Nativity! The Musical
15th - 19th November 2017
Cliffs Pavilion, Southend on Sea
We chat to Sarah Earnshaw who plays Jennifer in the show
15th - 19th November 2017
Cliffs Pavilion, Southend on Sea
We chat to Sarah Earnshaw who plays Jennifer in the show
There will be one very good reason why actress, Sarah Earnshaw will be looking forward to coming to Southend on the 15th November; with Nativity! the Musical and that’s because she will be able to go home to her own bed at her house in Leigh-on-Sea.
Originally from Leeds, Sarah has lived in Leigh-on-Sea for the past two years and absolutely loves living near the sea. Sarah moved to London while attending the prestigious Mountview Drama School but, she tells me, as she takes a break from rehearsing Nativity! in Birmingham, she yearned for a “quieter vibe.”
“We used to do little day trips at the weekend up to Leigh and we just loved it so much we thought well, why not? It’s perfect, you get everything, I think. You’ve got London close by and it’s a different pace of life in Leigh. We just love walking the dog [Jess the golden retriever] on the beach. We love going down to Old Leigh to the Smack Inn and the Peter Boat.”
Previously, one of Sarah’s most favourite roles was that of Glinda in Wicked. She was part of the original cast of the West End hit which has now been running for eleven years and she stayed with the show for nearly five years.
“I had a great run in that show and I loved playing Glinda. It was a dream part really and there was a lot of comedy in that, a lot of being silly; but also you have to make her as believable as you can for the audience to enjoy her - to believe in the character and will her on.”
“That was an amazing show - a huge blockbuster musical - it was great fun and one of my first jobs out of drama school actually so I was very lucky to start my career off in that.”
Sarah is also no stranger to performing at the Cliffs Pavilion, having played the Lady of the Lake in Spamalot two years ago alongside Joe Pasquale and Todd Carty.
“Nativity! is a very different sort of role for me compared to the Lady of the Lake," she explains, "I’m playing the love interest (Jennifer Lore) so I come back in flashbacks. I get a little ballad to sing where I’m pleading for the Hollywood Executive Producer to come back to Coventry to see the Nativity but it’s a very different role to the one I did in Spamalot.”
The stage version of Nativity! looks set to be every bit as magical as the film. Every child in every school has one Christmas wish, to star in a Nativity, and at St Bernadette’s School they’re attempting to mount a musical version! Only trouble is teacher Mr Maddens has promised that a Hollywood producer is coming to see the show to turn it into a film. We join him and his teaching assistant the crazy Mr Poppy, the hilarious children and a whole lot of sparkle and shine as they struggle to make everyone’s Christmas wish come true.
Feel-good, funny and full of yuletide joy, Nativity! The Musical features all of the favourite sing-a-long hits from the films including Sparkle and Shine, Nazareth, One Night One Moment, She’s the Brightest Star and a whole host of new songs filled with the spirit of Christmas.
Originally from Leeds, Sarah has lived in Leigh-on-Sea for the past two years and absolutely loves living near the sea. Sarah moved to London while attending the prestigious Mountview Drama School but, she tells me, as she takes a break from rehearsing Nativity! in Birmingham, she yearned for a “quieter vibe.”
“We used to do little day trips at the weekend up to Leigh and we just loved it so much we thought well, why not? It’s perfect, you get everything, I think. You’ve got London close by and it’s a different pace of life in Leigh. We just love walking the dog [Jess the golden retriever] on the beach. We love going down to Old Leigh to the Smack Inn and the Peter Boat.”
Previously, one of Sarah’s most favourite roles was that of Glinda in Wicked. She was part of the original cast of the West End hit which has now been running for eleven years and she stayed with the show for nearly five years.
“I had a great run in that show and I loved playing Glinda. It was a dream part really and there was a lot of comedy in that, a lot of being silly; but also you have to make her as believable as you can for the audience to enjoy her - to believe in the character and will her on.”
“That was an amazing show - a huge blockbuster musical - it was great fun and one of my first jobs out of drama school actually so I was very lucky to start my career off in that.”
Sarah is also no stranger to performing at the Cliffs Pavilion, having played the Lady of the Lake in Spamalot two years ago alongside Joe Pasquale and Todd Carty.
“Nativity! is a very different sort of role for me compared to the Lady of the Lake," she explains, "I’m playing the love interest (Jennifer Lore) so I come back in flashbacks. I get a little ballad to sing where I’m pleading for the Hollywood Executive Producer to come back to Coventry to see the Nativity but it’s a very different role to the one I did in Spamalot.”
The stage version of Nativity! looks set to be every bit as magical as the film. Every child in every school has one Christmas wish, to star in a Nativity, and at St Bernadette’s School they’re attempting to mount a musical version! Only trouble is teacher Mr Maddens has promised that a Hollywood producer is coming to see the show to turn it into a film. We join him and his teaching assistant the crazy Mr Poppy, the hilarious children and a whole lot of sparkle and shine as they struggle to make everyone’s Christmas wish come true.
Feel-good, funny and full of yuletide joy, Nativity! The Musical features all of the favourite sing-a-long hits from the films including Sparkle and Shine, Nazareth, One Night One Moment, She’s the Brightest Star and a whole host of new songs filled with the spirit of Christmas.
