the Arts Centre presents
Leading Ladies
A Creative Development Initiative

Interview | Biography

Nancye Hayes
Nancye Hayes was keen to be photographed on the edge of the stage at Her Majesty's Theatre where she sat in Sweet Charity, the musical that elevated her to stardom in 1967. Nancye's portrait also alludes to the rehearsal process and her work as a dancer, choreographer and director.

Leading lady Being centre stage Leading lady roles Sweet Charity Inspirations Holding on to dreams Aspirations Career path Rehearsals Developing a character Rehearsal process Backstage Rituals and routines Theatre atmosphere Dressing rooms Touring On stage Performing live Dealing with grief Stage fright Audiences Laughter and standing ovations Audience memories

Leading lady

Being centre stage
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Leading lady roles
Nancye Hayes: There aren't a lot of shows being written now for what I call the leading lady persona. I mean, we don't have the [Sweet] Charities and the Mames and the Hello, Dollys and the Funny Girls so much now. But we certainly have young performers coming up that have the qualities of leading ladies and they've been in wonderful shows, but they're not star vehicle shows like they were years ago. And I think that makes a big difference. Often we don't have any names billed outside of the theatres and the show is the star. So they have to work much harder to get that leading lady status.

Simon Plant: To get that status is it a case also of displaying, no matter how big the part, grace under pressure or qualities of courage or leadership? Are those the kind of things that a true leading lady needs to possess?

Nancye Hayes: Well, I think that's all part of it, but I think that should come from much earlier than when you're a leading lady. I think that should come from your work ethic anyway, and often being a leading lady is being in the right place at the right time, when someone discovers that you have these qualities and you get the opportunity to play a leading role.

Sweet Charity
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Inspirations

Holding on to dreams
Nancye Hayes: You do have to have your dreams… I didn't come from a theatrical family and I came from a background where I was an only child. I lost my father in an accident when I was about eleven. I wanted from an early age to go into the theatre and it didn't look like it was going to be possible really. My mother was very sceptical about it and I had to do all the things like secretarial college and work for a couple of years, which I did for the Forestry Commission.

Simon Plant: Something to fall back on.

Nancye Hayes: Yes. Typing up how many sleepers were going to be sent to India. It was riveting! And I just held onto this dream and as soon as I could get any money I would go and sit in 'the gods' of the theatres. I saw Sentimental Bloke from the gods, and West Side Story from the gods, which I think changed my life… I'd never seen anything like that in the late 50s, early 60s.

And even beyond when I'd had some success with things like Sweet Charity, everyone's always saying, 'The theatre is dead, nothing's going to happen.' And there's so much negativity and if you allow that to invade your dreams, it takes you down so far… I say to these kids [students], 'It's not going to be easy… but if it is what you want, give it your absolute best shot.' Because to do something you love in life is the greatest gift…

Aspirations

Career path
Nancye Hayes: I feel it was sort of entirely accidental really… My greatest dream was to dance; to be a dancer in musical theatre. I had no ambition to be an actress. I did sing… I went to a dancing school that encouraged singing and dancing. I grew up in a time when tap dancing and song and dance was a little bit common and ballet was the thing to do. But because my teacher was an ex-J.C. Williamson ballet mistress, well she encouraged the other and therefore I had that grounding. And she started a musical theatre company and I would go from school and sit at the back doing my homework and be part of things like Rose Marie and The Desert Song.

But once I got into [My] Fair Lady I was very, very happy and I would have just been happy dancing the rest of my life in the chorus, I suppose, which isn't a very ambitious thing to say. I had an opportunity to understudy, you see, and then other people discovered I was a comedienne and other people actually saw my ability and pushed me, more than me… putting my hand up and saying, 'This is what I want to do.'

Rehearsals

Developing a character
Nancye Hayes: Those kind of outlandish characters had always attracted me. Anybody that was further away from myself as possible.

I'm very much about how the character looks and walks and talks… It's the dance background…

The character has to sing the way they speak. I think the seamless thing of going from dialogue into song into dance, the character has to be always there. And once the character's established, apart from of course learning your notes and the lyrics and all those things, it should be a development of the character through whatever is required.

Rehearsal process
Nancye Hayes: I love the rehearsal stage because you can try all sorts of things. There's a great sense of play… particularly if you have a very good director who's allowing you to explore all sorts of things. There's all the layers of rehearsal: learning the numbers, nailing the dances, getting the scene to work, then adding how you handle your props, how you're starting to layer the costumes…

The final run through in the rehearsal room probably is one of my favourite performances, because you haven't actually taken on… having to wear the costumes and the whole thing. You're in a comfortable rehearsal mode and you've got makeshift props and all sorts of things. And there seems to be a wonderful sense of, 'Oh! We're at the end of the springboard here. We're ready to dive into the theatre.' I love that… And we usually have a few guests so that sense of performing heightens… I love the rehearsal room process.

