Jenna Russell with Seth Rudetsky – Broadway at Leicester Square Theatre

Jenna Russell with Seth Rudetsky, Broadway at Leicester Square Theatre, London

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

Jenna Russell – last seen (and utterly under-utilised, imho) in Fun Home at the Young Vic – gave us a peek into her colourful life for a couple of hours this Sunday as part of Seth Rudetsky’s Broadway at Leicester Square Theatre cabaret season. And Rudetsky – himself a colourful character best known for his YouTube deconstructions of Broadway songs – was refreshingly generous, leaving his gloriously potty-mouthed guest to do most of the talking.

This “Sunday in the Square with Jenna” took the form of a musicalised Q&A, with Rudetsky hopping on to the piano when required. A lovely format – not unlike Edward Seckerson’s Conversation interviews – this gives the featured performer the chance to illustrate their life story with the songs that matter to them the most, and with Rudetsky at the helm, as he has been at the Leicester Square Theatre for these shows since 2013, anything goes…

In Russell’s case, there was plenty of Sondheim, of course, plus dashes of Boublil & Schönberg, Frank Loesser, Jason Robert Brown, and Frankel and Korie, the latter responsible for the wonderful musical version of Grey Gardens, in which Russell starred with Sheila Hancock at the Southwark back in 2016.

Kicking things off, though, was ‘San Francisco’, the song made famous by Judy Garland, “my idol from the age of about 10, along with her daughter Liza… But fuck knows if I can sing it!” she added, before knocking out a lively and comedic rendition, setting the tone for the rest of the afternoon.

The London-born actor-singer, who was brought up for a time in Dundee – “how John Barrowman of you!” – revealed that her stepfather really loved Garland, and also the soundtrack to the movie version of West Side Story, which Russell and family listed to a lot on the car cassette player. She graduated from skirt-swishing in her bedroom to the Sylvia Young Theatre School, where she befriend the founder’s daughter Frances Ruffelle, and eventually eschewed college in favour of learning her craft directly on the stage.

Russell’s first show, as a 16-year-old in 1983, was the awesome-sounding ABBAcadabra: an adaptation of a French musical TV fairy tale that used ABBA songs with new lyrics by Alain and Daniel Boublil, rewritten for a live-action London stage version by Don Black and Mike Batt, and produced by Cameron Mackintosh.

This crazy-sounding show starred Elaine Paige, Michael Praed, Dexter Fletcher and Nigel Harman, and ran for eight weeks. Sadly, Russell declined to add anything from this show to her set list!

Her next break was in Cameron Mackintosh’s London revival of Follies, which she auditioned for – on the stage of the Shaftesbury – in a Hobbs dress borrowed from her friend and actress Clare Burt. Her videotaped audition was sent to Sondheim and she got the job, joining Millicent Martin, Eartha Kitt and Sally Ann Triplett as part of the show’s first cast change.

After reminiscing about her first conversation with Sondheim – discussing his disappointment at London’s lukewarm response to Sweeney Todd on the gargantuan Drury Lane stage – Russell and Rudetsky gamely tackled ‘You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow’ from Follies, with Rudetsky despairing about the intricacies of Sondheim’s challenging harmonies.

This was followed by a much more measured ‘Losing My Mind’, with Russell revealing herself to be performer of great depth and complexity… proof that she would make the ideal older Sally should Follies ever need one.

More London Follies anecdotes followed, including gossip about Eartha Kitt enjoying a bevvy or two and keeping an aviary in her dressing room. (Her impersonation of Kitt was hilarious, too.) She also revealed that dancing is not her thing, and that she would end up on the floor more times than not in the ‘Mirror’ number.

Next up was the revelation – at least to Rudetsky – that Russell sang the theme tune to the sci-fi TV show Red Dwarf. Despite having never sung it since the day it was recorded, Russell made it all the way through without forgetting a word.

Returning to musical theatre, Russell revealed that she sang ‘Losing My Mind’ for her audition for Les Misérables. “Sing something younger, and I don’t mean ‘Tomorrow’ from Annie”, said Trevor Nunn, before not hiring her for Cosette. She did eventually get picked as an understudy before finally securing the part of Fantine. Cue a passionate ‘I Dreamed a Dream’, tender and full-voiced and belying her 51 years.