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The musical has been adapted for the stage by Debbie Isitt, the creator of the much-loved films. Just as the cast of the film were encouraged to improvise a lot of their scenes, especially where the children were involved, Sarah tells me that the same process was used during the workshops and rehearsals for the stage version.
“Having Debbie directing is brilliant because obviously she is the driving force behind the whole thing and the film is hers and it’s her creation; so it’s interesting to kind of get the insight and the depth of the characters from her. She moulds it in a really clever way but also gives you a certain freedom within that, so yeah, it’s been interesting. It is different to any other musical I’ve ever done because usually you get a very definite script and a structure. We’ve worked together as a team to get where we are and it was a really interesting, fun way to create the show.”
I ask Sarah what it’s been like working with the children in the show and she says, “The children in the show are hilarious. They’re just such characters. There are twenty seven of them who are split into three teams and they all bring something different. In a lot of musicals with kids you find that they can be quite regimented but these kids are real, which is what Debbie wanted. These are real kids trying their best to put on this huge musical extravaganza and it’s seeing how they strive and meet the challenge I guess. The comedy comes from them being completely real and characterful.”
She adds, “They’re doing so well. There’s a discipline in musical theatre that you have to learn which they are picking up as they’re going along, but honestly they are so brilliant and they are so funny - there are moments in the show that I just sit at the front and howl laughing at them. They are hilarious!”
I wonder if Sarah got to perform at her own school nativity and there’s no hesitation when she replies, “Of course, absolutely. Everybody wants to be Mary, don’t they? I can remember being Mary in Nursery school - and there’s a picture of that somewhere - but after that I was always the Narrator or the Innkeeper,” she laughs.
So what will Sarah be doing this Christmas?
“We are playing the Grand Theatre in Leeds this Christmas and I’m originally from Leeds so it will be spent with the family - which is brilliant. And what’s really great is that we have the Southend run, so I’m at home in my actual house in Leigh and then I’m at the family home at Christmas, so it’s worked out really well!”
And when Nativity! comes to a close the hard work doesn't stop for Sarah because she has just been cast as Betty Spencer in the play Some Mothers Do Ave Em.
"It's a new stage adaption and has only just recently been announced. We'll be coming to Southend with it next year in July. I'm looking forward to that; it'll be something completely different, I can't wait and I'll be working with Joe Pasquale again in that. The sitcom was so much fun and it's such a brilliant, silly, physical comedy - I'm really looking forward to doing it. I have two weeks off after Nativity! and then straight into rehearsals for that!"
In the meantime, we can't to see Sarah and the rest of the cast of Nativity at the Cliffs Pavilion on 15th November!
“Having Debbie directing is brilliant because obviously she is the driving force behind the whole thing and the film is hers and it’s her creation; so it’s interesting to kind of get the insight and the depth of the characters from her. She moulds it in a really clever way but also gives you a certain freedom within that, so yeah, it’s been interesting. It is different to any other musical I’ve ever done because usually you get a very definite script and a structure. We’ve worked together as a team to get where we are and it was a really interesting, fun way to create the show.”
I ask Sarah what it’s been like working with the children in the show and she says, “The children in the show are hilarious. They’re just such characters. There are twenty seven of them who are split into three teams and they all bring something different. In a lot of musicals with kids you find that they can be quite regimented but these kids are real, which is what Debbie wanted. These are real kids trying their best to put on this huge musical extravaganza and it’s seeing how they strive and meet the challenge I guess. The comedy comes from them being completely real and characterful.”
She adds, “They’re doing so well. There’s a discipline in musical theatre that you have to learn which they are picking up as they’re going along, but honestly they are so brilliant and they are so funny - there are moments in the show that I just sit at the front and howl laughing at them. They are hilarious!”
I wonder if Sarah got to perform at her own school nativity and there’s no hesitation when she replies, “Of course, absolutely. Everybody wants to be Mary, don’t they? I can remember being Mary in Nursery school - and there’s a picture of that somewhere - but after that I was always the Narrator or the Innkeeper,” she laughs.
So what will Sarah be doing this Christmas?
“We are playing the Grand Theatre in Leeds this Christmas and I’m originally from Leeds so it will be spent with the family - which is brilliant. And what’s really great is that we have the Southend run, so I’m at home in my actual house in Leigh and then I’m at the family home at Christmas, so it’s worked out really well!”
And when Nativity! comes to a close the hard work doesn't stop for Sarah because she has just been cast as Betty Spencer in the play Some Mothers Do Ave Em.
"It's a new stage adaption and has only just recently been announced. We'll be coming to Southend with it next year in July. I'm looking forward to that; it'll be something completely different, I can't wait and I'll be working with Joe Pasquale again in that. The sitcom was so much fun and it's such a brilliant, silly, physical comedy - I'm really looking forward to doing it. I have two weeks off after Nativity! and then straight into rehearsals for that!"
In the meantime, we can't to see Sarah and the rest of the cast of Nativity at the Cliffs Pavilion on 15th November!
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For tickets go online to www.southendtheatres.org.uk or call the box office on 01702 351135
For more info about Nativity! the Musical click the show's website www.nativitythemusical.com
For more info about Nativity! the Musical click the show's website www.nativitythemusical.com