The

deep stuff.

I'm glad for it now.

Yeah.

Because, you know, just with the career, I can tap into those things.

So there was that.

And then I signed my deal.

And

OK.

Sylvia Pankhurst, middle daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, who I play.

Emmeline, leader of the suffragettes, started a group called the Women's Social and Political Union, 1903.

Wanted women to get the vote.

Women had been asking for decades, Millicent Fawcett, you know, suffragists.

And the government was like, nah.

So she was like, oh, you're not going to give us the vote? We're going to take that vote.

Right, so tell us the history of

Was there a-

That's right, me, Sheridan, and the Ward Thomas sisters, and we did, like, a medley arranged by Fiona Bryce.

Um, the...

Sheridan started with 9 to 5.

She was, like, in a full Dolly fit.

Do you get really emotional at things like that, though? 'Cause, I mean, it's, it's, like, massive that, isn't it?

Yeah.

It w- last night it kinda hit me.

So what keeps you coming back and how has the role and the show developed in those iterations?

What keeps me coming back? There's a couple of things.

Number one, Emmeline herself.

She is a British icon.

of politics.

You can see the statue of her outside of the Houses of Parliament on Millbank.

She's there, House of Parliament in the background.

Oh.

So if I could bring Beverly up, please.

I'm here today as one of you all.

Because like you, I sat at home and watched in absolute horror and disgust at what was unfurling in front of all of our eyes.

I watched the destruction of a brilliant man for sport ignited by jealousy and fueled by hatred.

But when I look around now, I see An ocean of unity and togetherness and solidarity.

I thought about what I wanted to sing very carefully.

I wanted to bring light because In the 41 years that Professor Jason Arday was with us, he brought leadership and he brought light to so many young people who are, despite what anybody else wants to think, who are going to walk the path that he made for them.

Yep

... started pulling people up on stage, and me and Beck were pulled up on stage, and we were just, like, dancing, and I just kept looking at Prince like, "Oh my God.

Oh my God." Um, that ended, and security took me 'round the back of the theater where he was just to say a brief hello, which I did, and I thought, "Okay, my life is made.

I've met my idol, and this is incredible." What I didn't know was that eight years later I would get a call, uh, from Rob Hallett at AEG, big, big, big international promoters-

How did you navigate through that time?

So I was without a label and without a lot of support.

I knew I had a really great live following.

People were really, really committed to seeing me live, and I knew that was where I won over everybody else.

Like, how have you had to maybe compromise or even stand in the position where you're like, no, this is how it is?

It's been really interesting because I...

Just one thing that I'll draw you to.

Those of you are old enough to remember.

There was a time where my hair was black and just natural colour and then had red streaks.

And then, because I'm extra, I was like, well, let's do more colours.

So I had different colours running through it and it became a thing.

And

What actually first drew you to her?

Well, I've been a fan for a good 20-odd years.

I was introduced to her by the wonderful Jools Holland, and that's how I knew all about her.

And I thought it was a shame that I, as a music fan, was just discovering her greatness, her importance, her place in rock and roll history.

And if someone like me, who prides herself on being knowledgeable about music, was not across her career, then the masses surely were not either.

So when this opportunity presented itself for me to play Rosetta, oh, I jumped all over it.

Mm

... on Memphis, I mean, it, it was just crazy.The amount of times, there was this particular scene in act two where myself and Cillian Donnelly, who originally played Huey Calhoun, it's a interesting kind of bedroom scene- Yeah ... and he is dressing me.

[laughs]

... by anything that did not fit to their very, very narrow and constricted view of what music should be.

The very idea that this woman is picking up a guitar, plugging it in [laughs] to an amp, so when she strikes a power chord, it's gonna reverberate around the building, was absolutely of the devil to these people.

Yeah.

Marie with that kind of more resonant alto sound, and Rosetta floating on the top with her guitar, dancing around.

Yeah, Marie had such a, a tragic incident that kind of put paid to their relationship.

I think it was, and Joe, you might wanna correct me, I think in 1950, and there was a fire that took the lives of both Marie's children and her mother, and it broke Marie completely.

Great question.

I... really loved the idea of playing Emmeline Pankhurst, someone that every Briton knows, her strength, what she achieved, her oratory.

But I was intrigued because I didn't know the backstory, I didn't know the stuff about her family.

what it took for her to become the icon that she is now.

So there was a lot that I wanted to...

There was a lot that was a pull for me, you know? And then the music.

Oh, my God.

Again and

Mm-hmm.

So the Holy Spirit remains among you.

How is the Holy Spirit manifested? Um, by giving you different gifts.

One of them is the gift of speaking in tongues, and this is where the Pentecostalists really lean into it.

On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended, and the disciples started to speak in tongues.

And, um, that forever, [laughs] to this day, is the one significant thing that separates the Pentecostalists from, from the other denominations of Christianity.

Oh.

It nearly killed me.