Simon Plant: How prepared do you like to be when you go into a rehearsal room? Are you open to what's going to happen or do you have a certain structure organised before you start?

Nancye Hayes: Well, I certainly do a fair bit of research… If it's a musical that we know, you have a sense of your part in it anyway. But I really don't start to do a lot of work until I start to block… that's how I begin to learn the lines. I don't learn the lines particularly before I start rehearsal. I have a knowledge of them, but I think that listening, responding and reacting… If you try to do it on your own, it's not easy. It's the two-way thing of acting with other people. And they can give you an entirely different reaction than what you're expecting and then a scene can take off in a different way all together.

Backstage
Rituals and routines
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Theatre atmosphere
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Dressing rooms
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Touring
Simon Plant: How do you keep a show fresh? And how do you keep yourself fresh each night?

Nancye Hayes: Well, the bottom line is, the ticket for a musical is very expensive and the person sitting out in that audience is seeing it for the first time. You may be doing it for the 937th, but they're seeing it for the first time and they deserve the same show that the people saw on opening night…

You really have to keep that in mind. You have to keep yourself well; you have to keep yourself rested… I often work on other things while I'm doing a long run. Get together with some other kids and create some work. Do some other classes. Stimulate ourselves in other ways so that it's not only the show we're doing but we can… feel energised to go on and do the show that night. It's no good coming into the theatre at the half hour call and going onto the stage and thinking you're going to be in the place you need to be to make that show work. You need to get together with the company, you need to do warm ups… get yourself into it.

Simon Plant: Similarly, when a company breaks up, what's the feeling?

Nancye Hayes: Oh, it's always terribly sad and everyone says, 'Oh look, we'll be in touch'. And then everyone goes their different ways and you perhaps don't see them for years and then suddenly… you just sort of take up where you left off, which is an amazing quality that these performers have. It is sad. It's like a family breaking up. It really is.

On stage

Performing live
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Dealing with grief
Simon Plant: During [Sweet] Charity too I think your mother died…

Nancye Hayes: Yes, my mother passed away.

Simon Plant: And your grandmother later…

Nancye Hayes: About a month later. And I had great friends there, around me.

Simon Plant: Dealing with that must have been extraordinarily hard.

Nancye Hayes: Yes, extraordinarily hard. But in some ways I looked at it that at least my mother had seen me do something like Sweet Charity, which was a small comfort. Also that I had that show to pull me through. I had work to pull me through. I think it would have been much harder if I hadn't had to go out there and perform, if I'd been sort of sitting at home.

Stage fright
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Audiences

Laughter and standing ovations
Simon Plant: That idea too, of creating laughter…

Nancye Hayes: I love that.

Simon Plant: That's an amazing power, isn't it?

Nancye Hayes: It is indeed… There are nights when you'll get an audience and you'll be doing exactly the same performance and you may not get much reaction at all, and that used to throw me a lot when I first started out… And some people aren't laughers. You can get a quiet audience and then afterwards you'll meet someone and they'll say, 'We had the most wonderful time', but they show it in a different way. But when you get a performance where you have everybody… one person can start it and it's infectious and the whole thing happens. It's joyful.

Simon Plant: What about standing ovations? When they happen are they totally unpredictable?

Nancye Hayes: They are totally unpredictable and well, it's a high that's hard to match if someone gives you that accolade. It's really wonderful… You can't expect it. You've got to earn it…

Audience memories
Simon Plant: When you look at your live work in a cumulative way, what value do you think it has? Are you able to measure a value of what you've given people?

Nancye Hayes: Well, only in the feedback I get from people, who say even now that they remember a particular performance and it had given them great pleasure. And that really pleases me… That is great. Or they say, 'I took my child to see it and they really loved it.' I think it's the personal feedback. But you can't take an audience home with you; you can't wrap them up and take them home with you. It's something that once it's happened, it's gone and it's only in those memories of other people that you re-live it again.

Simon Plant: What are they taking? Is it a couple of hours of escapism or are you giving them something more than that?

Nancye Hayes: Well, it's hard to know. You'd have to know about the person themselves, I would imagine. But certainly I can see in their faces that the memory has stayed with them as something really joyous for them. Something that has changed them in some way. They don't usually share that, but it's changed them in some way. In that perhaps they had not ever been to the theatre before or they had been having a particularly bad time and that evening in the theatre helped them get through it or whatever it might have been. But you can see it because they take the time to approach you and tell you about it. That often takes a lot of courage too with some people.

Simon Plant: And does that happen more, Nancye, with musicals as opposed to straight drama? Some more emotional weight to them?

Nancye Hayes: Yes, I think musicals are so presentational and they have a heightened form of delivery… The music is so emotional, the dancing is so vibrant… And, of course, there are some wonderful plays that you do come away from and they've really touched you and changed you in some way, but the musicals seem to be the ones that most people find they have this extraordinary experience.