From Wicked to Mamma Mia!, London Star Harriet Thorpe Celebrates Theatrical Girl Power

Harriet Thorpe may be best-known in the US as Patsy’s chum Fleur in TV's Absolutely Fabulous, but the actress has been a mainstay of West End musicals for years. Thorpe played Fraulein Kost in the Rufus Norris revival of Cabaret and did two years as Madame Morrible in Wicked; on tour she was Mrs. Lovett opposite Jason Donovan in Sweeney Todd. She can currently be seen sporting huge false eyelashes and tight-fitting Lycra as Tanya (Christine Baranski’s film role) in long-runner Mamma Mia! at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Broadway.com caught up with the instantly engaging performer at a recent lunchtime before one of the West End’s two-show Fridays.

Tanya is probably the juiciest role in Mamma Mia! What’s your take on her?
She’s the glamorous friend who has lived all around the world. I find her fascinating and a joy to watch because she is witty and funny and devil-may-care. As an actress performing her, I get to dance around with a lot of very hot young men: It’s a tough day at the office [laughs].

Did you know the show, and the part, already?
I’d seen Mamma Mia! over the years, of course, and had always adored it because for women of a certain age—let’s just say over 30, and leave it at that—to have three central roles for women in their middle years is a jubilant honor. There aren’t many musicals that have roles for women like this one does collectively. I like that I have a wonderful central scene and then the fun of playing this fun, crazy woman with such joie de vivre.

Did this seem an inevitable show for you to do?
Not really, only because having done two years in Wicked and a year in Cabaret and a bit in Harry Potter, it seemed like I was only playing witches or predatory women and never anyone remotely normal. In Ab Fab, as well, I was always potty or mad, which goes with being a character actress, I suppose. But when this came up, it absolutely fitted me hand-in-glove because of my maturity, if I can use that word, and also the whiff of it, which is camp and funny and hilarious.

Was the film of Mamma Mia! helpful? Irrelevant?
Well, it reawakened everybody to the musical. People come, I think, because the dance numbers in the stage show are much bigger and there are many more ensemble numbers. But as a performer, I put it to one side because I am completely different to the people who were in the movie, and also, when we job-share—as we all do in musical theater—it’s important to come to it with your own idea. I’ve done so many parts that have been played countless times before: Mme. Thenardier in Les Miz, Mrs. Lovett in John Doyle’s Sweeney Todd [on tour]. If I looked at everybody else who had done these roles, I wouldn’t be focused on what I do.

You couldn’t ask for a greater contrast to this assignment than your role in Wicked.
Absolutely! Morrible is an extraordinary, fantastic character—menacing and witty and a devil—and she is also the only one who is genuinely foul and evil. Nessarose, one might say, is a bad penny because she does some dark things, but she’s crippled and that would affect your life. With Morrible, you know nothing about her except that the minute she lays eyes on Elphaba, that is her ticket to power; she’s out for herself. Everyone is expendable, in her view, which makes her truly wicked.

Both Wicked and Mamma Mia! have become international phenomena.
Yes, and they both have an extraordinary fan base who know you and are interested in what you are doing. I have people come up to me at Mamma Mia! and say, “I saw you in Wicked,” and then they start to follow your journey. What’s astonishing about all this is that I have a voice that could clean ovens; it’s not a musical theater voice like a lot of the very talented people I work with. I’m an actress who sings, not a musical theater actress, and I’m not really sure all musicals are for me. I look around now and think, “There are a lot of fantastic musicals in town, but they may not be musicals I could do.”

Not that you ever seem to be out of work!
Knock wood [laughs]. I clearly have a facility; I remember thinking when I started that, in a way, what matters is that you have a vibe to perform; it doesn’t really matter where it comes out as long as you want to do it. I studied at the Royal Ballet School as a teenager and then went to the Central School of Speech and Drama, since which time I’ve worked in musical theater and at the National and in film and TV. I work a lot. It is my job, and I earn my living at it.

Is it frustrating with a take-over that you may not get to work with the original creative team?
Phyllida Lloyd [the director] came to the first night of our cast change in Mamma Mia! last June. That show has a real family feel; some people have been working on it for the 11 years of its run, so there’s great continuity. On Wicked, [director] Joe Mantello always came over; we may only have had a couple of days with him, but he was always fantastic.

What happened to your ballet aspirations, which came naturally, I imagine, from your father [Edward Thorpe, an actor who became a prominent dance critic and lecturer]?
Can we be blunt here? My tits are too big—which is great in Mamma Mia! because they virtually have their own dressing room and contract, but not so great if you’re 5’3” and want to be a dancer. But my son, Jack Thorpe-Baker, started in August as a dancer with the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. He’s 21. Dancers, of course, start their careers very young. I’ve got a daughter who is almost 18 and I think she intends to go into the arts.

Well, you’re setting a good example in one of the many musicals that celebrate girl power—not just Mamma Mia! and Wicked but Legally Blonde and the upcoming Matilda.
It’s extraordinary for the girls to have a voice, yes. The guys’ stuff is always there, like Jersey Boys, obviously. But you’re absolutely right, this is an amazing time for women in the West End. Whether you’re nine years old or 900, I can’t imagine that these shows in one way or another wouldn’t speak to you.