Up Close with Carlos Tseng
A series of interviews led by Carlos Tseng with some of the most prominent figures in the world of theatre, arts & entertainment. The series offers an up close insight into the lives and work of our esteemed guests, often leading to surprising, poignant and humorous answers. Find out more by listening along!
Up Close with Carlos Tseng
Millie O'Connell: A Jellicle Conversation
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Ahead of her highly anticipated run at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Millie O'Connell sat down to discuss her role as Demeter in Drew McOnie's radical, gritty reimagining of Cats. As an artist known for her high-voltage presence on stage, Millie gives us an unfiltered look into what it really takes to strip away forty years of theatrical tradition, trading nostalgia for a grounded aesthetic that frames the Jellicle tribe as London’s strays and rebels. We hear her reflect on the delicate art of unearthing fragments of vulnerability within McOnie's rigorous and emotionally exposed choreography. Our conversation explores the physical and psychological realities of performing outdoors under an actual night sky, unpacking the energy exchange between actor and audience while navigating the unpredictable elements of an open-air amphitheatre.
In this brand new interview, Millie O'Connell offers an introspective look at a powerhouse career that has seen her move seamlessly from Anne Boleyn in SIX to Cookie in Come Fall in Love. We talk about how her affinity for portraying fierce, complex women in iconic shows like Rent and The Cher Show has shaped her artistic identity, as well as the personal resilience required to navigate a career in musical theatre. Indeed, we also delve into the profound importance of community, reflecting on positive structural shifts in the industry in recent years. It seems like the perfect time for Millie and Demeter to come together and audiences should come expecting Cats unlike they've ever seen before in the magical and jellicle setting of Regent's Park.
Cats runs at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre from 25 July - 19 September with a UK tour to follow.
Up close with humps. Celebrating heart. Entertainment and the human still. Millie O'Connell, thank you so much for joining us today.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much for having me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so um you and Drew McCaney worked together on Cake the Musical not too long ago. Um, how has it been being back in the rehearsal room together again?
SPEAKER_00Oh, it's fantastic. I mean, for all of us in this space, I think the creative space we have with him to watch him work and to work with him. It's really special to create something with him.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I feel like Drew really feels like the best person to take on this show and to give the show a new life. I'm so excited to see the Janica Bore number and to see McCavity as well, of course. How would you describe the choreography for the meter and how she moves in this version of the show?
SPEAKER_00Oh she's very physicalized. I think her internalized monologue, her internalized thoughts and feelings. As an audience member, you can really feel her, whether that's through, you know, an eccentric contraction or something that's very smooth and simple, you'll be able to feel her. And that carries through every single cat and every single character on stage. You can determine how they think and feel in a moment because of the way they're physicalizing, and then reacting to the music, reacting to other cats, building relationships from there. You really, really feel it through movement and through how our bodies are emitting that energy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I feel like um having this show play out in the Apenair in Regents Park is really genius as well. In what ways do you feel like the setting of Regents Park will lend itself to the telling of the story, too?
