BEST MEMORY BEST GIG
I’ll go with my first memory, which is watching my mum teaching a dance class at Blackpool College. She was — and still is — the greatest dancer. She’s brilliant.
That was probably my first memory — and I think it probably influenced the rest of my life, really. She’s a contemporary dancer and she used to teach jazz. It definitely awoke something in me, that’s for sure.
BEST ACTOR/ACTRESS I love Emma Stone. Everything she’s doing at the moment, I think it’s so interesting. I have so many favourite actors, to be honest with you — but everything that’s she’s doing, I really admire it from my perspective. We’re a sort of similar age, we have a sort of similar look as well — I get compared to her a lot — and I think it’s really interesting, the choices she’s made in the past few years that have taken her from like… she does everything. Comedy, tragedy, she can do it all. And so I think from a business perspective, watching her is very inspirational for someone like me. I think she can just do all of it, and she’s very brave.
Probably Stevie Wonder. It’s got to be — he was sensational.
BEST JOKE Scott Paige, who plays Michael in the show, says slightly di erent lines every night — and he’s so funny. So, anything that comes out of his mouth is hilarious. He’s great. I think he’s the funniest person I’ve ever worked with, he’s so good.
BEST HOLIDAY I did go to Japan last year, which was crazy. It was really cool, and it was so different to everything here — I can’t wait to go back, because there’s so much more. And because it’s so different, you feel like such a tourist the whole time. Everything’s different, overall. Everything is out the window and you’re kind of starting again. I do like challenging myself by going to places like that.
BEST RESTAURANT I do have a favourite restaurant in Dublin, actually — so let’s go with that. I love Elephant and Castle for the chicken wings.
BEST FRIEND I have a group of best friends who are wonderful, inspirational and all brilliant. There’s quite a few of them, but we all speak every day. They sort of came into my life during Covid — we did play readings together online and got to know each other very well after that in real life. They’re kind of like my extended family, they’re the best. It’s something wonderful that came out of something a bit rubbish, particularly for people in theatre and for people who dealt with anything else in that time. It was so great to have these new friends who were so smart and funny — and it’s the power of taking up something in your late 20s or 30s. You don’t really take up hobbies as an adult; you don’t really do new things.
But this is proof that if you just throw yourself into something, you might meet your people.