Welcome to the last PODCAST FROM AMERICA of 2010, and cliched though it sounds, I have most definitely saved the best til last, as my special guest is none other than British ‘national treasure’, Bonnie Langford.
Meeting Bonnie was such a thrill. We’re around the same age, and I remember watching her sing on the talent show, Opportunity Knocks, (back in 19seventycoughs), and then later with the late Lena Zavaroni, who Bonnie talks very poignantly about during the interview.
Bonnie, who is a very talented singer, dancer and actress, famously went on to play iconic Violet Elizabeth Bott in Just William – a role that so many people remember all these years later, (and for Bonnie, could be considered something of a curse, as well as a blessing).
But along with Lena, she was the original talent show prodigy, and so we talked about the pressures on young performers (and that includes her niece Summer Strallen, who last year took to the stage as Maria in The Sound of Music, in the West End), reality shows, and what it takes to sustain a career.
A younger audience came to love her after she took part in ITV1′s Dancing on Ice, in 2006, and afterwards, she returned to Broadway to play Roxie Hart in Chicago, and has also appeared in Cats, Sweet Charity and The Pirates of Penzance. Just before Christmas, she performed her one-woman off-Broadway show, at the Cabaret in the Cafe, 59E59 Theaters, to amazing reviews.
We met at the London Hotel in Manhattan in September, where I was staying courtesy of Fox. They had flown me to New York to interview Josh Brolin, for Wall Street 2, and coincidentally, Bonnie’s husband, Paul Grunert, has a small cameo in the film. (Unfortunately, his big scene with Michael Douglas and Donald Trump didn’t make the final cut.) Bonnie’s happily married – a rarity in showbiz – and the mother of a ten-year-old daughter. She radiants good energy and it’s not hard to see why this talented performer, who first appeared on Broadway in 1974 in Gypsy, alongside Angela Lansbury, is still in demand.
The music in the show is from Bonnie’s album, Jazz At The Theatre.
