Jodie Prenger reveals rehearsal nerves

DISCUSSING the origins of a 1982 show with its creators was a delight for Jody Prenger until the BBC I’d Do Anything winner had to start rehearsals for Tell Me On A Sunday.

“It is the loveliest thing in the world to know that Andrew Lloyd Webber and Den Black are supporting you, until they come into the rehearsal room and I’m petrified and I’ve got sweaty palms and everything. But they are so lovely and are two West End and Broadway Musical greats and so grounded. They are two wonderful men,” she says.

Prenger was offered the Tell Me On A Sunday tour after Lloyd Webber saw her star in Calamity Jane.

“It was lovely to be asked to do a show. It was brilliant to be asked because I’m terrible in auditions. Absolutely frightful. Even for Nancy, I sang a song and started in a key that Howard Jones couldn’t hit on a good day and the West End casting agent asked if I’d like to start again. He compared me to a pack of wild horses and Faith Brown,” says Prenger.

Taking on the one-act show means that the performer also takes charge of a second half with music and a question and answer session.

“Some of the questions are hysterical. I had one that said, ‘How big are they?’ and I replied, ‘I hope you’re talking about my feet?’ People are interested in the history of the show and things like that, but there was one question written in lipstick: ‘Why were there no pens? I had ten questions to write’.”

Prenger feels that is her most daunting role to date, but isn’t afraid of taking the show to York and Darlington.

“It always feels wrong if you’re a leading lady to say, ‘I’ve done it, and I’m singing these great songs’ but a lot of the one-nighters haven’t been too bad. You don’t have time to say, ‘Oh God, I’ve got to move on’. But it’s still going a lot faster than I thought it would,” says Prenger, who has seen the tour extended from 50 to 60 venues.

She quite enjoys touring having been across the UK in Spamalot and Calamity Jane. “There are theatres I love visiting and you also find these little gems like Lewisham and Lowestoft.”

And if she forgets her hairdryer and make-up along the way?

“Listen, if I forget my hairdryer and make-up we wouldn’t have an audience because they’d be scared off. So, there’s no chance of forgetting them,” she jokes.

Prenger became interested in Tell Me On A Sunday after learning that creators Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black wanted to return the show to its original format of the romantic misadventures of an English girl in New York in the 1980s. Marti Webb and then Sarah Brightman portrayed the role of the woman, who was eventually named Emma in later shows, with other versions being updated and songs revised or changed to suit the solo performer.

“I think it really works because Emma feels so far away from home and back then was writing letters and there was none of this Facebook business. You write a letter, it takes a couple of weeks to get there and back. Although you have the complications of her life, the rest was a lot simpler then. It’s a very real piece and I don’t have to find an arty-farty accent and there’s a story that you don’t often get in musicals,” she says.

Prenger reveals she is a letter writer and often replies to the “lovely letters” she gets from fans who have seen her shows or want some advice about the entertainment industry.

“It’s a good thing that my family paid for all that private education so that I learned to do joined-up writing. My other half, Simon, emails all the time and I’m the one that always gets to write the Christmas card,” she jokes.

Prenger does identify with Emma’s journey, but has never appeared in a show like Tell Me On A Sunday. “I’ve heard people crying when I’ve sung As Long As He Needs Me and Secret Love, but there are constant moments when people are fighting back tears when I’m singing things like Take That Look Off Your Face because of Don Black’s lyrics and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music, which makes this is a little gem of a piece,” says Prenger.

She’s got some projects ahead that she can’t talk about at the moment, but a permanent presenter spot on BBC Radio 2 is high on her wish-list having regularly been the stand-in for Paul O’Grady.

“Just recently I went to the wedding of his producer Malcolm Prince, who married his partner of 25 years. That gave me so much joy and Nicki Chapman, Graham Norton and Paul O’Grady were there. I do love radio because you only need mascara and you’re not going to scare small children.”

Away from the stage, Prenger confesses that she’s taken on a farm and “my poor fellah has to keep sending me updates” on her four dogs, seven chickens, three tortoises and three degus called W, T and F.

“I keep asking Paul O’Grady what his goats are like because I want some of them. I just keep buying animals because they look sad and want to give them a happier like. I had a rabbit with one ear once and I called it Pardon. I tell you if Cameron Mackintosh wants to change the sex of Doctor Doolittle I can play it and provide all the animals,” she laughs.

Tell Me On A Sunday: York Theatre Royal, tomorrow (Friday, April 22), 7.30pm. Box Office: 0844-871-3024 or atgtickets.com/York

Darlington Civic Theatre, Thursday, May 5, 7.30pm. Box Office: 01325-486-555 or darlingtoncivic.co.uk