Micky Jo (Theatre Critic and Content Creator) (5:47)
So we're going to begin with the sweetest version of this, which is an established real life couple playing two individuals on stage who fall in love over the course of the show. And I should point out one more disclaimer when putting this list together, I deliberately excluded couples who got together while playing these characters or who met while playing these characters, only because it leads us into slightly murkier waters as well as widening the focus to just so many more examples. Because it's not uncommon whatsoever for actors to meet and begin dating and fall in love during the run of a show. You know, showmances happen, but occasionally, and the more of them you investigate, the more you stumble across this. You know, romantic as it is is not everyone is necessarily single at the commencement of these relationships. Sometimes they're married. Not to each other, I mean, but to other people. And listen, love finds a way. But I think what's more interesting as well as a little bit more public is when people are in established relationships prior to beginning a contract together, prior to going into rehearsals, prior to first stepping afoot on the stage. So you may have many examples that you want to share in the comments down below and please do. But there are a handful of, you know, beautiful Broadway and West End love stories that I'm not necessarily feeling featuring if they got together during the run of a show. That being said, here are a few examples of characters who just earnestly fall in love. And it was surprisingly difficult to come up with this list because once I had separated out this sort of indifferent or enemies to lovers kind of idea that we're going to talk about next, so many examples felt more appropriate for that category. There are, I think, comparatively fewer couples who just sort of fall for each other. Love at first sight, Marius and Cosette style. And very few examples where real life couples have played these roles. Often they're very, very young. So, you know, that's harder to encounter people who would already be in established relationships before playing those roles. I mean, Marius and Cosette are quite often cast with, like, new graduate performers. So that would take a little bit of doing and a lot of luck to be cast together at that stage of your career. You could say, like an Anthony and Joanna in Sweeney Todd. I do think Carousel. Julie Jord. Oh, my gosh. Billy Bigelow. That's the one. Why did I want to say Benjamin Barker? I'm still stuck in Sweeney Todd. That's what happened there. So some roles do exist, some genuine love stories are still being told, but to find those portrayed by a real life couple can be a little bit challenging. Here are some of the examples I could find, starting with one of the most recent, which is Ivan Oblizada and Reeve Carney as Eurydice and Orpheus in Hadestown. And I know what you're about to say. They did get together during the initial run of the show at the National Theatre. However, they went on to do several separate runs, including Broadway Transfer, including the return to London of the original Broadway stars as an established couple. I believe they even got engaged when they were doing Hadestown at the Lyric Theatre in London. They got married very recently in a wedding that looked absolutely fantastic. And now they're sharing the stage once more in Cabaret, which we will talk about, but not in this category. Now, for now, we have to talk about their relationship as Orpheus and Eurydice. And to my knowledge, there have been very few examples of real life couples playing these roles. I think maybe really recently on the US tour, a cover got to go on and that meant that it was a couple playing Orpheus and Eurydice. But it's something I would almost like to see a little bit more of because, you know, it's such a raw emotional intensity between these characters. I got to see Eva and Reeve do the show together three times in each of the three separate runs that I mentioned so very much over the course of their relationship. And the incredibly meaningful connection that they managed to forge as these characters definitely adds something special to the show. And it becomes this sort of wider thing that you're aware of, which can happen sometimes in casting. You know, on the one hand, we want to completely immerse ourselves and suspend all disbelief and prior understanding of who these actors are. But occasionally something really overlaps with who a person is outside of the building. And there can even be a line or another creative choice that nods to that deliberately in order to sort of wink at the audience. Because we're all thinking it, so we may as well make reference to it. And I do think that seeing Eva and Reeve do that, knowing that they are a couple in real life, just adds to the emotional intensity of the whole thing, especially in the later sections of the show. It's also almost like it gives them a little bit of an advantage because, you know, you don't have to work quite as hard to get people to buy into the idea of love. I'm curious though, as an actor, if you just get more and more comfortable with someone, whether you have to work harder to illustrate the idea of newly falling in love and that early passion years into your relationship, if it's, you know, something you have to not take for granted, but remember to try and like, relight a fire every night, or they just love each other so deeply and so desperately that it comes incredibly naturally, which would not surprise me. Here's another example from one of my favorite West End theatre couples, Michael Gibson and Caroline Sheen. They have both played a handful of fantastic roles in the West End. But when theaters were readying to reopen and productions were being staged outdoors and with social distancing measures, the Watermill Theatre in Newbury did an open air production of the musical Camelot. Now, I do not know Camelot well, but they played Arthur and Guinevere. And I know that a love triangle manifests. But at the beginning of the show, I believe that this commences as something of a love story between Arthur and Guinevere, that for a time at least, it is about these two characters falling in love with each other. And to go to that production knowing that you are seeing a real life husband and wife playing those scenes, I think is very special and very romantic. From what I recall as well, I think a factor at the time was the social distancing of it all. And the fact that they shared a household, the fact that they were a real life couple was actually instrumental in their being able to play these roles in an open air production during the time of various theatrical restrictions. So, you know, sometimes in very specific circumstances, it isn't just a novelty to have a real couple on stage. Sometimes it is legally essential. Finally, a couple who have shared the stage on many occasions, often as entirely disconnected, non romantic characters, but at least once characters who Have a beautiful love story. I am talking about West End legends Sally Ann Triplett and Gary Milner in Cabaret. Now, they've done so many shows together. I've seen them in the same production on multiple occasions. They played Donna and Sam in Mamma Mia. Which is a show that we are going to talk about in this conversation. Let me tell you, we're going to circle right back to that one. But when I saw a production of Cabaret at the Lido Theatre in Paris and got to see them as a real life married couple playing Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz, there was something so lovely about it. And I think that is a lovely pair of roles for a married couple to play on stage. There is an entire song about marriage as Fraulein Schneider is gently encouraged to consider the notion later in life, something that she had perhaps begun to believe would never be possible for herself in the face of the time period during which the show is set and the political undercurrent happening in the background. It is just a really beautiful coming together of two kindred souls who come to care quite deeply for each other, who become these devoted companions sadly pulled apart by shifting tectonic plates within society. But it definitely adds a special something to the performance. At the same time, a lot of audience members very possibly would have gone to see that production and not realize that this was a real life couple. So sometimes it's less of a huge feature of the marketing and more of a little Easter egg for those that know, it's a little like if, you know, you know, moment.
