Interview with PRINNIE STEVENS

The Bodyguard musical is hitting stages across Australia as of today. AMNplify’s Pauli Dee spoke to Prinnie Stevens about being cast as Nicki Maron alongside Paulini in what’s tipped to be the musical of the DECADE!

How about we promote some of the people behind the scenes while we are here?

Its always amazing working with friends and even better when they’re stupidly talented!!!
Pics by Jessica Abraham Photography
Hair by Natalie Anne
Makeup by Milani Joy
Styling #styledbyPrinnie — with Emma Prott-buttel,Tan Tan, Alexander Dimla, ស៊ូរស់ធ្វេីចាបក្នុងកំពតព្រៃ ប្រសេីជាងធេីរាជសីក្នុងទ្រង់មាស and Nadyneda Florence Jean.

Pauli: Hi Prinnie. How’s your day going?

Prinnie: Hi! Yeah, really well. It’s a bit cold here in Melbourne, but apart from that, everything is great!

Well you know what they say; if you don’t like the weather in Melbourne, just wait half an hour!

(Laughs) I’ve heard that’s very true!

Hey the last time I saw you was in Thriller – The Musical, and now, how exciting, you’ve been cast in to The Bodyguard musical.

I know, how do you go from Michael Jackson to Whitney Houston?

How are you going to top these?

I don’t know. I guess it’s all down-hill from here! (Laughs)

Are you expecting The Bodyguard to be different to Thriller?

Oh yes, very different. In Thriller, all the songs were so different and I was dancing so much and doing a lot of different things. I’m actually really excited about The Bodyguard and the songs all being quite similar and the acting side of things, you know there wasn’t much acting at all in the Michael Jackson show, but I’m really excited about jumping into a great acting role. This is the role that there was a lot of excitement around in London and it won a lot of awards over there, so I’m really excited to be doing more ‘acting.’ There is singing and dancing in it, of course, but the acting part is something that I haven’t had a chance to really delve into in the prior shows that I’ve done. I’ve kind of touched on it, but not as much as I will in this show.

Have you started rehearsals yet?

We haven’t started rehearsals yet. I’m just itching to get in that studio with everyone! We’re all together just doing the promo at the moment, so we’re hanging out and we all get along really well, so it’s just a matter of time until we get in the studio and try out different scenes & songs, which will be exciting.

I’m presuming you’ve been singing Whitney songs all your life, do you have a favourite?

Yeah, I’ve sung so many Whitney songs in all my shows. I think the one I’m most excited about is “Saving all my love,” which is one of my numbers and is honestly one of my favourite songs that I played in one of my recent shows I did, “The Diva Series.”

Are you worried about playing the ‘Villain?’

Well actually, I met with the director and he asked what I thought of the character and I said I was excited about playing a villain and he said the character is actually quite different to the movie, in that you’re not playing a villain, you’re very happy with who you are and confident in the person you are and proud of your sister. The plot and the story are a little deeper in the musical, where the love affair between Frank, Rachel and the sister is more of a love triangle, so it goes a bit deeper and that’s just another layer of acting life for me. It’s not just the simple villain, there’s more layers to her and I’m really looking forward to playing her.

You’re working alongside the very talented Paulini. Have you worked with her before?

Well no, it’s funny, we were just talking about that, you know, we’re both singers and it’s not often that you’ll have two singers like her and I doing the same gig together, you kind of just book one or the other and we were just saying how exciting it is to sing together, we do “run to you” together and it’s just so much fun, singing with such an amazing singer and bouncing off each other and like I was saying, it’s rare that you get to sing alongside someone like that. I think people are going to be really blown away and I think it’s really exciting that they’ve cast two Aussies as well. In the past a lot of the time, they will bring imports into the show, but with this one, we’re all very proud to be representing Aussies in an amazing, amazing show.

Neighbours’ Kip Gamblin plays Frank Farmer, have you met him before?

No, we’ve never worked together before, but he’s so perfect for the role and I think all the ladies will be swooning over him! (Laughs) He’s sitting next to me, so I have to say nice things!

I know he looks the part, but can he actually sing?

He doesn’t have to sing in the show! I think he has one show where he’s not supposed to sing well, but I have a sneaking suspicion that he actually can sing well, but has to act as though he can’t sing well.

I suppose we’ll soon find out! Are you recording a soundtrack for the show?

I don’t know. I can’t tell you how many people have already asked me if we’re recording a soundtrack for it, but that would be extremely exciting, but that is to be confirmed.

I also wanted to ask you a bit about a charity organisation that you’re involved with, MMAD.
Can you tell us a bit about that?

Yean, I’ve been involved with MMAD for over ten years. It’s “Musicians Making A Difference,” which is music mentors like myself helping to change young people’s lives. We look after underprivileged people in Sydney and we have some workshops here in Melbourne and we’re really trying to get further across Australia and we use music, hip-hop, dance to try and change people’s lives. There’s an amazing day we’ve created called “MMAD for you” which is about awareness and telling kids that you’re mad for them because a lot of these young kids don’t have anyone to believe in them or to tell them that someone believes in their dreams and they can make it and that’s what it’s all about. I’m very proud to be an ambassador for them and I do lots and lots of stuff with them. They’re just starting to get great exposure now and support from people like channel ten and Vodafone have just got behind them and Universal Music working with them on the “MMAD for you day.” It’s exciting to see how far they’ve come in the last ten years. People are really wanting to get it out there and make a difference with our youth. When you get the platform that I get, I think you have to use it, otherwise it’s just a waste.

Is it hard to be a working parent in this industry?

Sometimes it is, but the benefits far outweigh everything else. I know for the two minutes that I get on stage that everyone else sees, my daughter sees the hours and hours that I put in to rehearsals and maybe some harsh lessons, but everything that she’s learnt along the way will make her a better adult and whatever she decides to do, it will definitely benefit her.

So what’s next after the Bodyguard? Have you got any plans?

I don’t know. This is really taking up my time at the moment, so I’m just enjoying it. I love musical theatre and I love the routine of musical theatre. I think after it, I’ll probably get back into my diva series and do some more recording. Because I do so many different thing, when I do musical theatre, then I need a fix of live music and then when I do live music, I need my musical theatre, so I’ll probably go for total opposite and then come running back to musical theatre again!

I’ve been wanting to tour more in the islands. I have a passion for the islands and obviously I’m from Tonga but I do a lot of stuff in the Solomon’s, New Zealand and all over, but I have a real passion for the islands and I feel like we forget them a lot and it’s so accessible and we are the big, influential country, so I’m really wanting to branch out and no-one’s really done it before. It might be a little selfish, but I just love the islands, so I just want to tour and explore that side of things because I think it’s just something that people have not explored enough and I’d love to be one of the first to do it.