The Stage

Alison Jiear: Voice size matters

Published Friday 19 June 2009 at 18:00 by Mark Shenton

Typecast due to her curvaceous figure and told to lose pounds at the audition for her first West End show, Alison Jiear has felt the full force of weight issues during her career. She tells Mark Shenton why she has turned her attention to solo work and is appearing in cabaret at Pizza on the Park

“I wanna do some living/ Cos I’ve done enough dying/And I just wanna dance,” sang Alison Jiear when she created the role of Shawntel in the original National Theatre premiere of Jerry Springer – the Opera in 2003. That role saw her nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical, and it has become something of a signature song and role for her. She recently took the role home to her native Australia, recreating her performance in the show’s premiere at the Sydney Opera House in April – and a few weeks early, she also sang a dance version of I Just Wanna Dance to open this year’s Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

“Having lived here [in Britain] for over half my life, it was incredible to go back to do this iconic role that I’ve become known for, and to also perform this song that is now so big on the gay scene, was incredible,” she says now. That pop version was born as a demo for a dance track that was never officially released - yet it has gained her a huge following on YouTube, where it is still available.

“The great thing about dance tracks is it’s all about the voice. And the wonderful thing about the gay following is that it doesn’t matter how old you are, as long as you can get out there and look glam and give them a good, long, high note, they’ll love you and be very loyal to you.”

But Jerry Springer also marked a particular watershed for her, too - she decided after doing it to no longer actively pursue a theatrical career anymore.

“I’d hit my forties, I’d met the man of my dreams, and had two beautiful children - Michael, who is nearly 13, and Nathaniel, who is nearly two. I’ve got the terrible teens and terrible twos - oh joy! So my priorities were where they needed to be - I didn’t want to be out of the house for six nights a week, unless it was for an absolutely phenomenal role,” she says. “I loved the idea of being in Sister Act, but I didn’t want to leave my family to go and play ‘funny fat nun’. So I turned down the chance to even audition.”

Typecasting according to weight has always been an issue for Jiear. She remembers when she auditioned for her very first West End show, Les Miserables, the associate director told her: “I’m not casting you in the ensemble - go away, lose some weight, and I’ll give you Fantine.” She replied: “I can’t afford to go to the gym, so give me the ensemble, then I’ll join one and we can go on from there. But it was while I was doing the ensemble of Les Mis that I discovered my love of cabaret, and I chucked in the gym membership and decided to stay fat - and the rest is history.”

There are, she acknowledges, “roles I would love to do, vocally and creatively, and I never will, because I’ve got the backside the size of a Hummer. But that’s fine - and that’s why I do cabaret, because I can sing whatever I want - I’m the boss.”

Actually, it’s not so much that musicals gave up on her as she has given up on them. In fact, she served a long apprenticeship in the genre, starting at home with The Pirates of Penzance for Victoria State Opera, and then the original Australian company of Nine, before coming to London and going through the ranks of such shows as Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Grease, Prisoner Cell Block H and The Hot Mikado in the West End, and the original production of what would turn out to be Honk! at Newbury’s Watermill Theatre.

But the problem with West End roles is that a performer has to fit the mould, unless the mould fits them, as it so uniquely did for Jiear with Jerry Springer. It also found her more recently when she appeared in the English National Opera’s production of On the Town in 2005 and 2007, and which she reprised at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris last Christmas.

“Unfortunately,” she adds, “with my limitations, there are only a certain number of roles that honour what I’m actually placed on this earth to do.” A decade or so ago one of them might have been Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray - when she first met Leanne Jones, who won the Olivier Award for playing it, last year, she told her: “I have a confession to make. I hated you, because you’ve got my role. If this show had been done ten years ago, I would have been fighting you for it.” And Jones replied: “Can I tell you a secret? When I was at college, I had photos of you on my bedroom wall.” Jiear adds: “Isn’t that fabulous?”

Instead, Jiear has made what she calls “a conscious decision to be true to myself and true to my talent”, and that’s what has brought her back to Pizza on the Park with a solo cabaret show. “I’m now doing exactly what I want to do.” She has made two solo albums, Simply and Forgiveness, and is now working on a third.

She supplements her income with session singing work. “I’m lucky that because of my work as a session singer, I don’t have to kill for that musical theatre job in order to pay the mortgage.” Among the shows she regularly provides backing vocals for are The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent.

“What’s hysterical on X Factor is that six of us - there are three guys and three girls - will record the backing vocals on a big gospel and R’n’B thing, but then on the live show they’ll have this massive gospel choir there. Only it’s not them - they’re miming to us. But that’s what we’re paid to do - there’s no ego involved. And no make-up or costumes, either. I’m paid to do what I love, so I’m a lucky girl.”

Jiear, who was herself first discovered on an Australian TV talent show at the age of 18, says of shows like The X Factor: “They can be a fantastic vehicle for people with talent and create a star.” But she’s more critical of the reality TV castings for West End shows: “They’re destroying what so many of us in the industry have worked so hard to achieve. It’s sad that someone like Lee Mead, who is a professional artist, had to go through that in order to get his talent recognised. It makes me want to stick on a pig dog ugly wig and go on Britain’s Got Talent and see what happens. I’ve thought about it, I really have - apart from the fact that I do backing vocals on it, so I wouldn’t dare.”

Alison Jiear is at Pizza on the Park, London on June 21 and 22. Tickets are available from 08456 027017. www.americansongbookinlondon.com