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Lucie Jones Gets Ready to Bring LES MIZ Back to the Stage!
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Oct 26, 2022
Les Misérables -The Staged Concert made its triumphant return to the Sondheim Theatre just last night on 20 May. Ahead of the big night, BroadwayWorld's Tom Hayden Millward checked in with Fantine- Lucie Jones. Following the run, Jones will star as Jenna in the UK Tour of Waitress, which kicks off at the New Wimbledon Theatre on 4 September 2021.
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Hi, I'm Lucy Jones and you are watching Broadway World UK
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Greetings and salutations, folks. Tom Hayden-Milwood here for Broadway World UK. And today's question is, do you hear the people sing
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And the resounding answer is yes, because Les Miserables, the stage concert
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has made a triumphant return to the Zondheim Theatre. Earlier, I caught up with cast member
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western favorite and all-round lovely lady lucy jones hi lucy hi tom how are you i'm well it's
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nice to see you again thank you for uh thank you for spending a bit of time with us today and of
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course we're here to talk about les miserables the stage concert at the zondheim theater
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but of course it's not your first trip to the les mis rodeo can you tell the viewers a little bit
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about your history. Yeah, of course. I was in the show in 2010
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and I played Cosette, which was the 20th anniversary year. It was a really cool year
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to be in the show. So we did the O2 Arena concert
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with, you know, all the alumni and those amazing stars that came to do it
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And I did the show for a year then. And yeah, now I'm back
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to play my mum. I was Cosette last time and now I'm playing Fontaine
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so it's quite special it really is and the girl who's playing Cassette Charlie
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she's brilliant she's an absolutely beautiful singer and actor but she kind of looks like me as well
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it's really quite especially with the mask on from here up we really look quite similar
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so it's quite funny actually You're quite a young mum then aren't you
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It's only been 11 years since she was the daughter Well Fontaine was a young mum
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not quite that young but yeah I'm playing a bit older and Charlie's playing a little bit younger
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I think. And because that was your West End debut, is that right? Yes it was, it was my professional debut
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I'd done lots and lots of local theatre and one or two professional workshops
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but I'd never been on stage and been paid for the privilege before
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so it's very nice I came in the other day and Thomas, one of the
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producers said to me, welcome home and I thought it really does feel that way it's really nice
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What are you most looking forward to about playing Fonteen? Gosh, she's an amazing, amazing character
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The role is, people keep saying to me, oh, you're only up for 20 minutes, that's great
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And I'm like, well, one, I'm not, because I play Fonteen and then I'm in the ensemble
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and then Fonteen comes back towards the end of the show. Spoiler alert, as if anyone hasn't seen it before
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But the emotional arc that you need to go on and like the journey of the character as they say is quick And she goes through a lot So it very taxing as a human but it challenging as a performer as well
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And I'm really enjoying getting my head around that and getting my teeth into it
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and finding those beats and moments. And it's even more of a challenge
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than I imagine I would find it normally because we don't have any physical action
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It's concert version of the show. so even when you know Fantine's demise
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we're in the docks she's a prostitute at this point and there's a couple of instances
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in the full production in the show proper as they say in rehearsals
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where Fantine is involved in violence or you see her you know
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going with a man to you know do what she does or taking an opiate
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like a drug or drinking or all these things that kind of physically help the action and inform the story
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So I'm having to kind of put all of that into my head. And it's a challenge, but I'm really enjoying it
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I'm really, really enjoying it. And I know I've got big shoes to fill because I'm following the one and only Carrie Hope Fletcher
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who has been wonderfully supportive and given me some words of wisdom upon my request
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But yeah, it's, I also get to sing I Dream to Dream every day
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I mean, come on, it's amazing. Yeah. Now we are Broadway world, so for our viewers across the pond
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just wondering, have you ever auditioned for a Broadway production? Yes, I was contracted to do a show on Broadway
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and unfortunately that show before I managed to get there closed so
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that was a shame but there's still time I'd love to come over
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it's a huge dream it would be an astonishing thing if I managed to ever step onto a Broadway
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stage and open my mouth to sing it would be amazing but there's still time
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there's still time and I guess your lips have to be sealed about
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what the show was and the role. Absolutely, absolutely, yeah. You know, I had a surreal experience one time
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when I was in New York and I was walking down the street
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and I spotted the artwork for Waitress. Do you know about this
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Yeah, and there you were, you know, on the streets of New York as Jenna
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I don't think it had even been announced in London yet that you were going into the West End production
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No, it hadn't. Do you know anything about that? I do, yeah
