Danielle Hope on Jumping from Reality TV to the Lead in London's The Wizard of Oz

Nineteen-year-old Danielle Hope is the latest performer to have landed a starring role in a big-budget West End musical via reality TV. Hope won out over some 9,000 girls to become “the people’s Dorothy” in The Wizard of Oz, a project masterminded by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Now settled into her run at London’s Palladium Theatre, the charming, clearly intelligent newcomer took time during a day off to talk TV renown, her love of New York and how it feels to sing “Over the Rainbow” live on stage.

You’ve been playing Dorothy for almost four months now. How are you settling in?
I’ve actually been moving today, to a place that's more of a home. My new accommodation is a small, split-level property with a staircase, and there’s nothing like a good old staircase, is there? [Laughs.] The other flat had a really weird controlled air system which was completely drying my voice. I’m still only renting, though, and don’t want to be tied down. If I did ever get to go to New York, I want to be able to pack my bags and go! I'd love to get over to New York as soon as possible.

Fair enough—though it must be nice after all the casting hoopla to be settling into a year-long London run.
It’s nice to feel as if some of that pressure is off. With Over the Rainbow [the BBC reality TV program from which Hope was cast], we were doing different routines every week, and it was such a workout for the muscle memory and your organizational skills. It wasn’t like a normal audition, where you come home afterwards and sit on your couch with a mug of tea. We were all in the “Dorothy House” in Wembley [northwest London] sharing bedrooms and doing auditions in front of millions of people; it was completely mad. Being onstage feels like where I’m comfortable. All I ever wanted was to do live theater. This is where I thrive.

Is there a different kind of pressure that comes with being cast in such a public way?
I went into this knowing I was going to have that extra level of attention and knowing that it would be a very pressurized thing. But what I really liked in rehearsals was that they didn’t reference the TV show. I was just another actor coming into a rehearsal room—not “that girl off TV,” but Danielle Hope, actress/performer. I’m working to sustain that, hopefully.

And yet you’re stepping into one of the most readily identifiable roles, Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, singing one of the world’s best-known songs, “Over the Rainbow”.
That was definitely a tricky one [laughs]! You need the gingham dress and the red ruby slippers and the dog and the three boys. But you also think, “OK, I’m carrying an iconic role and the image that everyone has of Dorothy, and then I’ve got to sing probably the most famous song in the world within 15 minutes, in my first job!” At first, it was really, really nerve-wracking, but now I completely adore it. I just hope I do that beautiful piece of music justice.

You’re not imitating Judy Garland. Was that a temptation?
The thing is, I’ve only ever seen The Wizard of Oz film twice, both times around Christmas as a young girl, and that’s probably been a benefit to me. What it meant was that I got my script on the first day of rehearsals like everybody else and read the lines as a 14-year-old girl in that situation without trying to imitate anything I’d heard or seen. It wasn’t about trying to copy someone or, on the other hand, trying to completely change it. It was, what is this character communicating, and how is this person communicating? I wanted to create a real person with real problems.

You convey a palpable sense of Dorothy as outcast. Within minutes of the start of the show, there she is saying, “Nobody understands me.”
So much of it is about 14 being that horrendous age as a girl where you want to be part of the adult conversation because you see yourself as old enough to be, even though you’re actually not. At the same time, you’re too old to be with the children anymore doing childish things. And then, of course, Dorothy’s “family” aren’t really her family either. She’s an orphan on a farm, and she’s so confused and unsure. But it’s a beautiful adventure she goes on because she’s incredibly optimistic. She’s not some stroppy, bratty teenager; she’s just a little bit lost.

It must be nice to be working with Michael Crawford [as the Wizard], who is such a seasoned theater professional.
That combination is really, really lovely. He’s done so much already and I’m right at the beginning of my career, and I think that works. I think of him as both an adviser and a kind of father figure; he’s a very wise man.

I felt for you on opening night acting alongside a Toto who clearly had a mind of his own!
There are four of them [West Highland terriers], and they all react differently. But we’re doing live theater, and you can’t get more live than a live dog, can you? [Laughs.] The thing, too, is that I’m solely responsible for this animal when it’s on stage, and we’ve got a very technical set which, for an animal, can be quite dangerous. That was a massive challenge at first, but now they know the deal. It’s like [imagining Toto’s point of view]: “I do this bit now, and I get a treat in five minutes.”

What’s next? It must be hard to know what to do for an encore after such a high-profile stage debut.
Because I’m only 19, hopefully there will be a lot of doors to choose from, fingers crossed. I haven’t done much—no, anything—professionally before this, and I’m really, really aching to do a play or any kind of straight theater. At the same time, I’d love to play Mary Poppins or Christine in The Phantom of the Opera or something like Natalie in Next to Normal, which I saw in New York and loved. But the truth is I have no idea what’s going to be next. All I do know is that I am ready to work very, very hard.