Helpmann and Sydney Theatre Award winner Amy Lehpamer is no stranger to stealing the show. From playing Maria in The Sound of Music to Anne Hathaway in &Juliet and Dusty Springfield in Dusty, she's brought some of music's most beloved icons to life on stage.
Now, Amy Lehpamer is taking on four different characters in the West End sensation Pride & Prejudice(sort of), which is coming to the Canberra Theatre Centre from 16–27 September. We caught up with Amy to chat about the show and what makes this musical comedy so special.
★★★★★ "5 talented women bring you a joyous, riotously funny night out. Jane Austen would be absolutely thrilled." – FUSE Magazine
Pride & Prejudice (sort of). Photo by Matthew Chen.
Playing Four Characters at Once: Amy Lehpamer's West End Adventure Comes to Canberra
FUSE: You’re playing four different characters in Pride & Prejudice (sort of) — Tillie, Charlotte Lucas, Charles Bingley and Miss Bingley. That’s pretty impressive. Why aren’t they each played by different people?
AMY: We are a cast of 5, and there are certainly more than 5 characters in Jane Austen’s novel! Between us, we play around 20 roles. The conceit of our show is that 5 maids from Jane Austen’s literary houses tell the story. And so the maids become the audience’s conduit to the story, and part of the fun of it all is that we are changing roles very swiftly.
How do you switch between such different personalities, and which character do you find yourself most drawn to?
Each character has wildly different personalities, accents, class status and physical traits — even genders.
The rehearsal period was all about finding every character’s sound, walk and proclivities, and then getting adept at switching between them as seamlessly as possible. Costume helps! I have a lot of love for Charlotte Lucas; she’s not got the happiest ending, but she has a beautiful heart and playing her is like being on a little quiet island in the midst of the madness.
This show has won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy in the West End. What makes this adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic different, and how does it connect to modern audiences?
AMY: It’s really funny. And that’s not to say the novel isn’t funny. But the show is really, really funny, it moves at a clip and the character changes require a level of commitment and energy and elasticity from the cast that I don’t think you’d necessarily associate with a troupe of actors putting on a normal Austen adaptation. We’re acting, singing, dancing and playing instruments, too.
The show features pop classics like ‘Young Hearts Run Free’, ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’ and ‘You’re So Vain’. How do these songs work with such a classic story?
They give the characters an outlet for their big and often repressed feelings! The fact that they’re contemporary songs adds to the modernity of the adaptation. For the most part, we’re not speaking in a mannered way as per the novel, so the songs blend in well.
Pride & Prejudice (sort of). Photo by Matthew Chen.
You’ve played such diverse roles in the past — from Maria in The Sound of Music to Anne Hathaway in & Juliet, Dusty Springfield in Dusty, and even Janet in Rocky Horror. How do you choose your roles and what drew you to Pride & Prejudice (sort of).
I have always dreamed of being in a BBC Jane Austen adaptation, but that hasn’t happened yet, so this felt like the next best thing. I get to play comedy, which I adore, and I hadn’t played multiple characters in a show before, so it felt exciting and challenging to see if I could pull it off.
Most actors don’t really get to choose roles so much as be chosen for them in an audition process, but I feel very fortunate that so many of the roles I have played have been full of heart and humour, and bloody great songs.
You’ve described this as five fearless women bringing Austen’s world to life. If you could meet Jane Austen and show her this adaptation, what do you think she’d make of it?
I think she’d love that a very clever woman has adapted her work, and be amazed that audiences are still cheering for Elizabeth and Darcy 213 years after her novel was published.
What can audiences expect from the experience and what do you think audiences will be talking about as they leave the theatre?
A really brilliant, joyous night out that affirms your love for THE classic romantic comedy, and has you wondering just how those costume changes were pulled off!
THE FIVE-STAR MUSICAL COMEDY SENSATION
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (sort of) is finally heading Down Under.
Direct from its triumph in the West End where it won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy, Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) is a unique and audacious retelling of Jane Austen’s most iconic love story. Men, money and microphones will be fought over in this irreverent but affectionate adaptation where the stakes couldn’t be higher when it comes to romance.
★★★★★“Faithful to the book, it’s also a raucously irreverent romp” – Daily Mail
This “smart, laugh out loud funny” (Daily Telegraph) show features a string of pop classics including ‘Young Hearts Run Free’, ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’ and ‘You’re So Vain’.
Coming to Australia for the first time, five fearless women bring Austen’s world of love, class and chaos to life with heart, humour and unstoppable energy in this modern take on one of the world’s most adapted pieces of literature
★★★★★ “Riotously funny… gloriously entertaining… frankly sensational” – Variety