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So when the production in London had just opened, so bearing in mind six or seven months before was when they auditioned for the production in London and I auditioned and you know the company decided to bring over Kat to open the show and then asked me to continue after her so I
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knew that I was going to be doing that in one way or another for quite a long time and in that
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January when the show was opening here I went over to New York to do my photo shoot with the
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producers and with the original artwork directors and everything for Waitress and it just so
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happened that Joey Mack from New Kids on the Block was going into the show on Broadway for a short
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time as Pomata so he came and we did some pictures together and I assumed they would you know
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photoshop someone else's face onto my body or something but next thing I know a couple of
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weeks later I was sat by a pool on holiday and I got a text from Jodie Steele saying
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congratulations on your Broadway debut and I was like what's happening here and so I called my
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American management and they FaceTimed me back from Times Square and they were like yep there you are
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above the Mean Girls poster it's Waitress Brooks Atkinson featuring Jerry Mack from New Kids on the
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Block and me and all these people in America were like who is this like and the girls in the show
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I felt awful for them because they're like, you know, there's been a photo shoot for this
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And I don't know if they knew who Jenna was going to be opposite him. And that's why they did it
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But by this point, obviously, they all knew who was going to be in the show. So, yeah, it was a funny time
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I kept getting, you know, texts from friends like, oh, you're on a trash can in Times Square
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Yeah. What is happening? It's so... So the posters made it before you made it yourself
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And I'm sure it will come one day. And speaking of Waitress, of course, you've got a very busy year because you'll be opening up once again as Jenna in the UK tour this time, which kicks off a new Wimbledon theatre, the 4th of September 2021
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So what are your feelings about, you know, getting back into the apron? Oh, I'm so excited. I can't tell you. I didn't get to finish in London
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I was out for a short while just before lockdown one because Sarah was here
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Sarah Paredes was here playing Jenna and that was all planned and we knew that it was happening
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and David and I were due to go back in when Sarah and Gavin Creel was here as well
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and then the lockdown happened so we didn't get to go back in
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and we were both kind of like oh god this is you know this sucks
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because the show then closed and because of the pandemic, it was closing anyway in the summertime, it was due to close
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Well, the booking period was over, you know. So we were kind of like, oh, you know, that's gone now and we mourned for it and everything
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But I don think I ever would have been over it And so when I was called to speak about the tour it was a no for me
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It's a beautiful show. It's a once-in-a-lifetime role, I think, for me
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And I'm not done with her. So for Jenna to be so stalwart and at the front of my mind still
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I really love playing her, and that kind of proves it to me
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and I'm really, really excited to go back and to take the show to people
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who maybe haven't been to the theatre in two years by that point, you know, around the country
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I'm so happy that you're getting a bit of closure with that and going back to the role at least
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And who knows what your next... It might even be Jurassic Park Musical. Oh my goodness
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Your next show. I'll play the Tyrannosaurus Rex. We should get on the phone to Stephen Spielberg
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Yeah, give him a call, you know. I'll give a call straight after this
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She's my next Zoom call. Anyway, I just want to wish you all the very best
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with Les Mis and, of course, with Waitress. And I want to thank you for speaking to me today, Lucy
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And, yeah, let's both pray that this is it now. We are not going back into lockdown
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Theatre is... Oh, gosh, no, come on. And I'd just like to take this opportunity
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because I'm trying to say this as much as I can. Thank you to you guys and to the websites
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that are doing what you guys do for, you know, keeping us ticking over in the last year and a half
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and even more so to the people who are clicking on the website and booking tickets and coming back in
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And it's so important. We could not do what we do here without people like you
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and the audiences who are clicking on the link and buying the tickets
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And so thank you and thank you, everyone. It's amazing to be back
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but every single second of every single day I will be thanking my lucky stars that all of you want to come and watch it
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because otherwise we couldn't do it. We couldn't do it. And to be brave and buy those tickets and come back early is really special
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So thank you. I bless you for that. And yes, of course, there can be no theatre without the audience
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So, yeah, I endorse your sentiment fully. Good, thank you. And you can see Lucy Jones on stage as Fontaine at the Zondheim Theatre in Les Miserables, the stage concert, right now
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Les Mis, the stage concert, is currently booking through to the 5th of September here at the Zondheim Theatre
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ahead of the full-scale production's return from the 25th of September. So come one, come all, and show your support for the revolution
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I'm in the theatre now. I'm in the bar. Oh, mine's a Stella Artois, please
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I'm a waitress. What can I say? She's opening up
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