Haydn Gwynne
Haydn Gwynne is a supermom. After moving from London in July with sons Orlando, 11, and Harry, 8, to make her Broadway debut in the hit Brit musical Billy Elliot, Gwynne has juggled parenting with a grueling rehearsal and preview schedule, spending onstage hours clad in neon Spandex while jumping rope and tap dancing simultaneously. At least this multi-tasker knew what to expect, as she originated the demanding role of Billy’s hard-drinking, foul-mouthed dance teacher Mrs. Wilkinson to rave reviews and an Olivier Award nomination during the show’s initial West End run in 2005. Chaotic schedule aside, Gywnne is exhilarated to hit Broadway after 20 years in the business. She abandoned academia and a teaching position in Italy to pursue acting in the mid-80s, landing her first musical role in the flop Ziegfeld before moving on to successful turns on BBC shows like Peak Practice and juicy stage parts like Oolie/Donna in the West End’s City of Angels. The star called us for a quick chat between performances to talk Billy, coming “out of the closet” as an actor and her wintertime wish for New York City.
You’re a busy woman these days! How is Broadway treating you?
Well I’ve two young children and you go to school so damned early in this town! [Laughs.] The show gets out late, and I have to get them up an hour earlier [than we do in England] in the morning. 6:45AM is one of the worst times of the day, I have to say.
You’ve got two children of your own, plus three Billy Elliots and a ballet school of girls to work with. Is it overwhelming?
That old saying “don’t ever work with children or animals” could have been considered the ultimate warning for this show! [Laughs.] But I’m quite used to it. It is a curious job in that way; I have very little contact with the adult cast members. In London, there were even more children. The [child labor laws] being stricter, we had three or four Billys at any given time, three Michaels, three Debbies and three sets of ballet girls. Straight off I was working with nearly 50 children. So here, where we’ve only one set of ballet girls, three swings, two Michaels, one Debbie and one Debbie understudy, it’s a dawdle by comparison. There were so many names to remember and who was onstage what night—the children were and are a delight, but the logistics are insane.
What are some of the challenges in bringing the show to the States?
This particular creative group [director Stephen Daldry, writer Lee Hall and choreographer Peter Darling] is always up to try something new, so while we’re not transforming the show, some adjustments have been made. One of the things keeping me up at night is that one of my main numbers, [the high-energy] “Born to Boogie,” has been completely remade. They cast a piano player with different skills than the one we had in London, so they started anew. We’ll spend all afternoon learning new choreography and bits, do the old version at the evening performance, then start the new version the next night, so it’s a bit terrifying!
You don’t look scared at all.
Thank you, but all I was thinking is, “I’ve never tapped danced before [this show], and now you’re going to have me tap dance while skipping rope? Great, thanks!” So there are definitely challenges. I’ve found you can’t just dredge this stuff up and do it [on command].
Has your entire family moved to New York for the run?
My children have. The one negative to doing the show is that their dad, my partner, can’t come over to stay. He’s a psychotherapist and has patients and he can’t say, “Oh, I’ll just dump all you for a year.” He is on a visit for the next two weeks, but I’m a single mom in New York a lot of the time! It’s a challenge. It had to be something as big as Billy Elliot for me to [make this move]. I wouldn’t just go, “Oh, we’re going to leave behind Dad for a year for a musical!” But it felt like something we could do now.
What has it been like working with these uber-talented kids?
Well, it kind of relates to the story in the show. The children are great to work with and are amazingly talented. What’s interesting is that very often they come to the show with a particular talent, and the rest [of the skills they need] are sort of thrown at them: Ballet dancers have to tap dance; jazz dancers have to sing; they’re all expected to act! It becomes about watching how much more people can do then you think they can. It is very inspiring to watch.
And with three Billys?
One of them [Trent Kowalik] has played the role in London, so he’s already made that part of the journey, but the others [Kiril Kulish and David Alvarez] are acting for the first time. Watching them find their acting chops is amazing. There are different paths each have to take, because one route isn’t necessarily right for all of them depending on their personality. David is very shy and quiet, and seeing him break through that and discover “Hey, I can do this!” is different from watching Kiril, who isn’t shy at all.
Mrs. Wilkinson always has a cigarette. How many do you go through a night onstage?
