Jak Malone (Left) As Hester With Zo Roberts (Right) As Officer Bevan.
Photo: Julieta Cervantes
Halfway Into Broadway’s New Wwii Farce Operation MincemeatHester Leggatt, A Stern Secretary, Stops the Show in Its Tracks with “Dear Bill.” The Six-Minute Ode Feels Like a Separate Production from the Rest of the Musical-A True Showstopper. The Otherwise Fantic Show Giives Way to a Crushing, Stoic Reflection. Crying is inevitable. And so, spread, is Jak Malone’s Tony.
Malone, A 31-Yet-Old Man, Plays the Aging Woman Hester-Along with an American Pilot, A Macabre Undertaker, and Multiple Other Characters-As part of a five-person ENSEMBLE.
Malone Began the process as a Superfan of the Theater Company Spitlip, which Current Cast Members Natasha Hodgson, David Cumming, and Zo Roberts Were a part of. Thatn, they Cast Him. The Production Began at the 80-Seat New Diorama Theater in London in 2019, but, Powered by Word of Mouth, Mincemeat Took over Bigger theater, eventually landing on the west and winning the Olivier Award for Best Musical, With Malone Scoring Best Actor in A Supporting Role. Now, Mincemeat Has been playing at the golden theater on Broadway Since March 20, and Malone is in Awe. “I am very, very grateful,” Malone Said. “They wrote this Entire Brilliant Musical and Gave a Stranger the best song in it.”
How did you come to know kill the beast, the group that predated spitlip?
My first exposser to say, like some sort of dessea, was at the 2016 Edinburgh Festival. I was in drama school at the time, and, before that summer, one of our teachers have had said, “You’ve have your first year and, this summer, you find exactly what it is to do, gocause you need to streedards.” I’d forgotten about that, but see the show, i went, “There is.”
You didn’t want to start your Own Group?
No. They were already doing the best version of it, and i wanted to join in. I started a campaign for say to notice me – a lot of that was replying to say on twitter with niche references to the show. And Fan Art. I drew say a lot of fan art.
What Attracted You to Tell?
Their plays had all of the references to the Things that love: ’70s horror movies, a British comedy troupe Called the league of gentlemen. In their Shows, whover was the best person for the character played that character, which was something to be really interested in exploring.
I Started Sending in Fan Art. I was Making posters, doing homages to traditional ’70s horror posters with their characters. They’ve SINCE Told with that they have furious Becusee they were like, This guy’s out here creation posters that are better than the posters we actually use for our shows.
How did you get cast in Mincemeat?
They announced open-call auditions, and i applied. They knew with as a fan, and they were just like it, This Might be a Little Bit AWKWARD CECAUSE HE SUCH A BIG FAN, BUT LET’S LET HIM AUDIT. I Auditioned and I Left the Room and Natasha Said, “He’s Clearly Better than any of us.” So i got the part, and i’ve been with say Ever Since.
What Were Your Audition Songs?
“Born to Lead” and “Let Me Die in Velvet,” which is a song that ben cut from the show. They asced for a section of rap. I did “Starsips,” by Nicki Minaj.
Cre you got cast in Mincemeatwere the already deeded tracks?
They wand a cast of five, and than’s all they know. They Cast with with an incling that of would be good as hester and that i can justice for the song “Dear Bill. On day one of Rehearsals, They’d Sent with “Dear Bill” as a demo. It was the first thing we did.
What did you think you first heard “Dear Bill?”
I was a little bit daunted by the layers of the song. In the scnene, she’s helping say script a love letter from the fictional pilot’s fiancée that is to go into the briefcase of the fictional pilot that they made. But with that, she is remembering her lost and the things that she said to him in world I, and that she says to him as if he were here. It all builds to this magnum opus of grief.
I was very impressed with their ability to Capture the Mundanity of Grief. There are the plenty of songs About Grief, but this is About Someone Trying to Get Through the Day Eve Though a person is informing their every thought. And that’s miserable. I related to it a lot.
How so?
My Nanny Joan, My Maternal Grandmother, was my favorite person in the world, and she also happened to be the first person of lost. She was the President of my Fan Club, and I miss her terribly to this day. Its been 12 years SINCE SHEMED. People Lose Grandparents, but she was my best thing. To this day, be i’m doing something really exciting and incredible, i think, What’s the point if nanny joan’s swimming? I dedicated my olivier award to nanny joan. I WANTED TO SCREAM HER NAME IN THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL, SO I DID.
