By David Hennessy
Copyright theirishworld
Anna- Jane Casey told David Hennessy about being part of the cast for Northern Ireland’s first ever production of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies.
Anna-Jane Casey is part of the cast for Northern Ireland Opera’s historic revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s Follies at the Grand Opera House in Belfast.
Anna- Jane is from Salford but, as her surname suggests, she has an Irish family background and it is a cast that includes a host of Northern Irish and Irish talent.
Anna-Jane Casey (53) is a versatile performer with over 40 years of experience in TV, theatre, and music.
Hailing from Lancashire, she moved to London at just 16 to star as Rumpleteazer in CATS.
From there, she became a fixture in London’s West End, appearing in the original casts of Children of Eden, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Out of the Blue, and Grease.
She’s performed iconic roles in Starlight Express (Buffy, Dinah, and Pearl), West Side Story (Anita), and Chicago (Velma Kelly), among others.
Other stage credits include the title role in Sweet Charity, Sheffield Crucible, where she received a Best Actress nomination at the 2003 TMA Awards.
She later reprised this success at the Crucible in Piaf.
Other standout roles include Dot in Sunday in the Park with George, Menier Chocolate Factory, Maggie in Hobson’s Choice, Watermill Theatre, and the Lady of the Lake in Spamalot at the Playhouse Theatre.
More recent credits include Flowers for Mrs Harris (2016) and the West End revival of Girl from the North Country (2019-2020).
She originated the role of Fraulein Fritzie Kost in the award-winning Cabaret at the KitKat Club/Playhouse Theatre and played Cilla Quack in Mother Goose alongside Sir Ian McKellen, winning the 2023 British Pantomime Award for Best Supporting Artist.
More recently she was Sybil in the stage version of Fawlty Towers in London’s West End.
Her extensive TV and film credits include roles in Family Guy, Silent Witness, Coronation Street and EastEnders.
Anna-Jane has also performed with prestigious orchestras worldwide, including the Royal Philharmonic and the BBC Concert Orchestra.
The story of Follies centres around the crumbling Broadway theatre, now scheduled for demolition. The evening follows a reunion of the Weismann Girls who performed during the interwar period.
Several of the former showgirls perform their old numbers, often accompanied by the ghosts of their younger selves.
Anna- Jane plays Sally Plummer. Annette McLaughlin plays her former room mate Phyllis Stone.
Cameron Menzies directs a cast that also includes Lesley Garrett CBE, Jacqueline Dankworth MBE, Mark Dugdale, Alasdair Harvey and Allison Harding.
The production also features the Orchestra of Northern Ireland Opera.
Follies is Northern Ireland Opera’s second musical during renowned Artistic Director Cameron Menzies’ five-year tenure and follows the award-winning Into The Woods at the Lyric Belfast (2022 Winner of Best Production Irish Times Theatre Awards and Nominated Best Director).
This production also marks a historic first-ever staging of the show in Northern Ireland.
Anna- Jane Casey took time out of rehearsals to chat to the Irish World.
How are the rehearsals going so far?
“Absolutely hilarious.
“Now I choose my jobs whether I’m going to have some good fun.
“I’ve got to the point where I’m like, ‘I’ve proved all I need to and now I want to have a really nice time’.
“And so far the most wonderful time is being had.”
How do you enjoy being in Ireland?
“I love Ireland.
“Being a Casey, I’m determined to get my Irish passport so I can reclaim my European status.
“I work a lot in Dublin.
“I work a lot in the Republic.
“I’ve done concerts here in Belfast but this is my first time working at a theatre here.
“The people are gorgeous.”
Follies is a show you’ve been aware of for a long time, isn’t it? It brings back memories, doesn’t it?
“I first moved to London from Manchester in 1988 and at that time, a production of Follies was at the Shaftesbury Theatre.
“I was doing Cats at the New London Theatre and I used to walk past the Shaftesbury every day and see that beautiful, iconic picture of a showgirl.
“It’s been in my consciousness for so long.”
What is it about the story that struck you the most because it’s poignant in a number of ways, isn’t it?
“Absolutely.
“I’m a 53-year-old woman full in the menopause, crying a lot, looking back on when I used to be able to jump- Well, I can still jump into the splits but it’s not wise because I might not get up again but when I was in my 20s, my body was a lot freer.
