BWW Interviews: THE SOUND OF MUSIC's Margaret Preece

Hi Maggie! Thanks for meeting me today. You finished playing the Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music back in February…what was it that attracted you to the role in the first place?

I’m a huge fan of Rodgers & Hammerstein anyway, so I always wanted to play Maria. I grew up with The Sound of Music, so if I couldn’t play Maria then the Mother Abbess was the next best thing! It’s got the showstopper number, it’s a lovely acting part, and I knew it was going to be a wonderful production, directed as it was by Jeremy Sams who’s just fantastic. It was a great privilege and an honour to do it. He set it so incredibly well, so that the Mother Abbess was very pivotal to the whole plot. It was more of a key role, it wasn’t understated like it was in the film, so I was attracted to it from every point of view.

It must have been lovely working at the Palladium. Have you worked there before?

No, I haven’t. It was the first time and it was fabulous. When I came in today, as I was walking down Regent Street and I came round the corner, I felt that little buzz. I hope I shall tread the boards there again!

What were the main differences between The Sound of Music at the Palladium and the tour version?

Dare I say it, I think it worked even better on tour! More things got bedded down really well. It was really nice coming back and working with Connie again, we became huge friends. When you’re on tour you become a family, you see each other all the time, and you get to know each other really well. You’re not all going home to different places at night, so maybe that makes a difference. You really become a family. But I think the production on the tour was fantastic, we had a wonderful full re-rehearsal period, where certain things were re-examined and we had the chance for any possible creases that might have been there before to be ironed out.  So I think it was very much a West End show on tour, which is quite unusual, getting that same standard and integrity.

Do you miss your home comforts when you’re on tour?

Oh yes! Of course you miss your home. I mean, I certainly don’t like slumming it on tour! Funds permitting, I try to find a nice place to stay. The best thing is to find a nice apartment to share with one or other of your pals so that you can make a home from home, really. It’s best not to have too far to travel to the theatre, otherwise it makes for a very long day. I quite like to be fairly close to the theatre…and the shops!

So proximity to shops is a must for you, but what else can’t you do without when you’re on tour?

Ooh gosh, that’s a tricky one! I don’t know really, I certainly like my home comforts, so, you know, I guess keeping to my beauty regime! Pampering myself! As my friends in this business would reiterate, they laugh at me for it, I am phenomenally house-proud and tidy, and so wherever I am, whether it’s my dressing room, my hotel room or my flat, I try to turn it into a home. I sort of cosy everything up with pictures…and cushions galore!

Ah cushions! There’s a good one!

So my cushions…yes, that’s become a standing joke. They call me Plump and Pump in the show, because I can’t leave a cushion unplumped! I always have a stack of things like Homes and Gardens magazines, which I love. Oh and certainly I have to have CDs and my little keyboard, my baby Casio! I’m manic about that, I’ve had it years and years and it goes with me everywhere. Oh, and scores of music…half my case is taken up with music!

What was it like working with so many kids?

Well, I love children, so that’s not a problem. We had some really great kids!

There are so many of them, did you actually manage to learn all of their names or did you just give up?!

Oh yeah! Oh I love them. The hardest thing was this last Christmas, when the new edict was given that we’re not allowed to have any physical contact with children at all offstage. We’re not allowed to give them any hugs or anything. It’s very hard, because you become very fond of the children, and of course they’re away from home and they like being hugged. And we all liked to give them hugs! So we could only hug them on the street outside the confines of the theatre.

I can imagine that must’ve been hard. But I’m sure you all had a few laughs too! Can you tell us any funny mishaps from your time in The Sound of Music?!

Well, I’ve managed quite a few corkers with the lines. I’ve recomposed almost every line at some point!

Don’t think I heard any of those!

Oh I’ve had some shockers! I did one with Summer in the first scene when we’re talking about Captain von Trapp. When I was supposed to say ‘He was decorated for bravery in the Adriatic,’ I couldn’t remember for the life of me where he was decorated, so I said ‘He was decorated in the…you know’. I remember coming off stage and the whole crew were rolling around on the floor laughing, saying ‘Well, we’ve never heard it called THAT before!’ because obviously it sounded like the medal had been placed in a…strategic place! One time with Connie on the tour I couldn’t remember the words to Raindrops on Roses, and I came up with some very funny ones there! The thing is, you think you’re not going to laugh, but you do!

I can imagine!

It’s just as hard when other people do funny things to you. Like on the tour, Sister Sophia kept getting her tabard stuck in the doorway, then she’d walk forwards briskly and be yanked backwards! Also, and I won’t say her name, but there was one hilarious mishap at the Palladium…during the quick change in the ballroom scene, one of the girls in the show managed to get her ball-gown on without realising that her capacious bra was still attached to the train, so she went to do the ballroom party scene swinging this bra around the stage!

That’s brilliant! I wonder how many audience members noticed! Do you have any theatre-related superstitions?

