Samantha Womack is to join the Tony Award-winning Lincoln Center Theater production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific when it comes to the Barbican theatre this summer.
The actress, currently best known for playing the troubled character of Ronnie Mitchell in EastEnders, joined the show’s New York director Bartlett Sher and star Paulo Szot at the Savoy Hotel this morning to launch the London transfer, which kicks off on 15 August.
Womack, 38, admitted to feeling “daunted” at the prospect of replacing original star Kelli O’Hara in the role of Nellie Forbush in Sher’s production, which won seven Tony Awards for its two-year run at New York’s Lincoln Center Theater. Her commitment to the BBC soap means Womack hasn’t been seen on stage since appearing in Guys And Dolls in the West End in 2007. “I’ve been thinking about [returning to the stage] probably for the past year,” she told Official London Theatre. “You get that yearning again to hear the half hour call, to hear the orchestra; they are things that are really primal in you if you’ve grown up around that, and when you remove that from your life you start to miss it after a few years.”
A long-time fan of Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Womack said she “would have paid” to play the role of Nellie. “I was lusting after this for the longest time. I just had to do my work, commit to the audition procedure and just hope that it would pay off, which it did thank goodness.”
Womack’s musical theatre experience also includes a stint as Sandy in Grease in the West End, while she memorably represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1991. In South Pacific her vocal abilities will be showcased alongside those of international opera baritone Szot, who reprises his role as Nellie’s love interest Emile de Becque. “There are nights when I lie in bed thinking ‘am I going to be able to do it?’,” said Womack, “but actually just a second with [director] Bartlett, even if I voice those insecurities, he is really quick to just stamp all of that out because for him it’s about the process. You don’t worry about the end result, because that’s for the audience to worry about.”
Playing Nellie, the ensign who falls for French plantation owner Emile on an island in the South Pacific during World War Two, is a complete departure from Ronnie Mitchell, whose recent harrowing baby-swap storyline has made headlines in recent months. Womack said it was “an absolute gift” to be playing such a different role, though she wouldn’t like to hope that she may surprise those who know her best for her television work. “We all have egos and so you all want to imagine what it would be like if you’re good and what public perception would be, but actually it’s a dangerous game to play. You’ll find eight people that absolutely love your work and two people who utterly hate it! So if we were to worry about that… that’s our handicap as performers. If we can get rid of that you are able to fly.”
Womack’s Brazilian-born co-star Szot, who will make his London stage debut when the show opens at the Barbican, won a Tony Award for his performance in New York. It was his first musical theatre role in a 20-year opera singing career. He commented: “I never experienced a role like that, I learnt so much from this opportunity and I am very glad that I am able to do my London debut in this role.”
South Pacific plays at the Barbican theatre from 15 August to 1 October (press night 23 August) prior to a UK tour during the autumn.
CB