Oom-Pah-Pah Indeed! Kerry Ellis on Her Wicked Return to the West End in Oliver!

Kerry Ellis is that relative rarity, a homegrown West End musical star who arrived at her status not via reality TV but, instead, thanks to hard work and talent and the particular lift that comes with having been Idina Menzel’s London replacement in Wicked. She went on to play Elphaba on Broadway, winning a Broadway.com Audience Award for Favorite Replacement. An erstwhile Eliza in Trevor Nunn’s My Fair Lady and an original cast member of We Will Rock You, Ellis has been reinventing herself of late in concert as a rock chick, with an imminent CD to prove it. In the meantime, she has just started as Nancy in the ongoing Rupert Goold-directed revival of Oliver! The performer took time before a full weekend of belting out “Oom-Pah-Pah” among onstage hordes of kids to chat with Broadway.com about her surprise-filled career.

How’s it going so far in Oliver!?
I have been absolutely humbled by the response, which is incredible. After coming out of Wicked, I had taken some time off to do my own show and some big orchestral concerts and kind of freelance for a little bit when [producer] Cameron [Mackintosh] asked me, basically, “Would you come and be our Nancy?” The offer was too good to refuse. It’s an honor to be doing the part.

A part, indeed, that every aspiring musical theater actress, especially in Britain, must know.
I’ve been singing these songs from when I was a girl at competitions and various school events, so this was something I’d dreamed of doing from a very young age. It’s totally different to Elphaba: there’s the screaming, obviously, because Nancy gets knocked around quite a lot, and it’s got a fatal ending. That screaming and the drive required for the part are quite difficult, but the singing is a joy. It’s not as relentless as Elphaba, but it’s still up there.

It seems like Nancy has to be both the life of the party as well as the show’s figure of death.
Well, that’s the joy of playing it: There are so many aspects. You get to do a big, lovely number with all the boys and the gang and that’s all heightened fun. Then you go into the pub scene with all the ensemble, driving a big number, and then there’s her relationship, which is a bit dark. There’s a lot of drama going on there. The next thing you know, she’s flung on the floor and has to go into a solo, “As Long As He Needs Me,” and the fight at the end of Act Two is really high drama. So there’s a really nice dynamic—such a flow of different emotions.

Do you think Elphie and Nancy would admire one another’s strength?
I think they would. The nice thing about this role is that Nancy is still a very strong woman. She looks after the gang, the boys, Bill and all the people in the pub. She’s a very strong woman who just happens to be in an unfortunate relationship, although at the same time one that is very passionate. There’s a slight resemblance in that Elphaba is very headstrong, although the two in other ways are very different. And that’s part of what I wanted in choosing a show that, to us in Britain at least, is very traditional: I did want to play someone quite far from Elphaba.

And someone who’s a different color—Nancy red as opposed to Elphaba green.
Yes, and quite a lot of brown dirt, as well [laughs]. I don’t know which is worse. Mind you, [in Wicked] I had the green down quite fast towards the end.

You spent two and a half years in Wicked between London and Broadway and back to London. What are your memories from the New York leg of that journey?
Usually with a show I kind of stay for about a year but with this one, each run had its own energy and felt like a new story, so it didn’t actually feel as if I’d been doing it for as long as I was. New York was amazing in that I was treated so well there. Musical theater is such an entity in New York, and you feel that when you’re part of it. The beauty of Wicked,as well, is the fan base, who support and rally around the different cast members all over the world. I receive letters now still from girls in New York and people in L.A., and it’s amazing the strength of attention. When I got to Broadway with Wicked, I molded into their show and got into the routine very quickly. And, of course, everything’s very buzzy in New York.

But since you departed Wicked in May 2009, you’ve tried on a nicely fitting new persona as high-style rock ‘n’ roller.
[Laughs.] That was kind of my secret passion, and now that my album is coming out, it will really show what I’ve been doing. I think in this business it’s interesting to see what we all do and what our passion is outside the theater, given that we all want to come out and perform and connect.

Will Oliver! be the last musical you do for a while?
I will be shifting attentions to my album for a little bit, but this is by no means the end of my musical career. I’ve always wanted to do everything, dating back to years ago when I first started clocking people like Elaine Paige and Barbra Streisand—great, talented people who could do everything: films, musicals and albums. In my case, I went to a theater college, so the natural progression was to go on to theater, and my career snowballed from there. But during all that time, I’ve wanted to record, which happened without my having to go, “This is what I’m going to do.” It’s been a dream come true.

Tell me about your album.
I’ve been working with Brian May from Queen and am trying to get a sound that defines me, and also trying to in corporate all the areas I’ve tapped into, like when I did Chess at the Royal Albert Hall [where she returns May 2 headlining a charity evening with Adam Pascal]. There are two songs from Wicked, “Defying Gravity” and “Not That Girl,” but they’re big rocky anthems now: Stephen [Schwartz, Wicked’s composer] has heard them and given us his blessing. There’s a We Will Rock You track, “No One But You,” that we recorded way back when I first started working with Brian, but there are some new things, as well. The whole thing's got a big, epic sound—filmic almost. We recorded it with a 70-piece orchestra at Abbey Road, and the plan is to have a tour to promote it.

In the meantime, you’re sharing the Drury Lane stage with coachloads of kids. What’s that been like?
It was actually the thing I was most nervous about, and now it’s probably my favorite part of the show. There are three teams of them, and they’re so much fun. At times, it’s so crazy you need a traffic warden, and there are ushers around the stage that nurture all the children into the right places. What’s funny is that they all jump from show to show: Some of them have longer [resumes] than some of the adults!