NEED TO KNOW
- Lead Anastasia actress Georgina Hopson says playing Anya is a dream she never thought would come true.
- The role is physically, vocally, and emotionally demanding, with Hopson spending almost the entirety of both acts on stage.
- Off stage, she has a detailed pre-show ritual to keep her voice and body performance-ready.
- With Anastasia now ticked off her bucket list, Georgina has her sights set on a Sondheim show next.
Sometimes all it takes is a journey to the past to look back on your life and see how far you’ve come.
That’s certainly the case for lead Anastasia actress Georgina Hopson, as playing Anya in the show is a dream come true, and something she told her followers on Instagram she “dreamt about for a very long time and never thought it would actually happen”.
Sitting down with New Idea in her dressing room for the show at the Sydney Lyric Theatre, actress Georgina Hopson took some time to chat with us before she prepared for a Wednesday evening show.
She tells us that being in the role is “greater and more exciting” than she could have ever imagined.
“It’s beyond my wildest imagination of what I ever thought was possible,” she says, adding that “getting to play her in real life is just one of those pinch me moments… every now and then I’m on stage, and I’m like, oh, I’m really doing it.”
With an impressive music theatre career under her belt, playing roles including Rose Dewitt-Bukater in Titanique and Christine Daaé in Phantom of the Opera, Georgina has honed in her skills for the “emotionally demanding” role of Anya, which has audiences raving about her performance.
“You have to give of yourself every night. It’s a very vulnerable position to be in, and it’s challenging in all the ways that it could be challenging – physically, vocally, and emotionally,” she says.
In fact, she tells us that she’s only got about ten minutes off stage per act!
“It’s a lot of stage time, very vocally demanding – like nonstop singing,” she says.
Georgina reveals that she has a ritual before the show to ensure she is able to perform at the best of her ability every night.
“I usually will steam my voice – you inhale hot steam, which helps moisturise the vocal cords. Then I do a physical warm-up, incorporating lots of different exercises, strengthening in cardio and stretching to make sure my body is limber – and then vocal warm-up as well,” she says.
On days when she doesn’t have as much energy, she will blast “any kind of dance music”.
“At the minute I’m obsessed with Delta Goodrem’s Eurovision entry song!” she says with a laugh.
And of course, there’s a ritual continuing after which can, this time, wind down – that she’s been “trying to down pad” after the huge adrenaline rush of finishing the show.
“As I go home, I’ve been listening to a playlist I made of really chilled, low-key songs that help like bring me back down to earth,” she says.
As she’s now ticked off a major bucket list item playing Anya, Georgina confesses she has her eye on anything written by Stephen Sondheim.
“His writing is so fabulous. I would take any and every Sondheim show because he, the man, is a genius, so that is definitely a bucket list,” she says.
Stephen Sondheim is the writer behind the likes of Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods.
She’d also love to be in Ragtime – which she’s done before!
“It was written by the same people who wrote Anastasia. I loved that show so much that I want to revisit it!” she tells us.
