Ashley Oliver wasn’t meant to be playing the female lead in Disney’s Beauty And The Beast, the hi-tech stage version of the much loved full-length cartoon taken, in true Disney tradition, from an already existing fairytale. Having left drama school in 2003, and long devoted to musical theatre since she first danced professionally on Glasgow Pavilion’s stage aged a precocious 10, Eaglesham-raised Oliver had never played a lead role outside of college beyond a vocalist in the national tour of the song and dance compendium, Mad About The Musicals.
Disney’s producers deemed Oliver to be too inexperienced, and initially refused to even see her for an audition. With determination and pluck, the 25-year-old actress persisted, forcing her agent to twist the Beauty And The Beast producers’ arms until they gave in.
At her first audition, Oliver was asked if she’d consider being understudy to whoever was playing the show’s captive heroine, Belle. By the time she’d been put through her paces at what felt like umpteen more auditions, getting a little higher up the ladder at each one, such a question was rendered academic when Oliver was finally offered the actual lead role.
“It’s my first lead job,” says the little princess, who will have been on tour with Disney’s Beauty And The Beast for six months by the time it reaches Edinburgh Playhouse next week, “My agent pleaded and pleaded, because this was something I really wanted, and I wasn’t going to take no for an answer.”
Such determination is reflected in Oliver’s approach to Belle, a role she sees as atypical to Disney’s more traditional role-call of princesses in towers.
“She’s quite stubborn,” Oliver observes. “She has her moments of being girly, but in the main she’s really sparky and feisty. A classic Disney character,” she adds, showing loyalty to a brand that’s given her unprecedented access to such an opportunity.
Beauty And The Beast isn’t the first time Oliver has worked with Disney. After leaving Mountview drama school, she toured America by sea on Disney’s Cruise Line franchise, appearing in a mobile stage version of Hercules.
“It was quite a strict set-up in some ways,” Oliver says with hindsight, “but it was a great grounding when you’re just starting out.”
Despite performing from such a young age, Oliver insists that her parents weren’t pushy, but were “supportive. I was quite a shy kid, but even then I suppose I must’ve been always dancing round the house, and they saw that there were auditions for kids and it all just took off from there. At that age the only thing that mattered was how much I enjoyed it, but I knew that was what I wanted to do. It’s funny, because I still see some of the people I worked with when I was a child at auditions, and we’re going after the same parts.”
Time at the Dance School Of Scotland honed Oliver’s craft before she won a scholarship to Mountview. Where other students might have had their eyes on Hollywood, for Oliver it was strictly musical theatre that appealed.
“I have dabbled in TV,” she says, “but I’ve never got the same thrill as I get when I’m onstage. It’s something about doing it live. It’d be nice to do a Shakespeare or a straight play, but if I moved into TV, apart from anything else I wouldn’t be able to sing.”
As with other jobbing actors, Oliver admits to having had her fair share of waitressing and bar jobs. There’s been times too when, during periods out of work, her Dad has pleaded with his daughter to return to the family bosom. Oliver, though, has stuck to her guns.
“There’s never been anything else I’ve wanted to do,” she says. “Even if I couldn’t act I’d want to be a make-up artist or something like that. There was always an art school versus drama school sort of thing going on when I was younger, but the acting was always going to win out.”
For a young actress as ambitious as Oliver, working on such a high-profile recreation of what is euphemistically and undoubtedly contractually referred to by all involved as an ‘animated feature’ looks from an outsider’s point of view to be an odd experience. Disney’s Beauty And The Beast, after all, is a show whose stage pictures are effectively shifted in and out via computer, and such technical precision leaves nothing to chance.
For flesh and blood actors to add personality to an obviously well-drawn show that’s nevertheless set down a very strict set of parameters, isn’t easy. Oliver maintains, however, that her acting muscles are being fully flexed.
“I kept a tight rein on things in rehearsals,” says Oliver, “because you’ve only got three weeks, and you’re learning lines as you go. Now we’ve been on tour for six months and we’re confident in what we’re doing, you can afford to loosen up a bit in terms of injecting personality into things. Basically, though, I get to do what I love, and sometimes as with any job I’m maybe not as focussed as I should be and have to have a word with myself to remind me how lucky I am to be here.”
In terms of inspiration, while training, Oliver looked up to west end actress Joanna Riding, while Ruthie Henshall’s singing voice was also something to aspire to. These days, though, Oliver’s big favourite is Laura Michelle Kelly, who herself played Belle on the west end aged 19 before going onto greater success in Mary Poppins. While Kelly is only a couple of years older, Oliver knows she has a lot of catching up to do. In the meantime, she’s giving Beauty And The Beast her all.
Oliver’s idea role is Glinda, one of the witches in the post Wizard of Oz musical, Wicked. This is a show Oliver keeps a particular eye on, one suspects, because her predecessor as Belle, Katie Rowley Jones, went on to appear in its original west end cast. Then again, for all she embraces Belle’s feistiness, Oliver would clearly relish a stab at a more traditional female role.
