Behind The Scenes: Natasha J Barnes, Sheridan Smith's FUNNY GIRL Understudy

It's a hard life being an understudy. It's even harder when you're the understudy to a much-loved Olivier-winning star whose name is selling the whole show.

That's the situation for Natasha J Barnes, Sheridan Smith's understudy as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl.

There's been a lot of talk this week after Smith was forced to take Tuesday night off and despite apparently wanting to return for Wednesday (according to her Twitter timeline) she is not scheduled to return until Thursday (March 3).

[PRODUCERS' STATEMENT ON SHERIDAN SMITH'S ABSENCE]

BWW:UK caught up with Natasha after she first went on as Fanny - with very little notice - back in January.

"Sheridan's such a hard worker," says Natasha. "She genuinely loves going on every night and she genuinely gives 100 per cent. There's no in-between - she either can't do it, or she gives everything.

"It got to ten past seven, and I knew she wasn't feeling her best that day, but thought she'd soldier on anyway - but she was just too poorly."

She was not too worried about the singing - "You grow up with those songs, so they weren't too much of a worry" - but she was a touch concerned about the audience's reaction to an understudy, knowing a lot of people had bought tickets especially to see the star.

"Months before this, I'd gone to see Gypsy at the Savoy, and I'd heard Imelda had been off - I remember thinking, 'I really hope I get to see Imelda,' because that's part of the reason I wanted to go," she recalled. "I did - and that was amazing - but it all came back to me, and I just thought, 'Oh no, all those people have booked to see Sheridan!' I felt bad for them, but I had to put that aside - 'You've got two hours of me, so I'm going to do the best that I can do.'"

She is sanguine, though: "When I took the job, I knew what I was taking on."

What's nice is the reaction that she got from an audience who were initially a little reticent about seeing an understudy: "It was really embarrassing - at the end I got a standing ovation and I was so shocked I burst into tears. It was that relief - I've made their night worth it."

It's hardly as if Barnes is a novice, with credits in shows like American Idiot, Chess and Spring Awakening. While her former colleagues, such as Charlotte Wakefield and Lucy May Barker, have gone on to some of the big juvenile female leads, Barnes and her big voice don't suit roles like that - something that makes her identify with Fanny Brice even more - "She's not pretty, she's not the ingenue, and that's what I've been fighting against my whole career."

Barnes talks enthusiastically about the rest of the cast ("they're ALL veterans in their own way"), including Darius Campbell ("one of the nicest people I've ever met") and director Michael Mayer ("he gave me my first big break in Spring Awakening - it means so much to me that everything I do makes him proud").

And she's fulsome with her praise for Sheridan Smith too, who took time out to see her while she was performing in American Idiot at night while rehearsing Funny Girl by day: "She's so fearless. It's so inspiring. Everyone watches the last two minutes every night, because it's just golden."

Meanwhile, she's still adjusting to having to step into Smith's shoes every so often.

"I don't think I'm that funny! That's where covering Sheridan is a dream come true. I don't know how she does it - her timing is perfect, and the little things that she does, it's amazing, it's like following a trail of breadcrumbs when you're covering someone like that. Someone's left something so perfect.

"It's stepping into leading the company as well. It's such a big part you forget to do things - like eat, or go to the loo."

She laughs. "I'm still waiting for somebody to say, 'What are you doing here?!"

Funny Girl runs at the Menier Chocolate Factory and then transfers to the Savoy Theatre.

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