Five Questions With: Aaron Lee Lambert

AARON LEE LAMBERT, whose previous credits include Hamilton and Urinetown in the West End, is playing Agustín Magaldi in Jamie Lloyd Company’s forthcoming production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita. The production, directed by Lloyd, opens this week at the London Palladium and runs until 6 September.

Having trained at Yale University and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Aaron’s theatre credits include: Hamilton (Victoria Palace); Unicorn (Other Palace); Sister Act (Curve Leicester/UK Tour); Sunset Boulevard (London Coliseum), Miss Saigon (Prince Edward); Sweeney Todd (London Coliseum); Urinetown (St James, Broadway/ Apollo); Sister Act (Aberystwyth Arts); Next Thing You Know (Landor); Shrek (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Sister Act (London Palladium); Show Boat (Carnegie Hall); Meet John Doe (Goodspeed Opera House); and But the Giraffe/Brundibar (Yale Rep/New Victory, Off-Broadway).

Here Aaron Lee Lambert continues Musical Theatre Review’s interview series: Five Questions With…

You’re taking on the role of Agustín Magaldi in Jamie Lloyd’s upcoming production of Evita. How were rehearsals?

It was such a joy being back in the rehearsal studio, working alongside creatives and actors and dancers and musicians at the top of their game. I’ve been pushed personally in thrilling ways, and it’s been inspiring to see such commitment and trust from every department manifest itself in the work. When we were in previews we were still rehearsing and finessing and fine-tuning. The reception we have received from our first audiences has been overwhelming (in a good way!), so we all feel that we’re on the brink of something special. There’s this collective drive to keep elevating, which is such an amazing process to be a part of.

Jamie Lloyd’s productions are known for their bold, stripped-back style. How are you approaching a performing space where it is often just the actor, the audience and the text/score?

I first worked with Jamie on Urinetown back in 2014, which I look back on so fondly. That group of artists holds a special place in my heart, and I couldn’t be happier to be reuniting with Jamie and Alan (musical supervisor and musical director Alan Williams, who I’ve worked with several times now) on Evita. Jamie’s work has always been bold and visionary, but it’s been exciting to watch his style evolve and intensify over the years.

It can at first be intimidating to not have lavish sets and costuming to hide behind, but what I think Jamie endeavours to do by stripping all that back is to allow for a purer communion between the actors onstage and the audience. And in doing so, we then focus more on the psychology and inner worlds of the characters. Set and costume designer Soutra Gilmour’s work is so very specific and intentional in helping support that communion, which in turn provides the canvas for compelling work from our lighting and sound designers.

We all play equal parts in bringing Jamie’s vision to life, so while it may initially feel completely stripped back and isolating, you really are fully supported, just in different ways. That being said, as a singing actor, it’s the text and score that you start your process with, so it’s actually quite liberating for this to continue to be at the very centre of the work in such a profound way, even after all other elements are layered atop.

What drew you to the character, does it feel like you have a freedom to reinvent the role in this production?

If I’m entirely honest, it was working with Jamie again that initially drew me to the character and the project. The more time I’ve spent with Magaldi, though, the more I’ve realised that, despite the fact that he exists in the musical to serve a narrative function for the title character, there’s scope to ground the character in parallel desires and artifices to Eva. And also to connect those desires and artifices to my own experiences as a person in the world who performs for audiences for a living.

There’s definitely a freedom to reinvent, because audiences already know to expect reinvention from a Jamie Lloyd production, but I’m most focused on bringing truth to the role within the context of Jamie’s vision, as opposed to reinvention for reinvention’s sake. Jamie has a knack for casting people not solely based on talent but also on what they will uniquely bring to the role, to the company, and to his vision. Magaldi offers me the opportunity to find comedy in nuance and to sing in a way I haven’t yet been able to sing on the West End stage.

In rehearsals for Evita. Picture: Marc Brenner

You have played major characters in groundbreaking musicals, not least Hamilton, and have consistently brought depth and vocal strength to the stage. What lessons or techniques are you bringing with you into Evita, especially in terms of storytelling through music?

That’s very kind of you to say! Hamilton was such a formidable (and inimitable) experience. To get to play such iconic, complex characters the hundreds and hundreds of times I was able to over my seven-plus years with the show was an absolute privilege, and to have been (even) a (small) part of such a cultural phenomenon is something I will always be proud of. One of the greatest things about being an artist is the fact that you never stop learning and growing and evolving. Every experience you have, both professionally and even personally, helps to feed that growth and enrich that evolution.

During this process, I’ve found myself trusting stillness as a tool to unlock truth. It’s easy to feel the need to fill space or music with action or business, but stillness can be even more powerful when properly harnessed. I don’t think I necessarily could trust in that way when I first started working in the West End 15 years ago.

Among your many talents you are also a writer of musical theatre (From Up Here). Do you think it is has got any easier or harder for writers of new work to get their material heard and what advice would you give to budding composers?

Admittedly, I haven’t been as active in my writing as I would have liked in recent years (something I plan on rectifying in the very near future!), so I don’t quite feel in a position to comment on the current new musical theatre writing landscape. I consider myself very lucky to have had my musical produced back in 2012 (by Andy and Wendy Barnes of Perfect Pitch Musicals, who now also run Global Musicals, which produces the smash hit SIX). From Up Here is now licensed worldwide via Broadway Licensing thanks to Perfect Pitch and has had several subsequent productions in the UK and abroad. I will always be grateful to Andy and Wendy for seeing something in my work. (Their newest title, 42 Balloons, is currently taking Chicago by storm after a successful run in Manchester last year. Check it out!)

In many ways, it seems as if it’s become easier since then, with Perfect Pitch/Global Musicals, MMD/MTN, BEAM and the many other writers’ schemes and initiatives popping up around the country, for budding writers and composers to get the ball rolling and start exploring their work with other artists, but it’s still super difficult for new work to actually make it to full production or even get in front of an audience in any substantial capacity. It feels like the there’s an appetite and the talent pool in the UK has grown, but there’s still very limited investment available compared to the States.

My advice to any budding composers out there is to prioritise finding your unique voice and choosing projects your voice naturally suits over writing what you think people want to hear. In my opinion, authenticity is the bedrock of good musical theatre.