West End Urinetown Star Jenna Russell on Her Stage Spill & Why She’s Never Seen Sweeney Todd

Jenna Russell needs no introduction as a London musicals mainstay, with credits ranging from Sarah Brown in the Michael Grandage-directed Guys and Dolls to a range of Sondheim musicals that include Sunday in the Park with George (which she reprised on Broadway) and Merrily We Roll Along. Russell is back on the West End this fall leading the commercial transfer of Urinetown to the Apollo Theatre, playing tough-as-nails bathroom warden Penelope Pennywise. Broadway.com caught up with the ever-delightful Russell to talk being busy, lavatories, and taking a tumble during previews.

Welcome back to the West End for the first time since Merrily We Roll Along—and in another American musical!
I know, and one that I also actually saw in New York. I was there [in 2002] for my first visit as a grown-up seeing my friend Johnny Cake in Medea. I had lunch with Michael John LaChiusa who told me to get my bum down to the theater to see it. So I did even though I didn’t know anything about the show, and I just loved it.

What about the piece did you respond to?
I remember just laughing at the bravery of it—it felt so fresh and brave. And if you know your musicals, you can hear how clever [the creators] have been pastiching everything from West Side Story to Les Miserables to Kurt Weill. At the same time, what’s great is that you don’t need to be a musical theater fan to still get the fact that the numbers are great.

Yes, and I think what [director] Jamie Lloyd’s current production brings out is how serious the piece is at the same time.
Absolutely. The show is funny and witty but it does pose some serious questions or as far as you can do so in the musical form. The thing is, the world is not a happy place and people do get bumped off if they stick their heads above the parapet. I love the fact that we’re out there every night talking about these things and offering an exciting take on a well-trodden form.

What has it been like working with Jonathan Slinger as Officer Lockstock and the rest of this eclectic cast?
I mean, here we have one of our greatest Shakespearean actors bringing to this musical a twinkle but a very dark, knowing twinkle. I think I speak for all of us when I say that this was one of the happiest rehearsal periods I have ever had: Jamie totally understands the need for actors to play around and be ridiculous at times. It’s like someone said: he lets you play with all the toys in the box and then gradually takes away the ones you don’t need.

You play a lavatory attendant which prompts the inevitable question: Have you ever had to pay to pee?
[Laughs.] What a great question! I have, I think, yes, at Victoria Station. And in France you have to pay to pee quite a lot. The thing is, I actually feel for poor Pennywise: can you imagine standing by urinals day in day out with that as your life?

How did you get this role?
I’ve known Jamie for years because he assisted Michael Grandage on Guys and Dolls, so we knew each other from then and we had been wanting to work together. But it was Soutra Gilmour who designed Merrily and then Urinetown who told me this was happening and it went from there. I went along to audition and my voice was really down in my boots because I’d been doing Merrily, which was quite hard vocally, so I screeched my way through the audition.

It obviously worked since you got the part!
Yes, Jamie smiled at me in an understanding manner and said, “Yeah, you got the job.” [Laughs.]

Pennywise’s big number, “It’s a Privilege to Pee,” comes near the beginning—what is it like to start off with such a bang?
Nancy Opel [the role’s originator] has one of those extraordinary voices and I have to confess that in the beginning I was a bit scared: she’s just so impressive in terms of having a powerhouse voice that I thought, “I’ll have to do something else with the number and try and find other little ways around it.” I have this big burst at the beginning and then glug down a lot of water and get to breathe a little bit.

I read that you fell off the stage during previews?
I did, though I was fine if a little shaken. It was weird: I’ve been performing for 33 years so you sort of feel like you know what you’re doing and then I slipped and fell backwards and grabbed hold of the lighting rig. Luckily, I didn’t land on anyone, so no one was hurt in my attention-seeking moment [laughs].

Are there other American shows you have your eye on that have yet to come here?
Gosh, well, I’d love to do Diana in Next to Normal. That’s such an extraordinary piece, and it would be great with Jamie directing and tapping into the deep sadness that the central female character has. I’d also love to do Grey Gardens.

And I hear Pennywise was your audition to play Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd?
I know, how camp is that? The thing with Sweeney is that was my introduction to Sondheim at age 14 and I’ve actually never seen a production of it because I didn’t want to know what anyone else has done. It’s become a little obsession of mine that I can’t see it because the show is in my head. Jamie actually said on Twitter that he would direct it, so I’m going to see if that’s legally binding: I’m going to photograph the tweet and send it to my lawyers [laughs].

In the meantime, you’re leaving Urinetown early because you already have your next job!
I know, and it usually never happens like that, does it? After I finished Into the Woods [in Regent’s Park in 2010] I couldn’t get arrested for a year and a half. But, yes, I’m leaving our show at the end of November to begin rehearsals for the play Di and Viv and Rose, which we open at the Vaudeville at the end of January.

And one of your co-stars, Samantha Spiro, previously played Mary in Grandage’s Merrily We Roll Along in the 2000 Donmar production.
You know, I hadn’t thought about that. Maybe we should have a sing-off—or a Mary-off! It could get vicious.