You’re not actually smoking as much as it appears, because you’re waving your [cigarette] around a lot. For instance, in my opening scene I only inhale once, and then it gets put out. I have a cigarette in the next scene, inhale once, and that gets put out. I probably inhale five times all night. They’re herbal cigarettes too, which I hate! But it’s 1984 [in the show] isn’t it? People smoked a lot!
How are the American actors doing with the accents?
I think they’re doing remarkably well! Even for British actors, Geordie [the regional dialect in the show] is the accent we all dread. It’s such a combination of influences, from Scottish to Scandinavian, that it’s really odd. We’re not doing it quite as extremely as we did in London so it’s more comprehensible. It was weird the first time I came into the building and the cast was rehearsing one of the songs [using the accent]. It’s just weird to be on 42nd Street listening to that!
Speaking of language, I understand you speak three?
Well, yes—my French is pretty rusty. But I still speak Italian very well because I lived in Rome for five years teaching.
How does one start out as a teacher in Rome and end up on Broadway?
Well I had no idea I’d end up on Broadway—it took 20 years! The truth is, I resisted acting. I’d always enjoyed it as a student but I had other things I wanted to do. To cut a long story short, I was teaching at Rome University and during the last few years there I knew that teaching was just a means to an end for me, a way to travel—it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I’ve described it in the past as “coming out of the closet” about wanting to act. I had this secret, shameful desire and I eventually figured I should have a go.
How do you even make that switch?
It’s all going to sound very pat, but basically I told [colleagues] in Italy that I wanted to be an actor. I sort of expected everyone to be horrified and go, “Are you mad?” Instead, everyone went, “Great!” So I came back to England and applied to drama schools. Now this is where it sounds pat—keep in mind this took over a year—but while I was applying I was desperately trying and failing to get auditions. The whole Equity card situation was even stricter then! But in the end I was offered my first proper job just before I would have started school. Understand, it’s not that I didn’t want to study, but I’d been a student not all that long ago and couldn’t get any grants; the whole process rather horrified me. I was offered a play directed by Alan Ayckbourn in his playhouse, and I ended up not going to drama school at all. That’s quite unusual in England. I learned on the job.
Was it a difficult transition?
Even when I was auditioning and writing to every repertory company in Europe and not getting anywhere, I basked in the relief of having made the decision to pursue it. It was difficult to leave behind friends in Rome, but the fact that I had given in to this [dream] kept me on track. So no, not very at all.
You’ve done musicals, Shakespeare, TV and performed Billy for the Queen. Has your career surprised you?
This job’s always taking you by surprise. I suppose if I was to examine my career, it went all over the place. I had a long period of being an English TV star, and now I’m back to musicals, and sometimes it’s like, “Wait a minute, who is this?” I hadn’t done a musical before Billy Elliot since 1993, when I did [the West End’s] City of Angels. So I suppose I have been surprised by the some of the directions it’s taken. The big shift, as most actors or actresses would say, was when I started a family. When I look back, I’ve turned down some projects and gone, “My God, why did you do that?” But it’s because I had to suit the family.
What milestones in your career mean the most to you?
Sometimes it’s the negative jobs that lead to the positive ones, so if we talk about musicals, the first one was Ziegfeld. It was a nightmare job! A massive, monumental flop! But it taught me that I could sing onstage. That led directly, some years later, to City of Angels, which led me in [a roundabout way] to Billy Elliot. I sang my song from City as my audition for Billy! So those were very significant. And it’s as much about the personal—the people you meet, the relationships from working together. That makes the difference.
Broadway isn’t a bad milestone either. Are you excited to make your debut while reprising the role?
Yes! I suppose the possibility was always that I might have [the chance] to do it on Broadway, but I wouldn’t have put money on it. There was a very long process of “We want you to do this, but can we make it happen?” because of [union negotiations]. It only became definite about five weeks before we started rehearsals. So we were excited, but it was also very stressful because I didn’t know whether I was going to get to do it. And then the stress of moving, finding schools for the children, all that—it was a bit overwhelming.
How are you enjoying New York now that you’re here?
Oh I can’t wait to enjoy New York! People keep asking me this, but all I do is rehearse! The bits I’m seeing of it, I really love. I am enjoying the energy of the city. But if you could get some nice snow for my kids this winter, I’d be grateful. Snow in London these days is just pathetic. I’ve promised them [a New York] snowing, and if I don’t deliver I’m going to be in trouble!
See Haydn Gwynne in Billy Elliot at the Imperial Theatre.
