Theatre and Dance Previews

With a memorable score including ‘It’s A Hard Knock Life’, ‘Easy Street’, and of course the legendary ‘Tomorrow’, the heart-warming rags-to riches musical Annie is coming to the Alban Arena this month, featuring star of stage and screen Ruth Madoc.

Ruth Madoc as Gladys in Hi-de-Hi

Ruth is the RADA trained actress who shot to fame in the 80s comedy Hi-De-Hi as Gladys Pugh, the character whose unrequited love for her holiday camp boss made the nation take her to their hearts. More recently she has become familiar to a whole new generation playing the mother of Daffyd, the only gay in the village, in the award-winning Little Britain.

She is reprising her role as the dastardly Miss Hannigan and is joined on stage by David McAlister (Hollyoaks, Eastenders, Mike Bassett TV and Brideshead Revisted) as the billionaire businessman, Oliver Warbucks. This 2007 tour introduces Rachel Stanley in the role of the delightful Grace Farrell, following her acclaimed appearance in Chicago as Velma Kelly.

Annie’s adventures from Miss Hannigan’s orphanage to the luxurious home of Oliver Warbucks, is a story that has been told all over the world since it was first seen on stage in 1976.

Ruth told us why she has returned to the role for the third time and also discusses her career, the acting profession and reality TV!

Miss Hannigan is a fantastic part isn't it?

Ruth: Yes, it's a wonderful part. She's the archetypal dastardly sort of character which is normally male. Hannigan is the female version of it and actually, even though the first thing she does is come on stage and smack botties, as the thing unfolds you see she has had her sadnesses i.e. she's never had children of her own and these children are her whipping boys if you like, but they're not really frightened of her because they stamp on her foot and do all sorts of things to her.

So no matter what she does she still can't get any respect?

Ruth: No, and yet I think they have a certain amount of respect for her because she gets the paddle out every now and again but you wouldn't really call it respect I suppose, it's fear really. But on the other hand I went into all this, and although it doesn't say it in the text, Hannigam has taught them to read and write so she can't be all that bad! Plus there's the fact that the show is set in the middle of a recession in America in the 1930s and even though they might only have hot and cold mush, at least they've got food which is more than anybody else has got in the street. They've got rags on their backs but at least they've got clothing and at least they had a shelter.

Ruth Madoc as Miss Hannigan in Annie

It's like the workhouse thing I guess, it wasn't great but it was better than anywhere else. You've played this part before and have obviously found much more to her than a two dimensional old harridan?!

Ruth: That's right. I like coming back to parts because of this. I used to do Under Milk Wood, I did it forever! I played every woman's part in it and that was an interesting piece because there were so many other parts in it but I liked going back to it because you never got bored with it. You could find something interesting in the characters. It was the same with Dorothy Brock in 42nd Street and I suppose the same with Gladys in Hi-de-Hi because she was nothing like me in reality. The producer used to say to me you'll have to act like Gladys off screen! Of course this was very contradictory because I was trained in the 1950s at RADA where you were just playing a part. The proscenium arch was actually your protection between your reality and you, so this phenomena of you having to play your character (off stage) was very strange to me.

So they wanted you to be the character off stage as well? Is that because it was a TV character and people knew you like that so expected you to be like that?

Ruth: Yes - 100 per cent. It was quite extraordinary for me - thank God I had kids and I lived in St Albans in those days where everybody knew me so I didn't really have to fight it that much. And that's why I loved going back to her and for me, I was never going to be typecast because I wasn't anything like her!

It was a fantastic part. What do you remember of that time because it was phenomenal wasn't it?

Ruth: Well, first of all there was the total recognition as soon as the damn thing went on. It was amazing! I remember getting on the bus from London Colney where I lived at the time and everybody went "Hello Campers" and I went "Oh - Hi-de-Hi"! It was extraordinary, the immediacy of the recognition.

Do you still get that or is it all about Little Britain now?

Ruth: Oh it's Little Britain now, especially the younger generation! 

That was quite a change for you wasn't it?

Ruth: Yes, it was amazing - my son lives in St Albans and I had to run the script by him!

Did you see the script before accepting the part then? So you knew what you were going to have to say?

