sept21.qxp_Jan 2014 Aff 30/08/2021 20:31 Page 52
Time to Start Believing Aren't we due a bit of magic in our lives? Dianne Pilkington thinks so. She is staring in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and she, for one, is thrilled to be dreaming of the impossible again.
scary side but there has to be a joy in her too. There's a real relish in being an apprentice witch."
The show, which opens at Milton Keynes Theatre on Wednesday 15th September, is the first ever stage adaptation of the 1971 Disney favourite. Pilkington says the production is every bit as ground-breaking as the movie, with its famous blend of live action, animation and musical numbers.
She is, though, determined to make the part her own: "I'm a huge fan of hers but I'm not like her at all. Also we're in a different time. I've tried to come it at it from a modern point of view, even though it's still set in wartime."
"It's my first theatre job back," says the Wigan-born actor who plays Miss Eglantine Price, the trainee witch. "It is fun, it is full of magic and it takes you on a different journey from the adventure we've been on for the last year and a half. It is what the world needs right now."
"The film was doing something new and innovative, and so are we," says the West End star, whose roles include Glinda in Wicked, Donna in Mamma Mia! and Elizabeth in Young Frankenstein. "It is faithful to what people love about Bedknobs and Broomsticks but this creative team never make the obvious choice. They have an amazing creative brain."
Set in the darkest days of the second world war, Bedknobs and Broomsticks is about the three Rawlins children who have been evacuated from London. Finding themselves in the fictional Dorset town of Pepperinge Eye, they are put in the care of the eccentric Miss Price who is less interested in looking after them than in completing her studies in magic. Before they know it, she is casting spells on their bed and sending them skywards on a magical adventure.
"She's very quirky," laughs Pilkington. "She's a woman who has lived on her own for a long time and has not had much love for a really long time. We've been exploring the
Long before she got the part, Pilkington was an admirer of Angela Lansbury who immortalised the role of Eglantine Price on film. She'd even got the merchandise. "One of the first masks I bought at the beginning of the pandemic was Angela Lansbury in Murder She Wrote," she says. "The rest of the cast think it's hilarious but I didn't buy it for this – it's just mine!"
When she wants to check she's on the right lines, Pilkington has the perfect audience on hand. Her sounding board is her eight-year-old son. "I've been practising on Hugo," she says. "I've shown him my magic tricks and he doesn't know how they're done, which is gratifying." She adds: "He's convinced the broom is on rocket boosters and he could be right – who will ever know?"
As well as the original score, the show features Sherman brothers songs that were dropped from the film, plus new material by Neil Bartram who has worked closely with Brian Hill on the stage adaptation. With the additional songs, it has become a full-blown musical. "Substitutiary Locomotion is one of the best numbers I've ever sung," says Pilkington. "I get so excited, I actually do believe I'm magic and casting a spell. When you're in the middle of that on stage it’s fabulous."
Bringing her up to speed on the art of magic is co-director Jamie Harrison. He is the man who created the stage illusions in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and once had to perform a magic trick for JK Rowling herself.
