What’s the difference between a footballer and an actor? According to musical theatre star Kirby Hughes not a whole deal (that is, of course, ignoring the million pound wage packet).
“It sounds silly,” the Australian-native giggles, “but I compare what we do to being a footballer. You train just as hard and you have to put just as much energy into your performance, except they play for 90-minutes each way, once a week and we perform two and a half hours every night. It’s really hard work.”
Speaking to me just before dashing off to rehearsals for her starring role in The Pajama Game at the Ye Olde Rose and Crown next week, it’s clear the young actress shares another thing in common with the likes of Zidane, Terry and Giggs – a burning passion for her chosen artform.
“I had so much energy my mother didn’t know what to do with me, so she took me to ballet classes when I was two and a half,” the affable talent tells me.
“I sang in my first talent quest when I was three and starred in my first musical when I was eight, I was Molly in Annie. I had no fear when I was little and I still live and breathe theatre.”
Far from being a cheesy drama school clone, 25-year-old Kirby has worked hard to get to where she is. Her career has taken her across Australia with a touring production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (250 shows, 150 towns, 18 months), to Disneyland in Tokyo, where she performed and sang entirely in Japanese, to the high seas as a guest entertainer on Princess Cruises, to London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Music, and now Walthamstow’s Ye Olde Rose and Crown in All Star Production’s revival of The Pajama Game.
Based on the novel 7 1/2 cents by Richard Bissell, the show, which originally opened on Broadway in 1954, is set in a pajama factory where workers’ demands for a pay rise are going unheeded.
But, with it being over a half-a-century old, is it still relevant to modern audiences?
“Definitely,” implores Kirby, who won the BBC Performing Arts Bursary in 2008. “Especially with a postal strike on the horizon and the recession. People know their rights and are fighting for them.”
Kirby plays the role of Babe, the head of the grievous committee, who finds her loyalties challenged when she falls in love with Sid, the new factory superintendent.
“She is a feisty one,” Kirby gleefully remarks. “I like playing strong women, and she was definitely strong for that period in the ‘50s. I guess in some sense there are some similarities between us. I can be strong-minded like her and we are both determined in our fields.”
Describing the show as a “big full-on musical”, the all-singing, all-dancing cast of The Pajama Game will entertain the audience with much-loved favourites such as Hey There, Steam Heat and Hernando’s Hideaway.
“It quite an ambitious play to perform in such a small venue,” Kirby concedes, “but it’s amazing what the set designer has been doing and Lynda, the director, is brilliant, she has so many creative ideas for the space.”
So, after supporting Elton John at the Royal Albert Hall, working as a dresser for Liza Minnelli “to pay the bills”, and with a West End role as Irene in Crazy For You at the London Palladium beckoning, how does the Ye Olde Rose and Crown compare?
“It’s great because it’s such an intimate space to do this show,” the south London-based actress enthuses.
“We just finished one of our first full run-throughs and to see the reactions of some of the cast as they watched was really nice. It feels like a really close company.”
The Pajama Game runs at the Ye Olde Rose and Crown Theatre Pub, Hoe Street, Walthamstow, from Tuesday, October 20, to Saturday, October 31, 7.30pm. Tickets: £10.50/£8.50 concs.
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