Following the Spotlight

Chelsea Plumley has a new show, Follow Spot, opening this Friday at Chapel off Chapel, and took a break to chat with Coral Drouyn.

When Chelsea Plumley was still in primary school she was sent home for repeating a slightly blue joke.

“My parents weren’t in Show Business, but my British dad has that bawdy ‘Carry On’ style of humour and a rare collection of naughty gags. I didn’t even know what it meant, but it got a laugh, from everyone except the teacher. I think maybe that’s where the comedy started for me. I’ve always been a bit of a clown,” Chelsea tells me with an infectious chuckle.

Chelsea is that rarest of creatures, a beautiful woman with a great talent for physical comedy. But she’s more than that, she’s an accomplished pianist, a terrific musical director, a recording artist, a cabaret performer, a compere, a singer to die for in all manner of vocal styles, and a fine actress. You name it, Chelsea’s done it….or it’s on her bucket list.

“And yet,” she says with more surprise than regret, “I never get cast as the leading lady. It was especially true in London’s West End, where I auditioned for every show going. I always got down to the last two, only to be told,’sorry Chelsea – we really like you but….”

It’s not really that surprising. Chelsea is no shrinking violet, no wide-eyed ingénue. She’s all curves, all woman, with a larger than life, charismatic persona, and a voice that could stop traffic. When she steps on a stage she owns it. Two years ago, at Arts Centre Melbourne, she stopped the show with the fifteen minute role of Margie McDougall in Promises, Promises, bringing to it physical comedy which would have made Lucille Ball at her peak feel threatened, and reducing the audience to tears of laughter.

“I’m one of those people who loves life and tries to live it to the fullest. I guess that is bound to spill into my performances. But I still take my craft very seriously. It’s not a case of going to WAAPA, then thinking you’re fully trained, and never working on your skills. There is always something new to learn, always a way to improve, to give more. Just recently I did an acting refresher course with Louise van Emden and it was a revelation to me. We have to nurture what we’ve been given, keep it growing.”

Chelsea never lets the grass grow under her feet (“Though sometimes I’d like to stop long enough to do that”). She knows that the business is such in Australia that there will be times when there simply are no roles for her.

“We’re a very diverse lot in Musical Theatre,” she says. “If there’s no show for us, we create our own. I’ve done that with my cabaret shows, and sometimes I’ve even become Musical Director and been in the pit for the run of a show.”

Despite her GLUG award for “Most Versatile Performer” and several Green Room nominations, Chelsea doesn’t see herself as a star in any form.

“I’m a performer who likes to work in this business. I’m lucky I haven’t had to waitress or take an office job, and I’m very grateful. In London, when it didn’t happen for me in theatre, I played and sang in piano bars…pretty swanky bars at that.”

Chelsea is underselling herself. She played the best hotels in London… including The Dorchester, The Ritz, The Churchill and the Millenium Mayfair. Then there’s Sing-a-long Sound of Music, a phenomenon she expected would probably be a one-off gig, but which she has now been associated with for 13 years.

“I love it, especially when you see little kids and even their grandparents in the audience singing together.”

I get the feeling we could talk all night and still only scratch the surface, but we inevitably need to talk about her newest venture, Follow Spot, which opens on Friday and plays through to Sunday at Chapel off Chapel. This time Chelsea turns the spotlight on some of her peers in a witty hybrid of chat show/variety programme.

“We all have rituals, preparations we go through. Every performer is different, every one has a story to tell,” she tells me. “But the public never gets to know what goes on backstage, and some of it is hilarious, and some a little bizarre. So I’ve lined up some very special peers, all at the peak of their talent, and we will chat – unrehearsed – and they will sing - that part is rehearsed. It will be intimate and up close and personal. Something totally different.”

And what a line-up she has for us. We get to share the experiences of Rhonda Burchmore, John O’May, John Diedrich, Debra Byrne, Queenie van de Zandt, David Hobson, Julia Zemiro, Martin Croft and Anne Wood. Three performers will appear each night.

We haven’t had this kind of entertainment in this kind of venue before, and I can’t help thinking it would make a brilliant late night TV Show.

“You’re reading my mind,” she says with a lark.

You really won’t want to miss this special event. Chelsea Plumley is always worth seeing and her guests are just a very rich icing on a spectacular “Fruitcake”.

Follow Spot plays at Chapel off Chapel from February 26 - 28, 2016.

Click here for more details