JOSEFINA GABRIELLE is playing Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, currently playing at the Watermill Theatre in Bagnor, near Newbury.
Josefina is no stranger to Sondheim’s musical style – she has played Gussie Carnagie in Merrily We Roll Along (Menier Chocolate Factory) and Dot/Marie in Sunday in the Park With George (Leicester Haymarket).
Her extensive musical theatre credits also include: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Me and My Girl (Sheffield Crucible); Sweet Charity (Menier Chocolate Factory); Hello, Dolly! (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Singin’ in the Rain (Sadler’s Wells/Leicester Haymarket); A Chorus Line (Sheffield Crucible, Derby Playhouse); Oklahoma! (Broadway, National Theatre); Chicago (Adelphi Theatre); The Witches of Eastwick (Prince of Wales Theatre); Chicago (Adelphi Theatre); and Carousel (National Theatre).
Tal Fox writes…
How was opening night?
It was absolutely lovely. In fact the entire experience here at the Watermill has been extraordinary because you live on site and it is a paradise. We’ve all been very close, the whole company and Paul Foster the director, Sarah Travis the musical supervisor, and Matt Flint the choreographer. We’ve all just been in each other’s pockets, so it’s just a very lovely experience to actually finally share it with everyone else. We’re absolutely thrilled that it’s been received so well and that people are enjoying it as much as we are, everyone is happy.
The show got great reviews, does that pile on the pressure?
We’re thrilled that it has been appreciated as much as we are appreciating performing the show. It feels joyous that we can celebrate with a wider circle now. Now audiences are enjoying it as much as us, it feels like a shared experience that continues to grow and make us happy. We’re so loved up it’s ridiculous, we’re thrilled and very proud.
Tell us a bit more about your character and role in the show?
Desiree is a well-established Swedish actress, touring Sweden. Her mother was a courtesan and has acquired a very good life and stately home. She’s grown up with privilege but has chosen the Bohemian lifestyle of an actress. She has a daughter who lives with her grandmotherThis is something very painful for Desiree because having a child has given her a whole other reason for living. She lives for her daughter who in the second half is 13 years old.
Josefina Gabrielle in A Little Night Music at the Watermill Theatre. Picture: Philip Tull
She reunites with an old flame and I think it’s a sort of serendipity time in her life. I think she’s feeling a need to settle, she misses her daughter terribly and needs to find a way to bring all of her worlds together to feel complete. So that’s her journey.
She’s a very confident character and is always strong and positive about her life. She will always take responsibility for everything in her life and never wants to be a victim. She has a lovely vulnerability with that too, she’s not afraid to be unconventional, but she’s ultimately a good, kind person with a big heart that can be hurt. It’s just a wonderful character to play. She’s very beautiful and it’s a pleasure to be her.
Desiree has been played by quite big names in the past, how does it feel to be joining the ranks?
It’s a complete honour. I know some of the Desirees and have seen them and have loved what they have done. That’s a testament to a good part and a good show where there are many ways to embody the character, so you can own it yourself and still appreciate other versions, that’s the sign of a good classic I think.
What drew you to the part and the show?
I did know the show and the character of Desiree. I think she’s one of those characters that every actress would aspire to play if it came their way, so I felt very, very lucky when it was offered to me and I snatched it up. The show is such a lovely one, there’s so many different storylines all intertwining.
There’s lots of characters to follow and the music and the book are just so brilliantly crafted, it almost does it for you really, it’s all there to relish. Stephen Sondheim is a particular favourite of mine, this will be the third Sondheim show I’ve done. It’s always a revelation and an experience to get involved in the story and the character because it’s so rich.
Sondheim is known for writing challenging pieces, what about that appeals to you?
It can be very challenging, but I think that after learning some of the more challenging stuff there’s a sense of achievement. Once it’s in your body, it all makes complete and utter sense.
Like I say, he’s so clever, so once it’s in your body it does everything for you, it’s perfectly crafted and you don’t need to put anything on it, it’s done. Some of it can be so pure and so simple. I think ‘Send in the Clowns’ is one of the more simple, more straightforward melodies, and yet it sort of drives you, you start to sing it and it starts to happen, it’s the most wonderful experience – just a gift really.
