Scarlett Strallen
Age: 26
Hometown: London, England
Currently: Making her Broadway debut as the world’s most famous parasol-toting, practically perfect, sugar-happy nanny in Mary Poppins.
Show Folk: Lots of actors say, “Performing is in my blood,” but when Strallen does, she’s not using it as a metaphor. Her grandmother ran a dancing school. Her parents, both dancers, met at the BBC television center while performing on programs like The Benny Hill Show. They also kept busy as an adagio act at cabarets throughout Europe. “They were both mad artists,” remembers Strallen, in a note-perfect British accent that makes you think of…well, Mary Poppins. “When I was a baby, we sort of had a hippie life, traveling around in a camper van through France to all these cabaret venues.” The clan would drop anchor when work beckoned from London’s West End. “My mom would smuggle me into the theater—the wardrobe lady had a dog, and my mother didn’t understand why she couldn’t have a baby with her.”
Now and Forever: When Strallen was five, her parents were both cast in Cats, a show they’d stay with for four years. “My mom was the white cat, and the first time she did the solo in the spotlight, she was so nervous. I remember sending her vibes. Just five years old, and I’m going, ‘Oh Mommy, you can do it! You’re the best, you’re the best!’” The feline fantasia became something of an alma mater for the whole Strallen family: “My aunt was in the original cast. Summer, my sister, was in it when she was 16. We saw that show so many times while growing up.” Scarlett has yet to perform in Cats herself, saying with a laugh, “I’m such a sweat-er, I don’t think my makeup would last five minutes.” Still, the Andrew Lloyd Webber blockbuster left an indelible impression. “It was amazing to me that my parents would go off to work to dress up and sing and dance. I thought, ‘Well, that’s the best job in the world, isn’t it?’”
Graduation Day: In addition to observing all that happened on and offstage, Strallen did most of her formal studying in the theater, too. “I’d sit there for the two shows and do my homework,” she says. “It just felt like home.” When her father was performing in Aspects of Love, Strallen caught the eye of the show’s director and was soon cast in the role of young Jenny. “I had this teeny weeny broom-cupboard dressing room,” she recalls. “And I remember waiting backstage for my cue and thinking, ‘This is terrifying.’ But it was completely addictive and just yummy.” Annie Get Your Gun, her next gig, wasn’t quite so seductive: “They decided to dye all the kids’ hair bright orange; they said it would wash out within two weeks, and it never came out. I was in a convent school, and the kids were not very understanding and quite bullying about this huge orange fuzz on my head.”
Moving Out And Up: At 16, Strallen nabbed the first job of what she calls her “adult life” as an ensemble player in Mamma Mia!, still hitting the books backstage. Parts in The Witches of Eastwick and Peggy Sue Got Married followed, before she settled in with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for three years. As she explains, “My parents were getting divorced, and since everything I knew felt like it was coming apart, it was nice to have something that felt rather safe and secure. I also learned a lot watching people create parts.” Initially cast as the lead dancer, she gradually moved up to being a standby for Truly Scrumptious before taking over the role. Who then served as her replacement? Her sister Summer, now starring in The Sound of Music and an accomplished West End actress in her own right. As for the rest of the family, younger siblings Zizi and Saskia have hit the boards, too. Meanwhile, Mom’s coaching the West End boys in Billy Elliot, and Dad has retired his cat suit. “We take the mickey out of him to this day about it,” Scarlett says, using Brit slang for “make fun of.”
Come Fly with Me: Cast in the London production of Mary Poppins in 2005 replacing original star Laura Michelle Kelly, Strallen took a break in November 2006 to appear in The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Royal Shakespeare Company. She became Broadway's Mary in October and now happily flies over theatergoers’ heads and into the rafters eight times a week. “It’s weird, but I really feel like I’m floating,” she says of her airborne curtain call. “It’s a very spiritual moment, especially in the New Amsterdam Theatre, since I can actually see people’s faces. They really could hold on to my ankles, I get so close.” Thankfully, no one’s reached out for her quite like that—yet. “I’ve been told the wires I’m on can hold a two-ton house. So I’m not that worried about it.”
