by “I thought I would do and go for a year,” says Sara Poyzer, the mother Donna played in the Abba Musical Mamma Mia! “But the things I won outperformed the things I lost.” In the end, she stayed in the role for a while and even appeared in front of two ABBA members and for the 20th anniversary of the show before leaving in January 2024.
Under all the dazzling new openings in the West End of London, there is a robust cohort of shows that only have to have been there. The audience still seems to be enthusiastic about the king of the lions, now in the 26th year, and other long-time hits-but how is it for the actors like Poyzer who play the same or eight times a week seven or eight times a week year after year? Will it be a Groundhog day on the boards? And how do you keep your performances – and the shows – fresh?
I have to train. I have to go to the gym. I have to eat properly. Otherwise they won’t take
Strangely enough, all the repetition and routine Poyzer actually gave a feeling of creative freedom. “You say the lines in a certain order, stand in a certain point and all these things. But as soon as they are available, I feel free.” She infused the role with aspects of her own character to supply Donna with energy. “I have always submitted my experiences into my performance. So if I feel particularly emotionally, a song could be an emotional piece of stories that night. If I were mad, I would be more fiery. I had the feeling that there was enough license to tell the story again.”
It is important to understand that no two performances are ever the same in the course of a show, says Sean Jones, who played the leading role in Willy Russell’s musical Blood Brothers in the west and on tour since 1999. “There is always a new actor and that is the audience,” he says. “If you pay attention to you, you know that you have another show in your hands every evening. For example, we have just have a school audience in school that requires a different attack. When I start sobbing and fitting through the emotional scenes, a teenager can make it uncomfortable.”
If you become more intimate with your character, you take over new depths, believes Shaun Escoffery, who has played the benevolent king of the jungle of the lion king for 17 years. “Mufasa is such a complex, multi -layered character,” he says. “He is a king, a warrior, a husband, a father, a brother of his archenemy. He is deeply spiritual and frank, but also a wild lion.”
First of all, to be all of these properties in order to be overwhelming at first, he says, but the part has developed with him. “I grew up and played the role. During this time I got married, I had children, and that changed me as a man. So I tried to be a father, to be a husband and have a depth of spirituality in character. It was a real revelation for me.”
Self -satisfaction is the enemy for escoffery, not least because he settles down the audience and become statutory or think or think: “I have that” is a very dangerous place. “He has an internal trigger to prepare for his role again.” I call it my turning on and off. It doesn’t matter how I feel – I have to turn it on. That keeps me on my toes. “
Jack Baldwin has been a faulty towers in the immersive show for 13 years: The Dining Experience and plays pressed hotelier. Baldwin never tries to replicate John Cleese’s performance in the original sitcom – his own from the night before: “That would be a piece of museum.”
The show requires a lot of improvisation, which contributes to making every night different. “There is a script that is the spine of the show, but there is a lot about contacting people and causing an answer.
There is always an injection of fresh energy when a new actor arrives. “I had a lot of different co-stars,” says Jones, who plays in Blood Brothers Mickey and is separated from his twin Eddie at birth. “Every new Linda [Mickey’s friend] Or Ms. Johnstone [his mother] will bring something else in me. I have the feeling that I will discover the show again. “
Poyzer says she can “be a little mischievous” on stage. “It is amazing how much fire it can add.” She just performed in Come and says: “Most of the occupations were really playful. There was a moment when I wanted to flirt with a character. I grabbed his lapels and pulled it towards myself – which I had never done. I was able to come alive. I saw it in his eyes.”
The endeavor to the best and most perfect version of your own performance is a constant challenge: “I am sometimes off the stage and thought: ‘That was brilliant. I want to do that tomorrow.’ I thought that and “I did it?”
Escoffery changes its intentions from performance to performance. “For example, I think about what Mufasa had thought before his son Simba came before he hit Löwin Sarabi before becoming the King of the pride. What was his story?” George Aspray, who plays Badthie Scar, joined the lion’s king: “We know each other very deeply and keep each other accountable,” says Escofery. “So if we feel a bit like a break or contain a decay in our performance, we pull each other up.”
Long -term shows can become family matters. Jones met his (now former) wife, actress Tracy Spencer, on Blood Brothers and toured as a family. His 15-year-old daughter, an emerging actor, now wants a part. Poyzer was in Mamma Mia! With her actor husband Richard Standing, who is still on the show. You played it together all over the world.
A long -term show, says Poyzer, can put enormous pressure on a voice. “You will get fatigue, so you really have to take care of it, especially if you sing yourself repeatedly. It is about re -adapting your vocal cords and all parts of your anatomy that you use when you sing to constantly ensure that it is optimal.”
Escoffery holds a highly disciplined exercise routine. “The show is very physical. I have to train, I have to go to the gym, I have to eat properly. Otherwise they won’t take.” Jones Mickey plays as a child in Blood Brothers. Now that the actor is 52 years old, he gets “more pain and bruises”, but adds: “I think the energy because I love it.
While the shows have largely remained the same, the actors have found changes in their audience. Error towers were one of the first immersive shows and the shape was only understood by Baldwin at first. People now feel more comfortable with the interaction, he says. With Mamma Mia! After the success of the film with Meryl Streep as Donna, there was a growing feeling of possession of the show. “A feeling that this belongs to us, we know it, we have the DVD.”
Do you think that you will be all in your roles for decades? On the one hand, Baldwin does not expect another 13 years. “I don’t think I could make it physically,” he says. “I would have the feeling that I couldn’t do any people if I couldn’t do certain movements that people want to see. The goose ride is the big one!”
Jones left Blood Brothers twice, but was withdrawn. “I still loved it so much,” he says. “I still wanted to discover it the same way – and I also like the touring lifestyle. Once I would probably only have joined the circus.”
Although Poyzer Mamma Mia left! To tour, she would like to return to Donna. “I would like to play them again with all the experiences, personally and professionally that I would bring into the role. I went to a restaurant in Italy last week The before.'”
