FEATURE:
A Passion and Not a Distraction
IN THIS PHOTO: Lucy Rebecca Taylor (Self Esteem) will appear in David Hare’s Teeth ’n’ Smiles in London next year/ PHOTO CREDIT: Jono White
The Stage Careers of Beloved Artists
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THERE is this interesting crossover…
PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Lazo/Pexels
and interaction in film and music where we see artists gracing the big screen and turning in wonderful performances. Actors who portray musicians in biopics. There is a whole list of artists who you know would have made incredible actors but never got the chance or decided not to embark on that career. Gwen Stefani leaps to mind. Today, heavyweight artists such as Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga appear in films. Lady Gaga has been for years. Charli xcx is starting out her acting career. Taylor Swift has been in films. Little Simz is a phenomenal actor. There does seem to be this natural relationship between film and music. Most musicians make music videos and there is something about an actor performance from a live gig. A lot of the discipline and personality traits needed to perform an epic gig ties into acting. We will see a lot of great artists go into film and T.V. I am not sure whether the reverse is true and actors can make natural musicians. History says it is s mixed bag! However, if film and music seem to interact, do we talk about musicians appearing on the stage? Some might say that this is a very similar transfer. However, theatre, musical or straight, and film are very different. Film and T.V. relies on multiple takes. Theatre is this single performance where you have to nail it. Musical theatre is so demanding. I don’t think it is as easy to go from music to theatre. Even though a lot of artists have that stamina and stagecraft to deliver a great acting performance, there are dynamics and aspects of an acting performance that are not imbued in music and live performances. Different skills that you have to pick up. It can be hard to detach from the musical arena and step into this different world.
PHOTO CREDIT: Rosaline Shahnavaz/The Guardian
I mention it as there is news that Rebecca Lucy Taylor (a.k.a. Self Esteem) will appear in a new revival that will hit the West End next March. The Guardian shared a feature about this development. Someone I can see appearing in quite a few films, it seems that Rebecca Lucy Taylor has a natural and burgeoning career in theatre. As she recently staged a theatrical presentation of her latest album, A Complicated Woman, it seems that Taylor is naturally drawn to the stage:
“Self Esteem to star as raging rock star in revival of David Hare’s Teeth ’n’ Smiles
Rebecca Lucy Taylor will play Maggie, a role originated by Helen Mirren, in a ‘landmark’ 50th anniversary production in London in March
Fifty years after Helen Mirren originated the role, Rebecca Lucy Taylor AKA Self Esteem is to play a raging rock star in a West End revival of Teeth ’n’ Smiles by David Hare.
It will take Taylor back to the Duke of York’s theatre, where she performed a four-night “theatrical presentation” of her third album, A Complicated Woman, in April. In Hare’s 1975 play she takes the lead role of a singer, Maggie, in an imploding band who put on a concert for a Cambridge University May ball at the end of the 1960s. The mood is summed up by the band’s closing number, Last Orders on the Titanic. Taylor will contribute additional music and lyrics to original song by the brothers Nick and Tony Bicât respectively.
Daniel Raggett will direct the production, which opens in March and runs for 12 weeks. Tickets will go on sale in October. “I’m deeply honoured to be bringing Teeth ’n’ Smiles back for its 50th anniversary,” said Taylor. “I love to challenge myself in new forms and I can’t wait to slap you round the face with Maggie. I am a huge fan of Daniel and David’s work, and the chance to collaborate with them on such a landmark production is something I am insanely excited about.”
Taylor spent a decade in the indie duo Slow Club and released her solo debut album as Self Esteem, Compliments Please, in 2019. It was followed by Prioritise Pleasure, named the best album of 2021 by Guardian music critics. Taylor made her theatrical debut as Sally Bowles in Cabaret at the Playhouse in London in 2023. Next month marks the publication of her first book, A Complicated Woman, billed as “a cathartic scream … that gets to the heart of being a woman in the world today”.
I can’t think of anything more exciting than watching Rebecca Lucy Taylor and Daniel Raggett strip the varnish off my old play,” Hare said. “It’s a perfect moment to see if a new generation responds to that 70s mix of hope, drugs, music, sex and despair.”
Teeth ’n’ Smiles was first staged at the Royal Court in 1975, with a cast including Antony Sher, and transferred to the West End the following year. The role of Maggie was compared to Janis Joplin, and the Guardian’s Michael Billington wrote that Hare “captures precisely that moment in a culture when a dream explodes. Like John Osborne in The Entertainer, he realises there is poetry and pathos in the spectacle of decline”.
It is not strange for artists to step onto the stage. Will Young, Beverley Knight, Emma Bunton and Melanie C are among those who have appeared in theatrical productions. I think most are musical theatre productions. The rebel play, Teeth 'n' Smiles, has musical moments, though it is not a technically a musical. It is rare for artists to step outside of musical theatre when we think of stage performances. One of the most notable transitions of the past few years is when Cheryl appeared in 2:22: A Ghost Story in 2023. Playing a new mother, Jenny, in Danny Robins’s supernatural story, this was a role previously played by Lily Allen. I am not sure if there are doubts and cynicism when artists step onto the stage. There are theatre snobs and critics who feel it is maybe stunt casting or someone stepping outside of their arena. Although Cheryl’s performance was acclaimed, I guess a lot of it falls on the quality of the production and the other actors. One downside might be too much focus and pressure being on this high-profile musician appearing on the stage. Maybe that takes away from the ensemble and the play’s direction and writing. However, I do think that it is hugely impressive when artists go into theatre. Maybe a lot more daunting and harder to do a performance that is not musical and is dark or quite heavy-hitting, I wonder how many others from music will transfer to the stage. Rebecca Lucy Taylor is someone who has this relationship with the stage. She also composed the score for the Jodie Comer-starring Prima Facie. The Suzie Miller play won Comer an Olivier, and there is a national tour of the production next year.
Perhaps it is more common in the U.S., but a host of American artist have appeared in acclaimed productions there. From Brandy Norwood to Sting to Josh Groban to Michelle Williams, again, a lot of these performance are musical theatre. I guess Teeth ‘n’ Smiles is close to musical theatre. About a failing Rock band, fronted by the Janis Joplin-like Maggie Frisby, performing at Jesus College's May Ball in 1969, things descends into chaos as the clash between the band and the academics highlights the end of the optimistic 1960s counter-culture. Rather than it being musical theatre, I see it closer in town to a new production like Stereophonic: The play follows a fictional rock band (very much based around Fleetwood Mac and their Rumours period) on the cusp of superstardom as they struggle through recording their new album set from 1976 to 1977. It is just a subject I am curious about. Also, what skills and attributes can Rebecca Lucy Taylor take from these theatrical experiences into her music? Does she have this extra edge and level because of what she has picked up from these productions? Perhaps so? Also, did she take a lot of her natural and years-long talents and instincts and ably and phenomneallyu triumph on the stage? Again, I think so. I think that Rebecca Lucy Taylor will be simply electric when she appears in Teeth ‘n’ Smiles. It will be an accomplished and extraordinary performance from…
A tremendous talent.