INTERVIEW: Bronté Barbé, currently starring as Katherine in NEWSIES at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre

Bronté is currently playing the role of Katherine Plumber in the London premiere production of Newsies at the Troubadour Theatre in Wembley.  

Bronté’s work in theatre includes 'Kathy' in Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder (Edinburgh Festival), 'Mary' in What's New Pussycat' (Birmingham Rep), ‘Ado Annie’ in Oklahoma at Chichester, starring as ‘Carole King’ in the first UK tour of the musical Beautiful, ’Jane’ in the concert version of Girlfriends at the Bishopsgate Institute, ‘Nadine' in Drew McOnie’s production of The Wild Party at The Other Palace, ‘Little Match Girl’ in Striking 12 at the Union Theatre, ‘Helen/Vinnie’ in The Donkey Show (Proud London) and ‘Princess Fiona’ in the UK tour of Shrek, and ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ before this. She started performing at a very young age in her hometown of Macclesfield. In 2010 she was selected as one of the final 10 in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s search for Dorothy - Over the Rainbow’. Following this, Bronté attended Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts where she gained the Gyearbuor Asante prize for Acting and graduated with first-class honours.

After finishing Mountview she made her professional debut as ‘Odette’ in Carnival of the Animals (Riverside Studios).

We caught up with Brontè about her time in Newsies! 

You are currently playing Katherine in the long-awaited and now Olivier award-winning production of Newsies. Thinking back to when you got the audition, how did you feel about potentially playing this part when you were going through that process? 

I saw Newsies on Broadway around 2014 / 15 and it was my first trip to New York - and I think it was the first musical that I watched there. I just remember being blown away and thinking ‘If that ever comes over, that is the Disney part that I want to do, she’s so strong and so interesting and I love to tap and it’s a period piece with such an important message’ so it was my dream show. 

I remember I flew back to London from a different holiday and the audition came through. I was chuffed because I’d worked with Max and Jane before in Oklahoma and I’d heard they were going to be doing it but I’d been waiting for ages. I’d been asking my agent ‘please get me seen for it when it comes here!’ I’d heard people had gone in for the Newsies and I hadn’t gotten an audition through, so I was worried I wasn’t going to be seen!

REVIEW: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking

It’s hard to over-state the importance of Carole King on the music industry. Over a thousand artists have covered or released her songs from The Shirelles and The Drifters to Celine Dion and Aretha Franklin. As a solo artist King has had seven Top 10 albums and has recorded some of the most well-known songs in pop history. Beautiful: The Carole King Musical follows King (Daisy Wood-Davis) as she writes, falls in love and soars to great musical heights.

The overture starts and we tumble through some of the most iconic King masterpieces in a brash medley, ending with Wood-Davis sat at a grand piano centre stage about to preform to Carnegie Hall on 18th June 1971. The production then throws us back into the midst of 1950s America to watch Kings rise to stardom.

Wood-Davis is elegant in her portrayal of King; with wonderful vocals and a great portrayal of the southern twang that King is known for. Gerry Goffin is played brilliantly by Adam Gillian. With appropriate swagger he pulls off both the high-school jock and the budding playwright and lyricist with a voice to match that of Wood-Davis. His emotions sometimes seem to come from nowhere with some less nuanced choices than the other principal cast.

REVIEW: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley

Beautiful the musical starts its new national tour at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley. Riding on the back of an Olivier award winning West End run. It’s a straightforward biographical juke box musical telling the little known story of Carole King who, with her partner/husband Gerry Goffin, wrote dozens of chart hits which have become the sound of popular music – Will You Love Me Tomorrow?, The Locomotion, Up on the Roof, You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman and heaps more. She then went on to become a star performer in her own right. Those coming late to the party may also know of her as the writer and performer of the theme tune to the TV series Gilmore Girls, in which she also appeared.

Although the juke box/biography form is used in a completely conventional way, what sets this show apart from others is the sheer quality, quantity and variety of songs written by King and her friends cum rivals Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (who wrote You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling, the most played song of the 20th century).