Interview: Sarah Brightman Previews Holiday Tour & Reflects on SUNSET BOULEVARD

This holiday season, global performing artist Sarah Brightman is hitting the road for her acclaimed holiday show, A Winter Symphony. Known to musical theater fans everywhere as the original Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera, Brightman will travel throughout North America this December, performing holiday classics as well as beloved songs from her wide-spanning discography and repertoire.

The tour, which launches on November 26, comes on the heels of her recent return to musical theatre as Norma Desmond in the 2024 Australian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard. She also performed the role in Singapore and select cities throughout China earlier this year.

BroadwayWorld recently spoke with the renowned soprano about what fans can expect from the tour, her experience playing the iconic role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, and how she celebrates the holidays on the road.

This interview has been condensed for clarity and length.

Congratulations on your tour!

Thank you. Doing a Christmas or a seasonal piece is a very personal thing to me because this time of year is very important to me and my family. It is something I always wanted to do, but was never, for all sorts of reasons, able to do it, although I had released a seasonal album many years ago. It was only really during COVID that I had the opportunity.

At that time, everybody was pretty miserable around the world and I wanted to get everybody going that I worked with on my tours and also employ some musicians. We found a way, actually, to do it for my YouTube channel. Some of it was given to charity, people who wanted to pay to see the performance. We did it live for everybody and it was so successful that different TV companies around the world wanted to take the performance on. Then I decided that I wanted to do it around the world in different places every year. It's been wonderful doing it in North America. I really, really enjoy myself. 

You’ve toured at every time of year and all over the world. Is there something distinct about being on the road during the holiday season? Do audiences feel different during this season as opposed to others?

They are. In a way, when people pay to come and see you for this particular type of thing, it's quite a responsibility because I think Christmas is actually quite a personal time for everybody and there's an expectation. They want to go through that Christmas or holiday experience when they're coming to a performance. I know that because that's what I want myself.

So it's actually the one that's hardest to put on because of the type of songs that you are choosing. Obviously, they have to suit your voice and your spirit and how you imagine Christmas, but also it has to please an audience. So it's kind of working through all of that every year and [deciding] what pieces you are actually going to do. I work on it throughout the year while I'm doing other things as well. This one's going to be lovely. It's a little more American, I have to say. We put a few more American things into it because it was quite European-centric to start with, because they were all the pieces that I knew. But, as we've gone along, we've been able to mix it a little bit. It crosses through from religious pieces, holiday pieces, and some of my hits that can come into the seasonal time as well. And also from my Christmas album that I did, which my fans know about. It's just giving people a holiday experience as well as a very, very beautiful concert. 

Do you have any personal holiday traditions that you hold onto while you’re traveling? Something that still helps it feel like Christmastime even when you are far from home?

It's very lovely because the people who tour with me, I've known for many, many years. A couple of them always like to put up Christmas decorations in the changing rooms and dressing rooms backstage. We have a tour bus, obviously, so I have Christmas calendars up there where you open the little windows. And then we do celebrate after one of the shows [with] a sort of Christmas-giving presents thing that we all do. It is lovely because I don't leave to get back to Britain until the 23rd, so I get back just in time for that family time. It's hard work, but we all really enjoy it.

When you revisit songs year after year in concerts, do you find that your relationship to them changes or evolves over time? Do your songs hold different meanings at different stages of your life?

Yes, they do because they speak of that time in your life that you were putting them together, [when] you were recording them, [and] you were singing them the first time live to people. It's rather lovely, actually, because you are then reminded of yourself at that time and all those emotions that come through. And as you go through life, you collect more emotions because you're going through all sorts of different experiences.

I definitely always do something from Phantom of the Opera because those songs actually fit quite well into Halloween time and Christmas time. They're quite spicy pieces to do. For the Christmas tour, we bring in Christmas arrangements into the music: bells, all sorts of things that give it that more of that flavor of Christmas, which is quite fun. And I take huge care with the costumes and the lighting because I like people to have a very sort of emotional, visual experience as well as listening to this beautiful orchestra and choir we have. A lot of care is taken. 

I love that you bring in those songs with a Christmas flair!

There are some operatic pieces, as well, that aren't necessarily Christmas pieces. For people who like the more classical side of art and go to the opera to see The Magic Flute, for example, I've bought a couple of those in. People will understand that they're the kind of classical operas that you would go to at that time of year. I know I do. And it's the same with musicals. There are certain musicals that people will always want to go and see at Christmas time or around that time of year. There's definitely a wonderful seasonal thread through the whole piece. 

One thing that is so beautiful about your work is that your music speaks to audiences all over the world and across generations and people know you from different things. Touring gives you the chance to see and sometimes meet those listeners in person. Have you had any memorable encounters with fans at concerts over the years that have really stayed with you?

Oh, so many. And they've been very emotional ones as well. There was that sad time through COVID where people would come and talk to me afterwards and say, "I was meant to be here with my wife and my son, and they're not here anymore. They caught COVID and didn't manage." And so very sad situations like that. And then very happy ones where people say, "We got married because we were both fans of your music and we wanted to come and tell you this wonderful news." Or people who'd been sick and they listened to my music and got better. It's always a wonderful thing and everybody has a different story. It's good to listen to those things. I mean, it's part of our lives, isn't it?

You recently made a return to the stage in a different capacity with Sunset Boulevard. What was it like stepping back into the world of musical theatre?

It was a journey, I tell you, having not done it for 40 years or something. I'm used to performing all the time. But it was just going in and thinking, "Oh God, yes, I remember this," and just getting my head around it. When I first started it, I felt "I'm not doing my best here." But as I went along, I got better and better. And then suddenly, I was really bringing wonderful things to it. I'm the biggest critic of myself, and I really walked away from that piece thinking, "God, I really got that." And I suppose, being a soprano as well, I brought a different flavor to it. I have acted in many things throughout my career intermittently and never really realized that I'm actually very knowledgeable about that side. 

I was able to really inject this into this piece and use parts of myself because I am an international performer. I've been through the ups and downs of somebody who has had to manage as a solo performer. And it is tough. And especially through the years as a female, I've had to be very strong, and it's had its ups and downs. I was able to inject all of that into this role, and it was wonderful. And what's great about doing a role like that, you come back to your concerts and they have a little more flavor to them because you've gone through that experience.

There was a recent video of you in the studio talking about some of your upcoming projects, like original music, along with work you are doing on your YouTube channel. Is there anything you can share about that or what’s next for you after this tour?

I would love to, but I can't at the moment. But it's very exciting that, at my adult age that I am, I am still able to do all of these things. I feel incredibly lucky and privileged, actually. And also still having a passion for it. I think sometimes when you've been doing this for so long, that can happen. But with me, I become more passionate about it all and more curious and more interested, and still obviously have the energy to do it.