Imelda Staunton interviewed for her new Broadway stage production, “Gypsy”

Broadway.com has released an interview with Imelda Staunton (the actress who portrayed Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter films) about her current performance in the Broadway production “Gypsy.”

In the interview, Staunton speaks to some of the unique challenges involved in acting in a Broadway production. She previously won Olivier Awards for her Baker’s Wife in the London debut of Into the Woods, and as Mrs. Lovett opposite, Michael Ball, in the 2012 West End revival of Sweeney Todd.

You had great success on the West End several years ago in another landmark musical, Sweeney Todd, but that must have felt altogether different.
It really did. For one thing, Sweeney really is a shared assignment between the two leads [Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney] and it’s a different sing altogether. In a way what was far more helpful to me was doing Good People in between Sweeney and this: that’s another show about a mother who will do anything she can to help her child.

Interestingly, this is the first major production of Gypsy to be done since the death in 2011 of its co-creator Arthur Laurents, who directed the LuPone revival.
Yes, and I don’t know what [Laurents] would have made of it. In a funny way it feels as if our production has been released from him and from what’s gone before. The dance for Tulsa, for instance, has been re-choreographed. I’m not saying that’s good or bad; it just is.

Does the production feel as if it’s moved to an altogether different level on the West End?
I suppose it does, and I do think we’re starting from a better place. I’ve taken my own preparation pretty seriously, which is to say that I didn’t want people going, “Yeah, good actress, can’t sing” [laughs].

Not much chance of that. One wonders what you could possibly do for an encore?
Part of me thinks, “I’d like to never set foot in a theater again,” but that’s just because this feels so decisive. People ask me what’s next, but I have a pretty boring radar with not a lot on it.

You can read the full interview here.

Thanks to our friends over at Mugglenet for posting about this!