Memphis' Beverley Knight on Her Thrilling Olivier Nod, The Wiz Dreams & Adventures in London's 'Theaterland'

English soul singer Beverley Knight has been batting a thousand in her stage forays to date. She first appeared on the West End in 2013 as Heather Headley’s replacement in The Bodyguard and is currently an Olivier Award nominee for her roof-raising turn as Felicia in the British premiere of Memphis at the Shaftesbury Theatre; the London version of Broadway’s 2010 Tony-winning musical is up for nine Oliviers in total. The chatty, ever-engaging star spoke with Broadway.com about her newfound love for theater, cornering the American market on stage, and where she was when she got the big news.

This is only your second-ever West End gig, and here you are an Olivier nominee! How exciting is that?
It’s mad, isn’t it? The day the nominations came out I was on holiday with James [O’Keefe, her husband] and we were sitting at breakfast aware of what time it was back home and James said, “You know, it’s time,” and I said, “I don’t want to know, otherwise I will vomit this breakfast up,” so we made small chitchat about this and that and I was quite clearly antsy and nervous.

How then did you actually get the news?
We finished breakfast and James was looking through his phone and he had gone on to the Oliviers website and he looked at the phone and he looked at me and in the end he just smiled. He read out the headlines and mine was the last name and when he read it out, I went crazy and burst into tears.

And how do you feel about co-star Killian Donnelly, who plays Huey, also getting a nod?
I’m praying to every god that exists that Killian walks away with that gong because I just adore the ground he walks on. But I’m so pleased that everyone has been recognized, because this has been such a team effort. It’s feeling now as if our hard work has paid off.

Tell us the truth: have you been practicing an acceptance speech?
To be honest with you, I haven’t because I keep thinking I’m going to jinx it. These women I’m up against are proper, and here I am having come in from the music world: I sing, that’s what I do. Let’s just say that if it were to be my name that they called out, the first 20 seconds of my remarks would be absolute rubbish and then I would settle down and maybe get in the proper and appropriate thank yous.

Do you feel a sense of community with your fellow nominees?
Hell yes! Everybody is already on everyone else’s Twitter saying good luck and there is a real community here in theaterland, which you don’t get at all in the music industry, quite frankly.

It’s interesting that you were in the frame for Memphis in the West End before you ever took over in The Bodyguard.
I had got the script for Memphis at the very beginning because the people involved were convinced I would be a good Felicia, which was lovely, so I was sent the script and had a read and I thought it was absolutely magnificent. Then I was on tour with my music when they were talking about the changeover in The Bodyguard and I thought that might be fun to do and because they hadn’t at the time gotten a theater for Memphis, I decided to take a punt on that instead.

Which of your two West End roles has been the greater challenge: Rachel Marron or Felicia?
Rachel was tougher to pull out every night from a physical point of view and I would go home just knackered because all the songs in that show are for that one character. With Memphis, the music is spread among the cast but this one has a weighty message with Jim Crow and the civil rights era coming through so that by the end of it emotionally, you’re dead; you put everything into it and then you’re just spent.

How important was it for you to learn what Tony nominee Montego Glover had done with the same role on Broadway?
That’s an interesting one. In complete contrast to Killian who was in contact with Chad [Kimball, his Broadway predecessor] the whole time, I tried to have as little as possible to do with what had happened on Broadway only because I didn’t want that to influence the way I was thinking and feeling.

In other words, you were letting research be your guide as opposed to a fellow performer.
I guess I was a bit more bookish about it. What I did to prepare myself was not only get on a plane and go to the city of Memphis, but also read as much as I could about what happened after the Civil War—the Reconstruction era and so on. I wanted to get a sense of Felicia not only as we find her in the show but of her genealogy. But now that we’re up and running, I must get in contact with Montego; she’s just divine.

You are half of a mixed-race marriage—how does the musical's material hit home for you?
James is of Irish descent and proper Irish—dark Irish—as well, and we kept saying to one another with relation to this show that what seems so natural and organic and perfect for us would have been not just anathema but illegal had we lived only half a century ago.

As an Englishwoman from the Midlands, you've scooped some great American roles. Any others on the horizon?
It’s interesting that the roles that seem to suit someone like me all seem to come from the states, which is a joyous thing because I’ve been trying to perfect an American accent ever since I was a kid [laughs]! You’ve got your Motown the Musical and that could be a lot of fun, and if they ever revive The Wiz, I’m in!