I think most performers, whether they like to admit it or not, have some superstitions. You know, this business about how you’re not supposed to whistle in your dressing room or put up an umbrella and all that sort of thing. And if I’ve done them, I’m always a little bit ‘Ooh I shouldn’t have done that!’

Mentally, can you just get over it?

Yeah, I think you have to. I think if you’re not careful these things can take you over. ’I need to do this three times before I can do that otherwise so and so will happen’. I think you have to try and stop yourself from thinking things like that.

 So what have you been up to since the tour?

I did four quite challenging concerts, which were a mixture of opera, operetta and musical theatre, just myself and a string quartet. And a bit of chilling out! I’ve been catching up with friends that I haven’t seen for a very long time, because when you’re working six days a week, especially when you’re on tour, you just don’t see anybody! So there were friends that I hadn’t seen for over a year. So yeah, a bit of socialising! And I’d only moved into my house just over a year ago, and was working within two days of moving in, so I hadn’t had much time to see it or do various things there…I’ve still got loads of unpacking to do!

I can sympathise with that, I’m a hoarder!

Oh so am I! I’m a collectaholic!

What was your first ever role?

Ever?! Well, as a child I started performing when I was about 6 or 7, so I was doing concerts and things, solos in charity concerts. But the first role I played was as a Snow Child in Carousel at the Birmingham Hippodrome.

What has been your favourite role to date?

I don’t know if I can answer that because there are so many! There are lots of operatic roles that I’ve really, really loved playing and had a ball with, both in opera and in musical theatre. I loved doing things like Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore by Donizetti, and I loved playing Susan Cooper in Kurt Weill’s Love Life, which was a fantastic story. And obviously I had a ball doing Carlotta in Phantom, and singing at the Palladium doing the Mother Abbess. I’ve been lucky, I’ve done quite a diverse range of things, and I like playing with comedy as well as drama.

Is there any dream role that you’ve not yet played but would love to?

There are lots of roles I’d love to do…and some I probably won’t be asked to do now! There are lots of Richard Strauss roles I’d love. There are quite a few operatic roles. I would very much like to play Anna in The King and I on the musical theatre side, and I’d also love to do Sunset Boulevard one of these days.

Have you got a favourite co-star?

Ooh I wouldn’t like to say on that! I’ve always been incredibly lucky because I honestly can’t say that I’ve ever had a show when I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed working with everybody that I’ve worked with. Lovely leading men, some lovely girls to work with like Aoife, Connie and Summer. And I’ve made the most wonderful friends through this business that anybody could hope to meet. You’ve got to get on with people otherwise the shows don’t work. You’ve got to respect one another so that you all work as a team. And if you’re not working as a team, I’m sure the audience would notice . If there’s any unrest within a company or antagonism or whatever, I think it comes across. We all need each other, not only the performers on stage but the backstage crew, the conductor, the orchestra, the stage management, the lighting, the props people, the costumes people, the wigs people…you’ve all got to work as a team otherwise the whole thing falls apart. You have to treat each other with kindness and respect.

Why singing? Obviously you’ve got the talent, but what were your inspirations?

It’s a really weird thing…I sang from the age of about six. We were on holiday with my parents on a rainy August bank holiday on the Isle of Wight, and my parents were in desperation as to what they could entertain us with. We’d done everything and it was pouring with rain, so they suggested we put on a concert for them, so I sang a pop song. It’s the earliest memory I have of actually singing out loud on my own and I know that I loved the experience and I never stopped from then on. I’d sing in the garden all day, or sit on the swing singing. Almost within a couple of weeks of that holiday event, I was asked to join a children’s Concert Party, entertaining in costume for charity. I lived for that, for the rehearsals every Saturday. My parents were very involved with all the operatic societies and things, so I got very involved in that. I just love it…still do, the feeling of just opening your mouth, being who you want to be, making a sound. Letting the emotion just carry you away and take you over is something I couldn’t live without. Just to perform is what I’m meant to do, and if somebody said to me you’re never going to perform again, I’d find that very, very hard to live with.

If someone did say that to you, and you had to do something else, what would it be?

Ah well, going back to the house thing, there are two things…I’m mad about making houses, so in the back of my mind I would love an extra business and do interior design!

You should get together with Aoife (Mulholland)! Isn’t she interested in property development?!

Oh is she?! Oh I love all that! Property developing, interior design, I would love it. I go round and redesign the insides of my friends’ houses! I love it! I tell them to leave me for half an hour so I can redesign their living room. And I love antiques too…I wouldn’t mind being an auctioneer, as I could use my theatrical abilities!

What’s next for Maggie?

I don’t know really! Lots of exciting things, I hope! I’ve got various concerts planned over the next couple of months or so. Other than that I don’t really know, but I hope there’s something exciting waiting for me!

So do I! Thanks, Maggie!

 

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