What Sondheim song have you found most challenging?
They all have challenging elements, but in Sunday in the Park With George I played Dot and Marie. The songs have some complex time signatures and melodies, so that was a lot of work, but that was my first experience and that’s when I realised that once you have learnt it all, as many people have said, he is musical Shakespeare.
It’s not like, ‘I’ve got to learn this and then find my character’, you actually learn it and there is your character, so it was a thrilling revelation. Merrily We Roll Along is another show I did – there’s a beautiful reoccurring song which is ever so slightly different each time, so the slight different between the two is the challenge, but the characters in Merrily have some pretty complex learning to do. All three experiences have never failed to live up to every expectation, it’s just lovely.
Members of the A Little Night Music company. Picture: Philip Tull
The show is set in the early 1900s, what themes from the show are still relevant today?
Falling in love with the right person. It’s all affairs of the heart and all is fair in love and war, I think that’s all very universal, so it’s finding that sense of self and feeling which is complete with someone else. I think they will always resonate with any generation at any time.
You started as a ballet dancer, what drew you to musical theatre?
I went to Arts Ed from the age of 10 so I studied all things theatre from a very early age. At 16 I specialised in classical ballet because it is the shortest and youngest career, you do it then or never, I was drawn to classical ballet. I joined the National Ballet of Portugal. I was there quite a few years and had a lovely time in Lisbon, but when I came back to England the National Theatre was casting Carousel. The wonderful British choreographer from the Royal Ballet, Kenneth MacMillan, was choreographing the dance in Carousel and so it was just the most perfect timing.
It was the most perfect bridge to leave the ballet world and join the theatre world. Ballet within a musical at the National Theatre, I couldn’t have asked for a luckier, more perfect job to segue into the next part of my life. I’ve just gone where the opportunities have been, it’s just happened rather than me trying to control it.
Do you still look for roles with big dancing parts?
My dance ability is obviously winding down, I can no longer do what I could do, so it’s always lovely when another dance opportunity comes up. Recently I finished Stepping Out in the West End – all of a sudden I was tap dancing and throwing myself around the stage doing dance solos thinking: ‘my goodness, another dance opportunity! I thought my days were up.’
Josefina Gabrielle in Merrily We Roll Along
It’s always a pleasure when there’s another opportunity, so I’ll keep dancing. I still dance as my fitness and I will never turn down a dance opportunity, although it will be more limited naturally. We have some lovely waltzing in A Little Night Music which is a pleasure. We do have a very small stage, so it’s gentle but it is lovely.
What would be your dream role to follow up this show?
A few years ago I did Tonight at 8:30, the series of one-act Noel Coward plays. In each play you are a very different character and I find that very thrilling, so I would love to do some more Noel Coward. But I think good work with good people and nice roles are all stimulating.
What would be the one piece of advice you’d give someone who wants to do a career in acting?
You have to be passionate about it, you have to be able to keep your creativity alive in-between jobs because you can’t guarantee there’s going to be work. I have no idea what I’m doing when A Little Night Music finishes. If you can keep your creativity alive and you’re able to generate your own work with cabarets and writing, that is such a good way to feel a little bit more in control when you’re not actually preparing for a role in a show.
You do need a plan B to fall back on to survive between jobs, but at the same time not having a plan B is the thing that makes you hungrier, so it’s a tricky one. I don’t think I even had a plan B, I was just looking for the next thing, be it an advert, a long run, be it a short stint somewhere, it was just jumping from stone to stone, that glorious hand to mouth feeling.
You say you don’t know what you’re doing next, but do you have your eye on anything?
I’m not sure that I do actually. I’ve been quite lucky and worked a lot recently, so there’s something quite nice about finishing this and having a whole world of possibilities, anything could happen because nothing is in place. Cut to a month later, you’re climbing the walls wondering what’s going to happen, but I shall relish that first month.
* A Little Night Music continues at the Watermill Theatre, Bagnor, near Newbury, until 16 September.
Readers may also be interested in:
A Little Night Music – Watermill Theatre, Newbury – Review
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