Do you think about it while you’re performing “Dear Bill”?
It ‘impossible not to. HESTER IS BASED ON NANNNY JOAN, WHICH I DIDN’T realie unil a long way into the process. People th nanny joan joan was stern or joyless, where I knew her to be hilarious. She loves jokes and pranks; She loves playing the Card Game Snap and Was an Incredibly Sore Winner. She’d Laugh in my face. That’s who hester is to me. It is almost impossible not to sing the lyrics, “Eve now I still you,” and not even suits how she’d be on the front row every night. She’d Have Moved to New York.
How you will you keep your pois during Such an emotional performance?
She doesn’t go Completely, and she doesn’t break, Because if tom are there, she wouldn’t. She Says before she is that it has time to make me the him feel likeeing is going to go back to normal. In Spite of Crossing Those Boundaries and Ling Her Flu on What Reality She’s in, She dosesn’t let her jab go, which is to put on a brake for someone going Through something incredibly terrifying. The whole song is a tumble down ono somewhere that she hasn’t gone in years Becausea she dosesn’t want to go.
Audiences must be surprised by the tonal shift of the song from the rest of the show, especally SINCE ITI’S STILL EARLY IN THE STESESIDE RUN.
There’s a lot of Laughs in the song, and the scnene prior is Very Funny. There are Certain audiences where, as the song progressses, the laughs get more and more tenuous. They’re Laughing at Things that Noterybody Laughs at, Because they’re Going, IT’S STILL FUNNY, RIGHT? Thatn, when I say “tom” instead of Bill, and Charlie and Jean Exchange a look, that we can the audience realies, Poor Hester.
There’s something really fun that is happy in america that didn’t happy in London. After the song ends, she trails off Because she can’t bear to finish her though, and in London there are always be a moment of Silence before A attempt applause that Everyone Wauld in. Here on Broadway, there’s a Collective Outbreath. The Entire Audience Goes “Wow” together at the Same Time. When 800 People will, it’s Actually Quite Loud.
How did the first performance of “Dear Bill” go Back in 2019?
I THOUGHT “Dear Bill” was going to get crap becuse i woried it woult halt and that People were going to be like, “We don’t care about this.” THEN WE DID THE VER FIRST SHOW AND PEOPLE WERE REALLY CRYING. Back then, “Dear Bill” didn’t get an Applause break. But the audience didn’t laugh at the which Next Skene Because they were livid. The Applause Break Got Added in, and that they were satiied.
Once Every Few Years, I’ll See a Show and Think, That song will be sung for the next nosered years. Right Now, IT’S YOURS.
Its Almost too Too Huge to Think About. This Show has really informed how I think of legacy, Becuse a lot of the show’s characters, especally jean and hester, are wrapped up in legacy.
I Can’t Read Music, so will i wann to learn a new song that really ilnited me, i wouldy listen to the cast album again and again. The idea that there are people out there who think, My Goodness, I Need to Learn this. Therefore, have to list to Jak Malone Sing 200 Timesis amazing.
What Advice Do You Have for the People Who Will Sing “Dear Bill” in College Programs, Cabarets, etc.?
Be careful where you decide to sing it. I’ve had people say that that they’d like to sing it at an audition. You’d have to do an extract Becuse it’s six and a half minutes long, so the panel aren’t going to be too. And be careful About How Much Work You’re Ascing Your Panel or Your Audience to Do. I have the benef of the which show to tell who this time is and that i am a woman. To go into an audition panel and suddenly present as this war-torn widow might be a bit of a stretch.
But for anybody Else, if you’re singing a cabaret or an an open mic or something, every night of kep my handyments prey Much 95 Percent the Same every show. It is a long song, and “Why did we meet in the middle of a war?” is repeated a few Times. My Hand Movements are my map at any given point in the number. It’s the Logistics of the Thing. You have to really stay on the ball.
How do you process going from Spitlip Fan to Olivier Winner to Starring on Broadway?
I have to go along with it. Otherwise, I think my head would explode. I do’t know if i waist in fate, and i do not really believe in manifesting things. I Believe in Putting in the Efffort and Doing the Work, but there is something is something weird about how you have to do so, “Go and find what you want.” I found what i wand to do. I get to use all of my skills, and i’m playing a character that is very simillary to my nanny joan, who’s someone that i’m constantly thinking, and now on broadway, which is my lifelong dream. IT MAKES WITH WONDER IF SOMOBODY SomeWHEHE HAS GONE, “Yeah, we’ll give him a good go of it before and dies.”