Ruth: Yes - I have to say my husband blanched when he got it off the fax machine. I sent it to my son by fax and within 10 minutes he phoned and said, "Oh go on, do it mum - you'll be alright. You'll get street cred if nothing else!"

But from that I got the Vagina Monologues with Jerry Hall and I don't think the producers would have actually thought about me otherwise. And I adored doing those - they are great fun to do!

So doing Little Britain has obviously led to other things as well?

Ruth: Well, I think they would have been there but I think that it boosts them along a bit. And of course I always do Annie - this is my third go at it and we only do it for four months a year so you don't get sick of it.

Ruth Madoc as Miss Hannigan in Annie

Well to go back to it you must love it. What's it like working with the children and animals because they always say don't do it, don't they?

Ruth: That saying is really a fallacy because I've worked with children and animals when I did Gypsy! We've got two Annies that travel with us and they alternate but we pick up the children who play the orphans every week. Although, when we go to St Albans I think we've got the same girls that were at Northampton with us.

So you tend to change orphans with each location - that must be quite difficult?

Ruth: Yes - it's quite hairy on the first night! But the children of this age, 6-7-years-old, have no fear. It isn't until they reach puberty that they have fear or they're aware that they are actually performing to 1000 people and they haven't had that much rehearsal!

So how does it work, does somebody rehearse them before they get to you and then they just go on and do it?

Ruth: Yes - and then I rehearse with them on the day that we open for about an hour. It's not a lot and they have a lot to remember - two big routines for example.

It's good that you know the show back to front then?!

Ruth: Yes - if anything goes wrong I'll intervene if I'm on stage!

You've had a lot of success in your career and had some great parts, but is there anything you're still hankering after doing?

Ruth: Well, I think I should do some more Restoration Comedy. Hundreds of years ago I won a prize at RADA for Restoration Comedy so I really should go back to it! I was offered a Congreve - The Way of the World - this year but I couldn't do it because my daughter was having a child. Family gets in the way now - but I'm delighted to say that they do!

Your son acted at school in St Albans, did he carry on with it?

Ruth: No - I think he saw too many pitfalls, what with his father Phillip Madoc being in it and me, and there is an awful lot of stress involved in it so I think that basically he said no. His sister was a house manager at the Lyceum when it first opened in London so she went into that side, but even then there wasn't quite enough money in it.

The arts do seem to be notoriously badly paid?

Ruth: Yes - the people who get money are people like Jade Goody who, bless her, has very little talent but the next thing is you'll see her in some panto getting thousands of pounds.

Ruth Madoc in Little Britain

That must wrankle with trained actors?

Ruth: I can't say it doesn't because it does. And the people I feel really sorry for are the people who have been in my profession that are the backbone of it. They haven't actually become famous to the public but they've had their parts in The Bill and Doctors and earn a reasonable living, but every now and then they have to go into an office to augment their money and they are on exactly the same money in TV and theatre as a youngster coming out of drama school. Their money is not a sliding one with experience which is very, very sad. I really think that Equity ought to look into it. We are a very toothless tiger.

I think there's starting to be a bit of a backlash against reality TV now though?

Ruth: I hope so, but I have to say I was actually offered that Big Brother where Jade Goody disgraced herself.

I bet you were relieved not to be in it?!

Ruth: Well, in a way I would like to have done it because I felt the situation got totally out of hand. Because I'm a very old woman I would have actually said to the mum, "now come on, you've got to behave yourself". It wouldn't have mattered to me because I wouldn't have been there to be famous or infamous or anything else, so in a way I would like to have done it because I'm sure I could have somehow quelled that situation. They were all there to make a name for themselves and of course I couldn't care less.

I did look at it to see what I'd missed. I was doing pantomime at the time in Bath which was far more sophisticated [than that programme] but I thought I could have helped that situation.

Would you consider another reality show?

Ruth: It would depend. I've done one called 'I'm Famous and Frightened' which I won! But it was all about history and history is my bag.

So you don't fancy sitting in a jungle?

Ruth: No! That would not be my bag!

Finally then, why should people come and see Annie?

Ruth: Annie is a feel good show. You come out smiling and you sing the songs such as 'The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow' and 'It's a Hard Knock Life', and it's one of the best constructed musical comedies. It's not like Les Mis which doesn't have much comedy in it, this is a proper musical comedy and that's why people should bring their children to see it. It's very much a family show.