Photo credit: Courtesy of Production
“I think it was definitely at a very young age when I just realized that I was in love with theater and I remember that … I forget what grade it was…..it was either the first grade or second grade. During recess I would put on plays and tell other people what to do and then fire them, if they didn’t do it right … so there I was …. bossing people, a little bit of bossing creatively. I wouldn’t say I was the class clown as much as early performer right out of the gate,” Susan O’Connor told Hollywood on the Potomac.
If people are lucky enough to be able to do what they wanted to do when they were young, that is a great accomplishment. Susan agrees: “Yeah, it absolutely is and it is an important thing to remind ourselves about. It’s like ‘Gosh, I’m actually doing through living what was my dream when I was seven, so’ ….”
Susan O’Connor as maid Edith
Susan made her Broadway debut in Blithe Spirit with Angela Lansbury, receiving a Theatre World Award, the Dorothy Loudon Fellowship and an Outer Critics Circle Nomination.
“Blithe Spirit is a Noel Coward play and I play Edith the new maid; and in all the Coward’s plays, you never underestimate the maid, so it is a ghost story,” she explained of her role…..think Devious Maids. “It is a farce about this man and two wives because of the ghost and Angela plays a medium that comes back and inadvertently brings back one of this man’s deceased wives. I work in that household and am integral to things I can’t tell you, because it will blow the rest of the show. I have a very important role in the ghost story.”
Angela Lansbury and Susan O’Connor
We were curious about mediums and the spirit world so it was an obvious question: “Do you in your own life believe in mediums or anything in the spirit world?”
“You know, that idea has been coming up obviously, as we work on the show. It’s not a regular part of my day to day life in any way, but I have to say that what I think is that there is a level of awareness that people live with and as aware as you are of things, then they are true for you. You know, I’ve never personally seen a ghost or anything, but I certainly wouldn’t want to tempt fate and say that there is no such thing because that could come to rain on you, but I believe that there is certainly … some people in the world are becoming more aware of this spirit world, per se, than others, but it is not a regular part of my life in any way now.”
The Seance
On getting the part: “I was in the Broadway production, so I auditioned for that initially and was actually cast on a Friday and went to work on a Monday kind of thing. The director didn’t live in New York. She was only coming in to cast this one role and it was very fast, which is very exciting. When they decided to do the national tour, they just called me and asked me if I was available.”
On preparing for the role: “I do a lot of yoga. I do a lot of stretching. I can’t get away with not doing that because I do a lot of running and stopping. It is tricky on the body, little short sprints like that. I have an hour long regimen that I do before the show and then I also do exercises after the show to kind of re-stretch out and re-align my body. It is pretty difficult. It is kind of amazing.”
On the genius of Noel Coward: “He is just quite brilliant with language. There is a lot packed into one Coward line and the joy of it is when it’s kind of done effortlessly which is what we are trying to do. You know the word-isms just kind of roll off your tongue. This particular place is a lot about marriage and relationships. He is doing it in the framework of a ghost story, but there is quite a few biting and hilarious comments about marriage and relationships that appeals to everybody. That’s what makes it such a nice play for everybody to see. You should hear the couples laughing. The men will be like roar in one section. The women will titter in the other section. It is really quite lovely that way.”
Angela Lansbury
On working with Angela Lansbury, what is her most admirable trait? “Her sense of humor, absolutely. Because she is such nobility in the theatrical world and in the entertainment business you think – there is some gravitas and there is gravitas – but she is not staunchly at all. She is a jokester. She doesn’t take her self overly seriously. She will rip at you, just like you can rip at her and she is just really fun. She is a fun human being and also incredibly classy. You would also be amazed. She is just fun to be around.”
Susan recently co-starred on Law & Order: SVU & Orange is the New Black. Additional film, TV & web credits include: Boardwalk Empire, Law & Order: CI, Doomsdays, Flying Scissors, Coming Up Roses, Acts of Worship, Yellow Fever, The Poets, Project Beth & Wallflowers. She stars in, co-wrote & co-produced the web series “Lucy Knows Love.”
Angela Lansbury
Which does she prefer doing, TV or Stage? “Well, I noticed there are certain times in my life, like if I do a play for a long amount of time, I am really excited about doing something different afterward. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a different median, just something different. My dream is always to be on a successful long running television show then during the hiatus, I could go to a play because you get the same kind of feel in the long running television show that you do with the play and there is a family that you see everyday or usually every day. Television is lovely, because you reach so many people, but the live theater, there is nothing really quite like it; so hopefully, it will exist forever. When 2,000 people laugh together, that’s an amazing thing. I have a preference for both of my dreams, to get on that sitcom and then do theater during the hiatus.”
Directed by Michael Blakemore, Blithe Spirit haunts National Theatre from March 17th to March 29th.
Blithe Spirit with Angela Lansbury:
