Culture in Lockdown: Jenna Russell – ‘I’ve muddled through – I’ve not been very cultural, to be honest’
Like all stage performers, Jenna Russell has seen work disappear since March. She tells Fergus Morgan what she has been up to since then, including games with her family, listening to Stevie Wonder and filming a show at the London Coliseum
Jenna Russell had a string of exciting projects lined up for 2020. She was going to curate a series of cabarets at the Donmar Warehouse. She was going to play Edith Piaf at Nottingham Playhouse. And, in August, she was going to appear alongside Imelda Staunton in Dominic Cooke’s West End revival of Hello, Dolly!.
All of it evaporated: concrete contracts were replaced by vague suggestions the shows might return at a later date. Unlike Piaf, she may have had a few regrets.
“I’ve oscillated between thinking it’s nice to be home with my family for a bit, and abject fear for everyone who works in theatre,” Russell says. “Who ever thought we would be in a situation like this? Things will pick up, but it is going to take time and there’ll be a lot of casualties. It’s heartbreaking.”
Russell has been a mainstay of musical theatre for more than 20 years. She first found fame with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1990s, but it was her Olivier-winning role in Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George in 2006 that cemented her status as one of the industry’s leading ladies. Acclaimed appearances in Merrily We Roll Along, Mr Burns, Grey Gardens and Fun Home followed.
“I’ve muddled through,” she says about the past six months. “I’ve kept myself busy doing bits and bobs. I’ve been looking after my little girl, who has been brilliant. I’ve taken up cross-stitch and needlepoint. I’ve made a few patterns. One says: ‘Wash your fucking hands’. One is of Little Edie and her mother, from Grey Gardens, surrounded by cats. One is of Elvis.”
Russell is determined to return to the stage as soon as possible. “I’m not going anywhere,” she says. “I’m here for the long haul because there’s nothing else I can fucking do.”
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Games
My other half and I have got really into playing [a digital version of] the boardgame Ticket to Ride. We’ve got into the terrible habit of waking up, having a coffee and playing a game or two. He’s gone to get his haircut for the first time since March at the moment, and I’m meant to be learning all this Sondheim for a concert, but I know as soon as he gets back we’ll have a Ticket to Ride tournament instead. I also play Farm Heroes Super Saga on my iPad. I’ve not been very cultural, to be honest.
Podcasts
I’ve always liked true crime podcasts. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because it makes me feel a bit better about my life. Maybe it’s because it makes me think: “At least I’m not at the bottom of a lake with a noose around my neck.” I’ve been lapping up one called Casefile, which makes me feel sick to my stomach.
TV
I’ve not watched much online theatre, which I feel bad about, but it just makes me pine to be in an actual theatre. I’m the queen of box-sets, though. We’ve watched loads of TV. We revisited Breaking Bad. My Netflix and Amazon Prime subscriptions have been very well used.
Music
I’ve been listening to lots of Joni Mitchell and Stevie Wonder. They bring me a lot of joy. I’ve listened to a bit of Sondheim, but sometimes that makes me too emotional. His songs are all about survival. They are about picking yourself up, looking your problems straight in the eye and dealing with them. That’s what I find in his music. He gives me the strength to get through.
What theatre work have you been doing?
I’m in a filmed version of [Title of Show]. It’s a musical about a writer and a lyricist who enter a competition. They are writing a musical about someone writing a musical about someone writing a musical. Everyone plays someone playing themselves. It’s all very meta, but it’s utterly charming and very funny.
We filmed it in the chorus rehearsal room at the London Coliseum. We spent a lovely few days there. We got to wander around the stage, which was lovely. It was really nice to be making a show again – a show about people making a show.
I’ve done a few online concerts, but I’ve found that hard because I’ve never been one for doing concerts. I think I’m an all right singer, but I’m best at singing as a character, and when you do concerts you’re not in character. It’s just Jenna in her front room, singing something averagely.
[Title of Show] is streaming online from November 12
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