At the end of the day…

Nicola Roberts

My evening routine is to get home and run a hot bath straight away. The rehearsal room for the musical I’m in, City Of Angels, is super-dusty. All rehearsal spaces are like that: they have so many people in them, with shoes on and off, props and staging being moved in and out. You feel like all you want to do is jump in a bath.

I put Epsom salts in my bath. And I have to have a candle – I like the Neom ones. I also love a brand-new pair of posh pyjamas: the most joyous thing to put on after a soak.

Usually, I try to go to the gym in the evening, but rehearsals have taken over, so the gym’s gone out the window. But often I’d spend an hour there and have a sauna and steam. If I do half an hour of exercise, it keeps my cardio and stamina up. For this performance I have to sing and dance so, if I’m not fit, I’ll sound out of breath. I can’t have that.

I have meditated in the past, but I think the gym is like meditation if you get into the swing of it. Before rehearsals started I had time for candlelit yoga or meditative yoga, which I love. My routine has gone a bit now due to The Masked Singer, but you learn to slot things in. My Google Diary is full of notes to help me keep my routine on track. Even on a Sunday, I’ll go to the flower stall and renew all the flowers in my house. And at least once a fortnight I’ll try and have a massage. You can’t think or plan for self-care enough.

My home décor is quite French. There are plants everywhere, a baby pink sofa and low lighting. There’s a little gold drinks trolley and lots of pink. I’ve asked the theatre to paint my dressing room pink so that I feel like I’m at home.

City Of Angels is set in the 1930s and my character’s an aspiring actor called Avril. I wasn’t that big on old Hollywood films before, but this has introduced me to them. I’ve been watching a lot of film noir: everything is very slow and the music is so elegant – it puts you in a really calm state.

I’m not addicted to my phone, I don’t have the stamina for continuous messaging. When I’m tired, I just zone out and, with texting and messaging, you’ve got to engage. I’m more like, ‘Let’s all catch up and see each other in real life.’

I’ll sit on the sofa and watch TV until

I fall asleep. That’s what winds me down. I loved The Morning Show on Apple TV+. I thought Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon were phenomenal in that. It was amazing to see two very different women at the top of their game come together.

If I’m in songwriting mode, then lyrics sometimes come in my sleep.

I’ll dream of something and put it in a voice note on my phone when I wake up.

More often than not, if you listen to it in the morning, it makes no sense.

But sometimes there’s the odd sentence or a phrase that’s really sweet and I’ll think, OK, that’s come from my subconscious.

In the evening, I might put Beyoncé on and spend an hour screaming at the top of my lungs to warm my voice up for rehearsal the next day. I haven’t had any complaints from neighbours yet, so I’m guessing it’s OK.

Nicola is starring in ‘City Of Angels’ at the Garrick Theatre (cityofangelsmusical.co.uk)