She also treated us to a delightful ‘If I Were a Bell’ from her time as Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls with Ewan McGregor, and shared her experience of kissing her leading man a little too passionately for her husband Ray’s liking. Then, to close the first half, she knocked out with fabulous campness ‘Diva’ by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, milking it for every ounce of comedy.

Act II opened with discussion about Russell’s ability to combine comedy and tragedy. “All the parts I’ve had success with,” she said, “have been comedy/tragic. It’s great to get the audience to love you by making them laugh then break their hearts.”

Talk then turned to her role in what Rudetsky kept calling Soonday, referring to Russell’s northern accent as Dot in Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George. She secured the role after the original Dot from the Menier Chocolate Factory production became pregnant. “I would’ve killed anyone to play that part, in this production, with Daniel Evans. One of the most beautiful roles.”

Russell choked back tears as she recalled her time working on the show, which went on to win her the 2007 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical, and saw her record the cast album and transfer with the production to Broadway.

“It’s a masterpiece,” she explained. “When it’s done well, when you let the book and the music and the lyrics sing and don’t be anything other than a portal for that piece of intensely beautiful writing, this show has a quality that’s unparalleled.”

Her song choice – ‘Children and Art’ – was inspired by playing Marie, the artist’s elderly mother who appears in the second half of the musical. Again wrestling with her emotions, Russell introduced the song by telling the story of her struggle to conceive a child, which she finally did after a last-ditch attempt at IVF while in Sunday in New York. Needless to say, her rendition of the song reduced the audience to tears, and was all the more poignant as her daughter called out: “I love you, Mum!” from the audience during the opening bars.

More Sondheim treats came in the shape of ‘Like it Was’, marking Russell’s time in Maria Friedman’s hit revival of Merrily We Roll Along in 2012 at the Menier and Harold Pinter Theatre, and ‘Moments in the Woods’ from the 2010 Regent’s Park production of Into the Woods – the latter once again showcasing her ability to act so effectively through song.

There then followed in her career a spell when Russell became disillusioned by musical theatre, “other than Sondheim”, and she accepted more TV and straight theatre roles. This changed, thankfully, when she discovered the writings of Jason Robert Brown, Adam Guettel and Michael John LaChiusa, three composer-lyricists who have all been mooted as successors to Sondheim.

She chose to illustrate this part of her career with a faultless ‘Stars and the Moon’ from Songs For a New World, the Jason Robert Brown show that she featured in with Cynthia Erivo, Dean John-Wilson and Damian Humbley at the St James Theatre in 2015.

To end the afternoon, talk turned to Grey Gardens, which Russell revealed she was offered in 2016 by producer Danielle Tarento, who had just secured the rights, for £100 a week. “Fuck off!” was her first response, but after a couple of weeks of consideration, she relented and accepted the role of young Edie Beale, under the direction of Thom Sutherland at the Southwark Playhouse.

And how right she was to accept this gift of a part, starring alongside Sheila Hancock and delivering an unforgettable tour de force of a performance that everyone in the room would surely be delighted to see return to the stage.

From this show, written by Scott Frankel (music), Michael Korie (lyrics) and Doug Wright (book), Russell sang the outrageous ‘Revolutionary Costume for Today’, which got the biggest cheer of the show, and the more tender ‘Around the World’.

It was a wonderful close to an engaging, emotional, insightful afternoon, so thank you to Rudetsky not only for the immaculate piano playing but the perfect choice of guest. The intimacy and candidness of this kind of show is, with the right guest, a privilege to be part of, and Russell’s plain speaking was a refreshing change in a time of political correctness and doublespeak.

The only disappointment was the ticket price – starting at £49.50 for a Q&A-style cabaret is a bit steep, but then again you are getting a little taste of Broadway…

The obvious question now is, when is someone going to write a show for this uniquely characterful performer? Anyway, let’s just hope we see Russell in a musical soon, as there are few performers who can reduce us to tears so effectively, whether through tragedy or comedy. Or a bit of both.

Craig Glenday