SPEAKER_00Regents Park is inherently magical, and there's something jellical about Regents Park in itself. Sitting in the theatre, no matter what season or what show is on, there's something in the air always when you sit in those seats, because the moon is right there. You have this, you know, the sun energy and the moon energy in one show. You can get the sun and the you know, in one, and by the end of the show, you're with the moon. So I feel inherently that's going to lend itself to something as jalical as cats, where we utilize that moon energy throughout the whole of the show. So being in that setting already, you are going to feel connected to the piece inherently because you are connected to our jalocal moon that we have in this universe. So it gives you that reality inside something that's so fantasy. It becomes it's real, it becomes so real.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. I mean, I'm really intrigued as well by the notion of these characters being portrayed as the strays and rebels of London as well. Um, does that sort of like resonate with you more than the traditional fantasy cats and previous like incarnations of the show?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think because of like it being the reimagining of Andrew Lloyd's, Andrew Lloyd Webber's um beloved cats, it brings magic and mischief. And it's those two things together that I think creates this new wave while simultaneously respecting every cat that has done this, every production that has ever done this, and honouring the original. It's like the perfect merge.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. I mean, Angelo Weber's music for this show, there is something really thrilling about it. There's a real excitement, you know, underscore there. Um coming to the production now, um, was there anything that surprised you about the material um going into it, despite how well loved and well known it is?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the way that the poetry re prevails in the music is beautiful. If you look at the original poems that this is based on, there is so much inside it, so much that is jellical, the way that the sentence structure is formed from the way that the music accompanies the kind of poetry within it. Even the things that we're saying, it's it's ritualistic, it's chanting. There are things that are derived in such a word that we use a lot, is like that we are one, we are a tribe and we're together, we've we come together and we we release that kind of animalistic side. That's also with the words that we're saying, the words that we're chanting, the repetition, it then even me now speaking about it, you then physicalise that. So when you bring it out, it's from somewhere deep. And that's one thing that I think even sitting with my score with Alex Parker and the rest of the company and going through that, it's really ritualistic. It's chanting at some points in a very um grounded way. What is a jellical? What is it to be jellical? Is is something that really came apparent for us when we really sat with text, I think.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure. I forgot Alex Parker was going to be MD for the show, and he's got the most infectious energy and enthusiasm for musical theatre. Um how has it been, you know, going into rehearsals with him as well?
SPEAKER_00Amazing. We got we were lucky enough to get our first full week with Alex. To be in a room with him, I think anyone that's worked with him or been in a space with him can say that his his passion and his drive and his um focus with a room, not only the text, but with the room, it makes us sitting with the text and learning it. We are we are all there together because of his energy. And he he's he's he referred a lot to the poems, a lot to the original uh work and really pulled it out of us. So we're really chewing the words with him, and then you know, even through to technique and the way that we we want to sound, he is so precise, yet we have so much freedom within that precision. Like he's amazing to be in a room with. I love being in a room with him.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he's absolutely incredible. Um, I feel like um over the last few years, Katz has earned a bit of a bad reputation, especially since the film came out. Um, what would you sort of say to people who are a bit skeptical about the show's return?
SPEAKER_00Oh I think Drew McConey's work really showcases like the skills and the individuality and the expression of darts. This is something that is so beyond us here in the physical, I think. So if you want to go there, if you want to access that, if you want to go on that journey, still with kind of the beloved cats, then this journey and this energy will take you to that place, to that place that you think when you listen to the score, oh, imagine this being here, imagine this being here. Like we have physicalized it and we have really brought that out. And that's just a testament, obviously, to Drew. Again, it's opinion-based, but it is a testament to him. He he is he is so incredible honouring who has been, you know, the past cats, the original cast, everyone. It's just magic.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, it sounds really magical, and I think cats really is a very magical show. I mean, it had such a long run, you know, that original production. And um, all around the world, you know, there's such a love for this show, and I think there is a real excitement about it coming back. Um, why do you think it has like resonated with so many people, you know, this story about cats?
SPEAKER_00I think definitely there's an aspect of London there, you know, from Houston Station to Victoria Grove. That is we we know Victoria Grove, we know Houston Station. There is something so knowing about this, that feeling when it's like the sun's gone down and you're in London and you're walking those streets of London and you might be going to Victoria Grove or you're going to Houston Station. There's that feeling sometimes, whether that's coming home from work, a meeting, a night out, being with your friends, and you're walking the streets of London and you're like, hmm, there's this feeling, you're like, no one's around. But I'm in the but I'm in the greatest city, you know, one of the greatest cities in the world. Yet there's something that's just that feeling, that that London feeling. So I think that's a big thing because I I think everyone that's been to London has has that feeling, and everyone that hasn't been to London can feel that feeling through through art, through film, through music, through movies. So that brings in the whole aspect of what is it to be angelical again. It's what is that to you? You know, it's it's the audience member sat in the audience going, Go, I'm such a bomb ballerina, go, I'm such an admetus, aren't I? And you're going, hang on a second, but that they're cats. And it's like that's the whole point. You can see yourself, so then becomes relative. But yeah, I I for me, I definitely think that's something in the aspect of it being in London because sometimes I forget, and the whole script and the whole score is, you know, reference it a lot, and that's got the magic of London as well, inside it.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, I totally agree. I think it's interesting as well. I feel like um Demeter has been described as being quite an anxious cat, you know, she's quite self-conscious in a way. Um, was there much you could see within yourself when reading the part?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I remember the first conversation we had with Drew, and he was he very much was like, Demeter's very much the dark side of the moon. Like, she knows. She's always throughout the whole show, she's like gently warning, and she's very secure in that. She's very secure in knowing what her body's feeling, but because of this kind of dark side of the moon element, it then becomes this way around. This is the side that everyone sees, this is the side everyone knows that the moon that we see in the sky. Yeah, the dark side of the moon, the one with all the craters in, taking all the blows, protecting the earth. That's where she really resides in. But she's fully knowing, and there's a part of me also that that thinks that there's a level of indulgment there. There is a level of indulgment in the fact that this cycle that she's in, the cycle that she's in every time the jellical ball, every time this one time a year happens, she gets that fix of this of this place that she goes to, and there is definitely some level of indulgment in it in a you know, slightly toxic way, even. But her journey is very present, she's very in the present.
