Brief Encounter with … Kiss Me Kate‘s Hannah Waddingham

Former
RSC and National Theatre artistic director Trevor Nunn, with whom
Waddingham worked on Sondheim’s A Little Night Music
2009, was happy to oblige and cast her in the title role in {Kiss
Me, Kate::L583672012} at the Chichester Festival Theatre, which opens this week (27 June 2012, previews from 18 June).

With
music and lyrics by Cole Porter, and starring Adam Garcia, Alex
Bourne, David Burt, Adam Garcia and Clive Rowe alongside
Waddingham, the show runs until 1 September. It will transfer to the Old Vic on 20 November, running there
until 2 March 2013.

Here
Waddingham, halfway through the show’s preview period, tells Whatsonstage.com about
playing Lilli/Kate as part of Chichester’s 50th
anniversary year, working with Hugh Jackman on the Les
Misérables film and embracing family life in Australia.

How
is the show going?

Having
worked with Trevor before, I feel very safe in his hands. It’s just
such a pleasure to get back to working with him again. He and I have
always had a real meeting of minds. He can start a sentence in the
note session for me and I can finish it. We’re just on the same
page and it makes for a very harmonious working life together. And
other than that, the cast – everyone is having a bit of a laugh and a
party. We have to remind ourselves that we’re meant to be working,
which is really nice to be able to say and mean.

What
was it about Kiss Me, Kate that got you
excited?
There
are some insanely clever lyrics in it and I just thought the marriage
of that with the exquisite old-school musical style and the songs
that I have to sing – to go from a mixed voice (if you’re talking
technically) in “So In Love” to a full belt voice as Katherine
singing “I Hate Men”, to then sing high operatic soprano as Kate in
the same act is a tall order and I always like to push myself. I like
to find pathos and comedy in one part and this just has it in
absolute bucketloads.

How
has the show been going down with audiences so far?

Great!
I think the Chichester audience know their stuff: they already know
The Taming of the Shrew; they already know {Kiss
Me, Kate::L583672012}. You can feel a real energy of ‘ooh, we’re
getting into this one now’ so it feels like there’s a real belly
of warmth underneath us all which makes it much easier. Previews are
always quite a stressful, nerve-wracking time because we’ve barely
been onstage or in our costumes ourselves, so it’s really lovely.
And I think it’s quite exciting to be down here in Chichester’s
50th anniversary year, smack bang in the middle of the
whole programme for the summer – it’s a nice buzzy time.

Are
you excited about the show’s transfer to London in the
winter?
Yes,
because all the work we’ve done down here I think should be shown
there as well. It feels like the natural journey for it to make with
this calibre of cast and with this calibre of director.

You
announced earlier this year that you’re moving to Australia – are
those plans on hold now that you’ll be playing Kate at the Old
Vic?

I’m
emigrating to Australia in September to marry my fiancé. Trevor
said: “Do you think we should get you back in November?” and I
talked it through with my other half and we decided that that was a
good thing to do. I’ll be here through til March. It just lets
producers and casting directors here know that just because I’m
going to be based over there doesn’t mean I’m falling off the
face of the planet. It’s 24 hours away, it’s not any big deal
really. I’ll hopefully be keeping the musical theatre, straight
theatre, television and film balls all up in the air.

Speaking
of film roles, how was it working on the Les Misérables
film?

It was
great fun. Myself and Kate Fleetwood were the two main bitchy
factory workers bullying Anne Hathaway as Fantine. I developed a
really nice relationship with Tom Hooper, the director of The
King’s Speech, because he was being cheeky about musical
theatre. We all just had such a laugh and Anne’s a lovely girl and
of course the lovely Hugh Jackman who was just wonderful and very
down to earth and made it really enjoyable.

Having
achieved so much in your career already, what drives you now, in
terms of ambitions?
I’m
actually not that ambitious. I’m very fatalistic about these
things: I think what comes my way is meant to come my way and that
which doesn’t, doesn’t. I’ve been very lucky to be a leading
lady on Broadway and here and now I’m even more lucky that my
personal life has slotted into place as well so I’m more than happy
for things to continue as they are. It’s lovely to come down to
Chichester and do {Kiss
Me, Kate::L583672012}, but then I’ll
be looking forward to the Old Vic, but then by the same token I’ll
be looking forward to the gap in between of being a wife and
stepmother to Harry’s children. And I love the fact that he’s a
carpenter and nothing to do with this business so it keeps me well
and truly grounded.