“And that’s very much what the show Follies is about.
“It’s about a group of people who were stars of the Follies Theatre and their relationships.
“We’re looking at 30 years on.
“They’ve come for a big reunion and they’re all remembering how they used to be with each other, how they felt in that theatre.
“Myself, the brilliant Annette McLaughlin, Alasdair Harvey, Jacqueline Dankworth, we’re all living what the story of Follies is.
“But it’s looking back and reminiscing about how it used to be and what emotions that brings up.
“It’s like life imitating art imitating life right now.”
You say it’s looking back. It’s looking back at your younger self, your former love… It’s all in there, isn’t it?
“I think older audience members will have that nostalgic feel and the younger ones will be watching probably with a bit of shock like, ‘Oh my God, is that going to happen to me?’ but also with the knowledge that ‘I know I don’t have to be that way. I don’t have to be that bitter. I don’t have to be that unimpressed with life’.
“Because as life goes and the journeys that you make, they’re all shown within this show which I think is a beautiful thing to watch.”
A big theme is how the characters have been changed by time, isn’t it?
“Yeah, but it’s a really lovely thing to have younger counterparts as a character alongside you as well.
“And Jennifer, our wonderful choreographer, is really weaving some beautiful moments where I’ll be doing a scene as the older Sally but the younger Sally is stood with me, she’s kind of feeling it as well because we still carry that youth that we used to have within ourselves even though we’re older people.”
But your character Sally has actually remained quite unchanged in some ways, hasn’t she?
“She’ll be making the toast for the kids but she’ll open the fridge, she’ll get the lights from the fridge on her face and she’ll suddenly go into a number.
“She’s still obsessed with her past which is a beautiful thing but also quite a sad thing, that she can’t move on.
“But why is that?
“She had such a wonderful time there.
“All her core memories were created when she was a young dancer and she’s still carrying them on.”
She’s still very much in love with Ben, isn’t she?
“Sally thinks, ‘Oh, he’s so lovely’.
“He’s very much moved on but she’s desperate for him and I think anybody can relate to that.
“You know the crush that you had at school? Or the first love you had at university? You go to a reunion and you’re still thinking, ‘Would they still fancy me? Do we still have some kind of connection?’
“So once again I think there’s a lot of, ‘Oh, I know that feeling’.”
But is she somewhat reticent? Isn’t her song called Don’t Look At Me?
“That’s my first song with Ali (Alasdair Harvey who plays Ben), yes.
“Because it’s that embarrassing thing.
“I always think as you get older, you look at somebody and their eyes stay the same.
“I knew Ali when he was a 25-year-old guy and now we look at each other and there’s still a moment where I go, ‘You haven’t changed a bit’.
“But we’ve all got a bit wobblier and our hair’s a little bit greyer.
“But in that song that she sings with Ben, they’re both testing the ground, ‘Am I still as attractive to you as I thought I was those years ago?’
“And how does that validate them as people?
“Does that make them feel better?
“Does it make them feel worse?
“And all those themes are what the audience will see when they come to see our show.”
Is there optimism in the story too? A sense of it’s never too late?
“I mean we don’t want to whack the audience over the head with a miserable couple of hours of work.
“That would just be awful.
“There’s hope.
“Lots of characters have different hope for their lives.
“There are characters within it who are having a great time but there’s also characters who are having not so great a time and that’s life, isn’t it?
“We always think, as young people, what we’re going to be when we grow up.
“We don’t really know.
“And, ‘Is it changed from how you thought it was? Has it become something better or something worse or just something different?’
“And I think Follies shows that across the board some people are broken, some people are still surviving, some people have changed tact completely and are living a totally different life.
“It’s a great piece to watch.”
It must be poignant for the characters as well because the theatre they are standing in is due to be demolished..
“Yeah, there’s a great line that Mark Dugdale, who plays my husband Buddy Plummer, has.
“He’s looking around the auditorium and he says, ‘I think I carved my name in here somewhere’.
“And if I’ve visited theatres on tour and I’ve not been there for maybe 20 years, I know I’ve written AJC somewhere and then you go and find it and it’s the real link to a memory.
“I don’t know if you’ve been to a school reunion recently.
“I know I haven’t been to one in a while but there would be a bit of trepidation about going there.