SPEAKER_01Quite cat-like as well, I suppose.
SPEAKER_00Cats are so present, like they're thinking about what they're doing right now. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, I remember interviewing Rachel Wooding a few years ago, and I think everyone's super excited to see what she's going to do with memory, um, without giving away too much, and what kind of audiences expect from that big number?
SPEAKER_00There is something so raw about her when she's on stage, when she is in that present moment, there is something so actually so vulnerable and divine feminine. Like she is a divine feminine, and she taps into that completely. It's something that's held yet surrender, it's surrender. For me, if I was the audience member, for me as the audience member, you know, hearing her and watching her and feeling her, it's completely it's raw, and I think as well, once you're in Regents Park hearing a song like that, it's just goosebumps, it's one of those goosebumps moments.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's like the ultimate 11 o'clock number, and it's such a contrast to the rest of the songs, which are so sort of like dance-heavy and ensemble-led.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's very raw, and she's I don't want to so hard because I want to say so much, but I out of respect and the hour, you know, the tribe element, that's all I'll say about memory because you you have to see it, you have to see it to understand. Like, my words will not suffice, like they will not.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. I suppose um, I wanted to ask, you know, when you're doing a very dance-heavy show like Cats, um, how do you go about getting ready to do an HA week?
SPEAKER_00So we do class every morning, every morning at 10 a.m. we do obviously our warm-up, and then we do company class, so that will be ballet class, contemporary, like uh fusion, and we do that for about an hour, and then at the end of class, we go straight into our meditation. So we do a standing meditation, which takes us on our journey, personal journey through when we meditate, takes us into our cats, which then starts off our um meeting like who we are in the morning, and that's through our meditation. So we're still in that kind of meditative point and meditating through that, and then we come back to our we come out of the meditation, we come back to our bodies, we come back into our present moment out of that present moment, and then more recently, we actually haven't come out of that state, we've gone straight into the run of the jellical ball. So we go straight from warm-up to class to our animalism, then straight into the run of the jellical ball. Yeah, so that's our morning, that's our morning kind of setup at the moment, which is really, really great. We love we love class, and we've got amazing people in the room with us to do it, it's really good for our bodies.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, I can imagine. One of my favourite musicals last year was Come Fall in Love, which is so different to cats.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so oh my gosh, it was really, really gorgeous.
SPEAKER_01Um, yeah, I was like just wondering, um, going from that project to this, you know, how do you sort of decide go about deciding, you know, what projects you want to go and pursue?
SPEAKER_00I think well, come fall in love. We finished our run of Come Fall in Love, and I think in about a matter of like two or three weeks, this got announced it was coming to the park. And I thought, ooh, McConey, Regents Park, and Cat's Revival, that's like a three for three. That's like a triple, like you can't with my niche and where I love to pour and how I love to create. This kind of alignment was wild. And I remember that coming through and stopping for a moment and being like, Imagine actually creating with him original work, with the trust of like obviously Andrew Lloyd Webber trusting us with these characters. Imagine that was my first moment, and then a couple months later we did the full edition process, and from the first, from the first time moving in McConey flow, if you will, I was like, okay, you know, this feels home and it feels hard and it's good. I love I love working hard and it felt hard, and that's why I wanted to do it as well, because to create but also be stretched and pushed and molded and bent backwards, and yeah, I'm part of a company. Love being part of a company.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. I mean, were you fairly familiar with cats before coming into the show at all? Was there much you had to sort of clean away from your mind as well before going in?
