BWW Interviews: Caroline O'Connor Takes Her Turn as Mama Rose in Melbourne

"This is the musical that ends all musicals. I think you could pay the cost of the ticket just to hear the overture alone!"

It is curtain up for The Production Company as they celebrate their 15th anniversary by welcoming back one of their best and brightest to headline an American classic.

When Caroline O'Connor was famously told by Anthony Warlow that she had too much personality for the ballet, she proved him more than right by swapping her dance career for that of the triple threat variety, becoming one of Australia's most successful musical theatre stars in the process. Through-out a prolific career O'Connor has headlined on both Broadway and The West End, and toured the world with a series of acclaimed one-woman shows. Next month she returns to Melbourne to take on one of the great female roles of musical theatre, GYPSY's Mama Rose.

O'Connor first appeared with The Production Company in its inaugural season, back in 1999. For her turn as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, the team had just 7 days to rehearse. Though The Production Company may have a few extra days of rehearsal on the schedule these days, O'Connor calls the preparation for 2013's season opener, GYPSY, characteristically intense.

Short though the preparation time may be, O'Connor has no worries about her third appearance with the company beloved for bringing concert versions of classic musicals to Melbourne audiences.

"It's such an incredible team of people, it all runs like clockwork. You don't have to think - if anything needs to be done, it's done! [And] it's so exciting to get to do something like this that may otherwise not be put into full production."

O'Connor notes she also has an advantage when it comes to the Styne/Sondheim classic, having played Mama Rose in the 2012 UK revival of GYPSY.

"I've always known the show, I've always known the songs. I've always been in love with the music of GYPSY, even as a small child. I mean, this is the musical that ends all musicals. I think you could pay the cost of the ticket just to hear the overture alone!"

"I'm very grateful to The Production Company when they do a show [like GYPSY]", she adds, "Because at least the big fans - and I mean the hard-core musical theatre fans - can go and enjoy. They get to hear the score with a 27-piece orchestra. They see an amazing cast of people who are there because they love it. They're not going to be able to retire doing this job, let's be honest. They're there because they love it, and they want to do it."

That cast includes Matt Hetherington, Gemma-Ashley Kaplan and Christina Tan as Louise. They will be performing under the direction of Gale Edwards, and though O'Connor and Edwards have long discussed the possibliity of collaborating, this will be the first time the two women have worked together.

"When [GYPSY] came up, I was thinking who would be the perfect person here? Gale is such a strong woman, such a great leader, and so passionate. She just loves her work so much. And I thought - who better than a strong woman directing a strong woman! I just thought, wow, this is the right person. I speak to people who work with her and they say oooooh, she works bloody hard - and I love that. Whatever it takes to get the best performance! I'm looking forward to that whole process."

As for Mama Rose, though people tend to see her as the classic bossy stage mother, O'Connor feels a clear empathy for her character, and the woman she was.

"She's actually an incredibly sensitive person, and she reacts the way she does because of how sensitive she is. There is a huge amount of vulnerability in her. She behaves the way she does because of the circumstances and things that have happened to her."

O'Connor has in fact portrayed a number of iconic, real-life women through-out her career, from Garland to Piaf, to Mabel Normand, and now Mama Rose. There is a thread that connects each of these women, she feels.

"I think the only way they were capable of giving themselves some sort of status was by doing it through their work. If you look at all of them, they were emotionally crippled. None of them had solid, happy relationships. Maybe they were so invested in their work because it gave them a love from people, an admiration and love coming back [from the audience] because they didn't have any personal happiness. I almost feel like that's what made them great. I was joking with a friend of mine the other night, and I said I'll never be as successful as any of those women because I'm too happy! I should be more tortured!" (Continued next page).

"I'm so fortunate," O'Connor adds. "I've got a beautiful husband, I've got security. I am probably one of the most passionate people about their work that you'd ever meet, but I did want to have a real life as well. I couldn't compare myself to those ladies - they sacrificed so much. And thank god we can listen to them now, and we can still appreciate [their work]. Thank god! Because otherwise, what a waste it would have been, all that investment that they made."

A professed lover of autobiography, O'Connor believes everyone has a story to tell. Translating some of these stories to an audience has been her life's work.

"It's always about the audience for me, and nothing else," she says. "These are people who pay for me to do what I do, and I do my utmost to make sure they get their money's worth. And it's not just about the money, it's the artistry too, the whole connection. "

And when it comes to GYPSY and Rose's Turn in particular, O'Connor knows that people will sit forward in their seats when they hear those iconic words - Here she is boys! She'll be right there with the audience each night, feeling it too.

"It's terribly exciting. Nothing can touch it. You just go - I'm in heaven right now. To hear the orchestra strike up, you get so emotionally involved. You're in the moment and there is nothing quite like it. It's electric."

When that curtain goes up next month, Melbourne audiences should say a silent thank you to that Anthony Warlow. He saw something in Caroline O'Connor, a spark that has been lighting up musical theatre stages around the world ever since. You could almost call it - electric.

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The Production Company presents Caroline O'Connor in GYPSY

6 - 14 July, State Theatre, Melbourne

For tickets and further information, click here.

Images: Supplied