“I would be excited but also terrified to see, ‘What would I feel when I walk in that building? And who would I meet?’
“And that’s what Follies has, that real sprinkling of anticipation and fear and excitement.
“It’s going to look visually beautiful and I think spiritually and emotionally, it will really touch the audience.”
On that note does it have extra meaning for us having come through COVID when we weren’t sure we would get back into theatres?
“Definitely.
“We’ve all been discussing that within all ages of the young people and the old people in the show.
“We all talked about that on the first day: How wonderful it was to be able to welcome people back into a shared space.
“I think, as human beings, what we discovered through that pandemic was that the connection between other humans is very important.
“And knowing that this theatre within our play, the Weismann Theatre, is going to be taken down brings back a lot of memories, brings back a lot of, ‘I maybe had a first kiss here’ or ‘I fell down those stairs’, or ‘My mum died while I was here’.
“There’s a lot of stuff that brings up memories for people.
“And you’re right, I think shared space and shared watching and enjoying of a piece is something that we all thought we wouldn’t get back whether you’re an audience member or a performer and it’s joyous now to have that.”
Of course you have had a long and successful career. You mentioned your time in CATS when you were just 16, was that all very crazy or how did it feel?
“You should probably ask my mother because my mother probably didn’t sleep for about four years.
“When I first moved to London, I had all the bravado of a young person.
“You think you’re completely unbreakable.
“Everything is possible at that age.
“I didn’t know the importance of what I’d done until I was a lot older, until I had children myself and thought, ‘Oh my God, I moved 400 miles away from my house to go to a big city to be in a show when I’d been looked after by my mum and dad for the whole of my 16 years and then I was on my own’.
“Thankfully my mother had given me enough skills to make a couple of dinners and wash my own pants but aside from that, it was just learning on the go.”
When did you know it was theatre for you?
“I remember exactly when I knew that it was for me.
“I was about nine or 10 years old and my mum and dad and I went to see a production of Swan Lake at the Manchester Palace Theatre.
“I sat there with my mum and dad and all the dry ice that they had during this production of Swan Lake came flowing off the front of the stage and I was like, ‘This is the most magical thing I have ever seen’.
“And I said to my Mum, ‘I’m going to do that’.
“So I’ve known from a very early age what I’ve wanted to do.
“I’m a big show off.
“I was always that kid at family gatherings who would get up and do a number or, ‘I want to tell you a joke. I want to sing you a song’.
“I was destined to be showing off in some way.
“I would have been a pain in the arse in the office, put it that way.”
Is there a particular highlight of your career?
“There is. There’s a couple of things.
“There’s one that really stands out.
“I did a lot of the BBC Proms and I got to sing at the Albert Hall with a 90 piece orchestra behind me.
“That still makes me go, ‘Bloody hell. I’m a market trader’s daughter from Lancashire. Look at me. I’m stood on this stage’.
“That was amazing.
“But also a funny story about that: There I am in me big frock singing my heart out and as soon as I came off stage, I had a call from my husband saying our child at the time was really ill.
“They were like, ‘They’ve pooed the bed’.
“So I had to then rush home and clean up some child’s diarrhea.
“I mean that’s showbiz life, isn’t it?
“One minute you’re at the Albert Hall, the next minute rinsing out your child’s pants in the sink, so that memory is very strong in my mind.
“But also the show West Side Story which is where I met my husband.
“We’ve been together 27 years now so West Side Story is still my favourite musical although it could be Follies after we finish this.”
Tell us a bit more about your Irish roots..
“Well, I’m a kind of weird mix because I’m Irish-West Indian.
“My father’s side of the family is from Barbados and they were obviously shipped over at some point during awful slave times, took a stop off in Ireland which is where the Casey name comes in.
“My great, great, great grandfather married an Irish woman and he took on her name to bring himself more into a Western way of life.
“Then they tripped over from Ireland over to Liverpool and then Manchester.”
Does it feel like home when you’re in Ireland? “Totally.
“I do feel at home here.
“There’s a warmth with the Irish people.
“I’m not the first person to say it so there is definitely a coming home when you come to Ireland.
“I just think it’s the most brilliant place.”
Follies is at The Grand Opera House, Belfast until 20 September.
For more information and to book, click here.