SPEAKER_00No, I really only knew the song McCavity because when I was younger, I was like, oh imagine singing McCavity, and now I'm singing McCavity, so it's kind of iconic, really. But no, I didn't have to do a lot of sweeping, I didn't have to do like cats is cats. Pepsi is Pepsi, cats is cats, like that's such a neast reference, Brittany Spears. Um, cats is cats, and I feel that the respect is already there, but I didn't have to do like any unwinding. I went I went into it really, really like open book, which was really cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that is, I think, that's probably helpful as well, actually.
SPEAKER_00I would say, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, I guess you know, coming back to come fall in love. I mean, it was such a stunning production. Um, do you sort of see it having a future life beyond Manchester?
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes. I think I first of all I love the story, but I feel just the aspect of this specific story is is is is so prevalent. Like I know so many people with similar stories. The the representation, the representation of South Asians. I think I do feel there is growth there, but it's I still personally think it's very limited. So I feel it was beautiful to see a love story and for it, yes, to be about culture and yes to be about the main storyline about two cultures coming together. However, the main main thing above that was actually love. The top of that was all about love. You know, read the text and don't read any of the names. It's a love story, and it wasn't about necessarily like trauma or like South Asian trauma or like a stereotype. Yes, there was absolute needed highlights of the experience of being, you know, a young South Asian woman, the amazing Jenna did such a good job at articulating that with such a with such grace, but then it not being about the trauma, it was actually a love story. And I think that's really healthy to see, and I think it's good on on stage to see, and for minority communities and POC communities, like that's always good. That the storyline, you know, is about love. That was literally the main thing. It was it was about love and finding yourself and navigating traveling countries with this boy you've just met. So yeah, I think it's really I I can't wait to see what it does. I can't wait. I I love it, I love it so much, it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it really was stunning. Um, I mean, were you fairly familiar with DDLJ before going in? I mean, there was such a large South Asian audience for it. Um, and was there much you know pressure performing in front of an audience who were so familiar with that original film?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think there's elements of exactly what you said. There's this kind of thing going, oh my god, like this is such a treasured, iconic family favorite of so many people in this audience. Yet I had nothing but just to honor it. I think to step, to step inside a family's every movie that they watch on a specific holiday or the family movie that they all get together and they watch. I I couldn't wait to do it. I couldn't wait to be like part of a company and be with Jenna and and be her support through that. I think it was I I wanted to do it and I wanted to be that kind of vessel as this trope of women that we see so much, you know. I wanted to be that educational vessel to make sure that there is, you know, the good and the bad. I I want to I want to be that, especially in something like a South Asian show. I want to be used as a vessel to highlight the good and the bad in people in the West, or white people, or non-POC. There's there's lots of brackets, and yeah, it was really, really good. And I'm I'm glad and I wanted to do that. I wanted to take up that that small space of my character had inside the bigger scheme to to channel that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, definitely. I mean, you've been in such a string of hit shows, you know, 42nd Street, Be More Chill, Hair, and of course sex. Um, do you get recognized much when you're out and about on the streets?
SPEAKER_00Not out and about on the streets, it's it's specifically if we're in like musical theatre spaces, but that's because it's my industry. So no, I'm I'm chilling, I do my thing. But if we're in like a very specific industry space and I'm with my friends, so maybe that's a little bit different. But no, it's we're chilling, it's lovely. And if if ever I do if ever there is anything like most random thing, I was out in Portugal surfing with my best friend, and I went to this like cool, like DJ kind of open skate park place, and a girl ran up to me with her dad's like, Oh my god, I loved you in six. Can we get a photo? I was in the middle of Portugal, so it's more those random things than like walking in town, it's more like very specific places, it's so random, but I love it, it's really cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, do you ever get like overwhelmed at stage doors? You have like loads of people you know coming up to you then as well.
