BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS - DIANNE PILKINGTON By Mark Fisher too. There’s a real relish in being an apprentice witch.” 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!”
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. “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 show, which opens at the Orchard Theatre on 24th November, 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. “The film was doing something new and innovative, and so are we,” says the West End star, whose roles
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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 include Glinda in Wicked, Donna in of view, even though it’s still set in Mamma Mia! and Elizabeth in Young wartime.” Frankenstein. “It is faithful to what people love about Bedknobs and When she wants to check she’s on the Broomsticks but this creative team right lines, Pilkington has the perfect never make the obvious choice. They audience on hand. Her sounding board is her eight-year-old son. “I’ve have an amazing creative brain.” Set in the darkest days of the been practising on Hugo,” she says. second world war, Bedknobs and “I’ve shown him my magic tricks and Broomsticks is about the three he doesn’t know how they’re done, Rawlins children who have been which is gratifying.” evacuated from London. Finding themselves in the fictional Dorset She adds: “He’s convinced the broom town of Pepperinge Eye, they are is on rocket boosters and he could be put in the care of the eccentric Miss right – who will ever know?” Price who is less interested in looking after them than in completing her As well as the original score, the show features Sherman brothers songs that studies in magic. were dropped from the film, plus new Before they know it, she is casting material by Neil Bartram who has spells on their bed and sending them worked closely with Brian Hill on the skywards on a magical adventure. stage adaptation. With the additional songs, it has become a full-blown “She’s very quirky,” laughs Pilkington. musical. “Substitutiary Locomotion “She’s a woman who has lived on is one of the best numbers I’ve ever her own for a long time and has sung,” says Pilkington. “I get so not had much love for a really long excited, I actually do believe I’m time. We’ve been exploring the scary magic and casting a spell. When side but there has to be a joy in her you’re in the middle of that on stage
