The performer who sang Hatikvah to get a West End show
Instead of hiding her faith, actress Emma Kingston chose Israel's national anthem to land her dream role
Brigit Grant is the Jewish News Supplements Editor
There will always be dads dipping into Minecraft and mums testing their mashup moves in TikToks, but parents don’t always share their children’s passions. It’s a bonus when you do, as every football-loving father of a future Lioness will tell you, and my own daughter’s obsession with musical theatre is not just shared, it’s inherited.
My late mother and grandmother even sang show tunes as they made soup and passed that lyrical ladle to me, then my daughter, who sings before bed, dreams about the stage and last month went to Musical Con, the West End’s first musical theatre fan convention at Excel. As expected, she loved all 48 hours of meeting the performers and watching show highlights, but I didn’t expect her to return home crying.
Those tears were for Emma Kingston, currently starring in The Band’s Visit, who, while hosting a masterclass at Musical Con, revealed to the sizeable crowd that she was Jewish – after an Israeli among them asked a question. “Emma told them she loved Israel,” said my daughter. “Only performers in New York do that. I’ve finally found someone I can look up to in the world I love, who is proud to be Jewish.”
At 15, Madison has realised that performers in the West End and elsewhere rarely identify with their religion publicly. Not that they have to, but she was thrilled to see that Emma Kingston is out and proud on Instagram and has ‘I’m an Actress. I live in London.I am Jewish’ on her website. Instead of fearing discovery, the actress who has been Éponine in Les Misérables and wowed as the title role in Evita on world tour has made a virtue of her heritage, in defiance of lurking prejudice. That she sang Hatikvah as her audition song for The Band’s Visit says it all, though even she had a moment of doubt.
“They wanted a song in the style of the show and nothing sounds like it,” she says of David Yazbek’s musical about an Egyptian police orchestra stranded in the Negev, now showing at The Donmar Warehouse. “Outside of our Jewish world, talking about Israel can sometimes be particularly divisive, so I was taking a risk with the national anthem. But the team was so open and responsive. It felt like a safe space to do it.”
And Hatikvah was a hit. Emma not only got a part, but also gets to understudy Dina, her dream lead role .“Miri Mesika is phenomenal in the part, but she is one of Israel’s most established performers and has engagements throughout the show’s run,” says Emma, who performs in her absence.
“I get to tell the story in those shows, and the audience will see my interpretation of the role, which is really cool.” With ten Israelis and two former Hasmonean and Yavneh pupils also in the cast, Emma, who attended Immanuel College, has found herself in like-minded company. “We’re a very liberal, non-religious bunch, but I haven’t been in a room with this many Jews since school,” she says. “My worlds have collided and I’m in a cast of people that are literally like me.”
At Immanuel, Emma says few shared her love of performance and she doesn’t remember anyone else collecting theatre programmes. “I was the child who put on plays with teddy bears in the living room and after my Year 6 play at Rosh Pinah, the other mums told my mum I should have singing lessons. My mum was like, is that even a thing?” Aside from a bit of amateur dramatics, Emma’s parents were strangers to showbiz, but willing to hunt out drama school shows including one by her alma mater Mountview, at which Emma , then 14, declared that she would not be going to university.
“My mum told my singing teacher I was driving her nuts because I wanted to join the circus, but my teacher thought I’d be okay. This made my parents feel better because I wasn’t faltering. There was nothing else I was going to do but act and sing.”
Agreeing to take A-levels was her only concession, but by then she had an agent and a place at Mountview. Of course, most drama graduates start waiting tables after their final showcase, which is a warning to anyone who isn’t Emma, who went straight into a Grease UK tour.
“The first five years of my career was bam, bam, without a break, which was amazing, but then I decided to steer my career towards leading roles I aspired to play.” Éponine in Les Mis? Tick, in 2015. “Even after 30 years the team still make a newcomer feel important,” chimes Emma. “I got to rehearse with the original co-directors John Caird and Trevor Nunn as well as the composer, Claude-Michel Schönberg. Unfortunately, my first show was on a Friday night, and my parents who aren’t religious, still don’t go out. So, I didn’t have anyone in the audience for this major milestone and after the show went back to my flat and burst into tears.” But there was no stopping the family getting to see her opening night in South Africa as Evita. Her mother, Lisette, is Argentine, so was first in the stalls in Johannesburg.
“Yes, everyone flew to South Africa and my parents pretty much took a gap year following the world tour. When we opened in Singapore, all mum’s siblings came, including her brother who lives in New York and my grandma, who was 80 at the time, flew to Singapore for four days.”
At this point in the conversation my daughter, who was listening, joined our chat, even more full of longing to be Emma. “When I get stopped in the street after a performance, as I did yesterday and someone says, ‘I’ve had a really bad day and this show really made me smile,’ it’s so nice. You realise how lucky we are as performers, because we love what we do. Most people hate their jobs and feel very unfulfilled.”
With The Band’s Visit closing on 3 December, Emma is already auditioning, and will continue to work as a singing teacher as she does alongside every theatre job. “I’m sort of lucky I have a side hustle that allows me flexibility, but in terms of performing work, in a few weeks
I’m back to being a muggle, as we like to say.”
“It’s the business,” she says of the circus she loves. “Everyone who wants to be in the show forgets it’s a business.” Sensing a goodbye is coming, Madison interjects.“I just want to say, Emma, you’re a massive inspiration for me. “You told everyone at the masterclass you were Jewish.” Emma replies: “Don’t, you’ll make me cry,” and I’ve got two shows to do.” As a parent who shares my child’s passion, I was ready for a song.
https://www.donmarwarehouse.com/visit/tickets/
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