Imelda Staunton, 59, is one of Britain’s most accomplished stage, screen and musical actors. Born into an Irish working-class family in Archway, north London, she went to Rada and then worked in rep and at the National Theatre. Staunton has won three Olivier awards, and a Bafta (among countless other awards) for her role in Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake. She stars until November as Mama Rose, the pushy, barnstorming mother of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, in Stephen Sondheim’s Gypsy at the Savoy theatre.
How does Mama Rose compare to your previous, strenuous roles for director Jonathan Kent in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd and the play Good People?
Vocally this is the biggest challenge. It’s a big sing, but the quiet numbers are also challenging, and between the songs I never shut up! We’re halfway through the run and I’m holding up all right, but I have to look after myself. I have a massage on my larynx before the weekday matinee, I do a warmup before each show, something called a vocal reset at the interval, cool-downs in the car on the way home. I have acupuncture, body massage, green bloomin’ juices...
The opening nights in Chichester, where the show originated, then in London, were ecstatic.
Yeah. And that opening-night response is pretty much what we get every night, which is amazing. Because this show hasn’t been done here for 42 years people can’t believe what they are getting storywise. It starts, you’ve got kids and a dog [Mama Rose’s vaudeville act for her two daughters], you think you’re in for an easy night: then the screw starts turning. It touches nerves in us all about mothers, about getting older, about living that bloody dream.
Why do you think audiences respond to the pushy, selfish Mama Rose?
She’s a fighter, and I think people like someone who, against all the odds, keeps going. If it was a man playing the part, people would say “what a great guy”. People find her toughness more shocking because she is a woman.
Did Sondheim, now 85, make it over to see the show?
He came to Chichester for our first preview and gave me three fantastic notes – which are mine only, and which I will not share with anyone – and then he was here for our final dress and first preview, and I think he’s pleased. A lot of Americans have come over. I’ve had Miss Streep in my dressing room, which was rather lovely. [Broadway director] Hal Prince came backstage and was a bit of a sobbing mess.
The show defies WC Field’s dictum that you should never work with children and animals.
My dog played the dog in Chichester, until I decided there was only room for one bitch on stage. I adore the kids, who work really hard: when we let them watch the first run-through I thought they’d be bored stiff but they sat on the floor with their mouths open, riveted. I thought, if we can hold this audience, we might stand a chance…
There’s talk of you winning a fourth Olivier award.
I don’t think about it: the work is the thing for me, always. I hope the show is recognised because it is Jonathan Kent’s finest hour – and he’s just won a CBE, so hurrah!
So how are you going to top Gypsy, Imelda?
I think I need to leave the theatre, do some filming and be quiet for a bit.
