women. Plus we had the suffragette movement so that women could vote, so from a female point of view it’s great to play these characters. They have a stronger identity.
Gemma as Julie Jordan
And you have these new, acoustic orchestrations…
It’s so exciting; we have a five piece orchestra with a harp in there as well as percussion and reeds and so on. It’s lovely – because of the space at the Arcola we don’t need a big, grand 20 piece orchestra! This works really, really nicely.
Totally, it’s so lovely to be given amazing material like Chicago and Carousel! It was a luxury to be given a four week rehearsal period for Carousel. This is obviously a smaller scale show than the big West End musicals, but we worked in such detail about everything the show is about – love and death and having responsibility to yourself and other people. What’s wonderful with this story is that all the characters are so flawed.
Carousel is such a rare show because it is so delightful but also extremely dark. How do you think people will come away feeling?
I hope people will come away realising how brilliant Rodgers and Hammerstein’s score is, but also feeling surprised because we’ve approached it in a different way. We don’t want anyone to sit back and think ‘oh this is just a nice Rodgers and Hammerstein tune’, the songs have been staged so they are a little bit more fresh and interesting. We want the audience to be on the edge of their seats!
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| Tim Rogers & Gemma |
I couldn’t speak to you without mentioning one of my all-time favourite shows… Legally Blonde! You played Enid in the final cast whilst understudying Elle. What is it like now to look back at the experience?
It was so exciting, but also a real challenge because I was playing Enid who is this butch lesbian… and then about thirty times I got to go on as Elle who could not have been more different from Enid! It was just so lovely; I did it for six months and then it closed a bit early, but I could have happily done it for much longer!
I hope it comes back soon!
Me too! Just for the dogs!
I know! What are all these dogs doing? They’re all out of work!
[laughs] I know – never mind us actors losing our jobs and being out of work – think of the poor doggies!
Imagine you had to go to a desert island and could only take three musical theatre songs with you, which three would you take and why?
My goodness me! I would like to take ‘A Boy Like That / I Have a Love’ from West Side Story, then I would take ‘I Know Where I’ve Been’ from Hairspray and finally ‘Bill’ from Show Boat because it’s one of my favourites of the standards!
You’ve done all these incredible jobs recently and built up such dedicated support from theatre fans; it must be amazing knowing there’s that support behind you?
It’s so lovely! It’s one of the joys of and pleasures of social media – to know there are so many people who appreciate what you do and want to come and see the next thing you do is amazing!
Interviewed by Andrew Tomlins (Editor)
Carousel runs at the Arcola Theatre until Saturday 19th July 2014.
Visit www.arcolatheatre.com for tickets.
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