Rosalie Craig: 'It's hard not to get pigeonholed as a musical theatre actress'

Rosalie Craig has spoken to WhatsOnStage about the frustration of being pigeonholed as a musical theatre actress.

Talking at the West End launch of Marianne Elliott's gender-swap production of Stephen Sondheim's Company, Craig – whose diverse theatre credits include plays (As You Like It, NT and The Ferryman, West End) and musicals (London Road and The Light Princess, NT) – said: 'it doesn't matter if you do 50 plays, [if you've been in musicals] people will still call you a musical theatre actress.'

"I wonder why it exists," she continued, "I would like to think that I'm slowly, personally breaking down those barriers. I've got no interest in doing one or the other, I think there's a lot of actors who feel that way."

When asked about a recent survey distributed by actor's union Equity, in which 'actors in plays' were differentiated from 'performers in musical theatre', Craig said it was 'unbelievably short-sighted.'

"You're acting, you're performing, whatever it is. I think sometimes you have to be more dextrous and have more tools in your toolkit if you do musicals, certainly if you do musicals like a Sondheim. You get Imelda Staunton doing amazing musicals, you're not just going to say she's one or the other are you?"

At the launch, Craig was joined by Broadway legend Patti LuPone who will play Joanne in the production and Mel Giedroyc who will play Sarah. Watch our live stream of the event here.