SPEAKER_00I mean, no, I think it's it's very interesting because it's very um it's grounding. It's like you you appreciate what I just did for two hours. Thank you. You you know, someone if someone always think if if someone else is loving my job as much as I love my job, then you know we're doing something right. Or if one person leaves the theatre feeling like something has shifted, even a little, something little has shifted, then I'm doing my job. And those shifts, you can physically see them at stage door, whether that's someone elated or someone like emotional or someone being like, I just needed this today. You physically we physically feel the shift, and everyone's kind, everyone has great respect of boundaries, everyone's gentle, and that's all that shifts do. And shifts shifts can you know physicalizes different things. Like I said, you could be bawling your eyes out because something made you really sad, or then you could be laughing the next minute because something made you really happy. So, yeah, it's it's good. I think it's always good to have mini shifts when you're watching a show.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, it's been a number of years since you left Six, but Six is still there at the vaudeville, going very strong. Um, have you been back to see the show at all? And you know, would you ever be turned back?
SPEAKER_00I would love to. I would literally love to go see it. I haven't seen it in ages because obviously we filmed the movie and Then I've been working. But yeah, I would love to. There's so many, there's like I don't know, it's like seven or eight casts around the world or nine casts around the world. So there's a lot of casts now. So I actually don't know who's where, but I would love to go and see something if I ever get a chance.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, I feel like the theatre community is so tight-knit. Everyone sort of knows each other in some way. Um, is that something you sort of enjoy? And is there anything you would change about the industry too?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's just like, yeah, I mean, no, not really. I think it's just work, it's my job, but yeah, I've obviously met all my best friends on my on my work. It's like, no, I wouldn't change it. I'd I think everyone's yeah, chilling.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's definitely um a great place to be. I guess um, if you had to give like one piece of advice to like an aspiring young actor, what would you say?
SPEAKER_00Be yourself, like don't. I know it's hard to when you're finding yourself to understand what sticks, yes, but to change like your core or like your values, your morals, your sense of reality, like what you like, your hobbies, even I'll push it to that. Like find those and have those and be sure that that is actually what makes you who you are. And it's so tricky to obviously say that be who you are. We always hear that, we always hear be who you are, don't change for anyone. Like, we hear that, like, actually quite consistently, but to apply it and to actually be active about it, it's I feel it can be hard, of course it can be, because you've got all these people opinions, and all these people's opinions, probably of in a position of power as well, whilst you're trying to figure out your boundaries and how how you keep your boundaries respected. Am I allowed to say no? I'm telling you, you're allowed to say no, you're allowed to create space, you're allowed five minutes to yourself, you're allowed to say, Hey, I'm really uncomfortable with that. Do you mind if we relook over that together because I don't feel safe? Like, yeah, so that's what I mean by being yourself is you know, checking in with yourself and boundaries and everything. It's important.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's really important. It's been so lovely talking to you. I guess just as the last question, what would you say is the best thing about being Mili Ocardo?
SPEAKER_00Hmm the energy I give out daily with work with friends, but I'm gonna specify it for this space for being my my job, which I love so much. That something that I as Millie adore so much, genuinely love so much and cherish as well, that that energy, when I'm giving it out on stage or here with you in a rehearsal room, that it then becomes universal, that then I get to meet people at stage door, that then I get to watch the audience and someone else is feeling better from five seconds of whatever number that just came on. I think this kind of cycle aspect of it is what I'm trying to say. Maybe universal is a good word, but I think cycle is the better word, this feeling of this energy. The best thing about that or being me is that it's it's a cycle. So whatever you're feeling, sat in the audience, whatever you're feeling at stage door, whatever you're feeling in rehearsal room, whatever my friends or my family are feeling, like that's a cycle. I feel it back because that's given back to me from you, from me giving it to you. It's this cycle, it's this churning of energy off the top of my head. Like that is one of the best things because it's then infinite, and you just keep going. If you're present with it, it can be forever, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that sounds very special. Um, Melia Connell has been so lovely talking to you today. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much. That was so nice.