“She’s quirky,” Oliver says of Glinda. “Cute and quirky. Funny too. That’s my kind of role.”
Beauty And The Beast, Edinburgh Playhouse, July 17-28
www.edinburgh-playhouse.com
The Herald, July 10th 2007
ends
Disney’s producers deemed Oliver to be too inexperienced, and initially refused to even see her for an audition. With determination and pluck, the 25-year-old actress persisted, forcing her agent to twist the Beauty And The Beast producers’ arms until they gave in.
At her first audition, Oliver was asked if she’d consider being understudy to whoever was playing the show’s captive heroine, Belle. By the time she’d been put through her paces at what felt like umpteen more auditions, getting a little higher up the ladder at each one, such a question was rendered academic when Oliver was finally offered the actual lead role.
“It’s my first lead job,” says the little princess, who will have been on tour with Disney’s Beauty And The Beast for six months by the time it reaches Edinburgh Playhouse next week, “My agent pleaded and pleaded, because this was something I really wanted, and I wasn’t going to take no for an answer.”
Such determination is reflected in Oliver’s approach to Belle, a role she sees as atypical to Disney’s more traditional role-call of princesses in towers.
“She’s quite stubborn,” Oliver observes. “She has her moments of being girly, but in the main she’s really sparky and feisty. A classic Disney character,” she adds, showing loyalty to a brand that’s given her unprecedented access to such an opportunity.
Beauty And The Beast isn’t the first time Oliver has worked with Disney. After leaving Mountview drama school, she toured America by sea on Disney’s Cruise Line franchise, appearing in a mobile stage version of Hercules.
“It was quite a strict set-up in some ways,” Oliver says with hindsight, “but it was a great grounding when you’re just starting out.”
Despite performing from such a young age, Oliver insists that her parents weren’t pushy, but were “supportive. I was quite a shy kid, but even then I suppose I must’ve been always dancing round the house, and they saw that there were auditions for kids and it all just took off from there. At that age the only thing that mattered was how much I enjoyed it, but I knew that was what I wanted to do. It’s funny, because I still see some of the people I worked with when I was a child at auditions, and we’re going after the same parts.”
Time at the Dance School Of Scotland honed Oliver’s craft before she won a scholarship to Mountview. Where other students might have had their eyes on Hollywood, for Oliver it was strictly musical theatre that appealed.
“I have dabbled in TV,” she says, “but I’ve never got the same thrill as I get when I’m onstage. It’s something about doing it live. It’d be nice to do a Shakespeare or a straight play, but if I moved into TV, apart from anything else I wouldn’t be able to sing.”
As with other jobbing actors, Oliver admits to having had her fair share of waitressing and bar jobs. There’s been times too when, during periods out of work, her Dad has pleaded with his daughter to return to the family bosom. Oliver, though, has stuck to her guns.
“There’s never been anything else I’ve wanted to do,” she says. “Even if I couldn’t act I’d want to be a make-up artist or something like that. There was always an art school versus drama school sort of thing going on when I was younger, but the acting was always going to win out.”
For a young actress as ambitious as Oliver, working on such a high-profile recreation of what is euphemistically and undoubtedly contractually referred to by all involved as an ‘animated feature’ looks from an outsider’s point of view to be an odd experience. Disney’s Beauty And The Beast, after all, is a show whose stage pictures are effectively shifted in and out via computer, and such technical precision leaves nothing to chance.
For flesh and blood actors to add personality to an obviously well-drawn show that’s nevertheless set down a very strict set of parameters, isn’t easy. Oliver maintains, however, that her acting muscles are being fully flexed.
“I kept a tight rein on things in rehearsals,” says Oliver, “because you’ve only got three weeks, and you’re learning lines as you go. Now we’ve been on tour for six months and we’re confident in what we’re doing, you can afford to loosen up a bit in terms of injecting personality into things. Basically, though, I get to do what I love, and sometimes as with any job I’m maybe not as focussed as I should be and have to have a word with myself to remind me how lucky I am to be here.”
In terms of inspiration, while training, Oliver looked up to west end actress Joanna Riding, while Ruthie Henshall’s singing voice was also something to aspire to. These days, though, Oliver’s big favourite is Laura Michelle Kelly, who herself played Belle on the west end aged 19 before going onto greater success in Mary Poppins. While Kelly is only a couple of years older, Oliver knows she has a lot of catching up to do. In the meantime, she’s giving Beauty And The Beast her all.
Oliver’s idea role is Glinda, one of the witches in the post Wizard of Oz musical, Wicked. This is a show Oliver keeps a particular eye on, one suspects, because her predecessor as Belle, Katie Rowley Jones, went on to appear in its original west end cast. Then again, for all she embraces Belle’s feistiness, Oliver would clearly relish a stab at a more traditional female role.
“She’s quirky,” Oliver says of Glinda. “Cute and quirky. Funny too. That’s my kind of role.”
Beauty And The Beast, Edinburgh Playhouse, July 17-28
www.edinburgh-playhouse.com
The Herald, July 10th 2007
ends
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