A Conversation with Olivia Bloom

We speak to Olivia Bloom ahead of her Sondheim-filled solo cabaret debut at The Other Palace

Olivia Bloom is an emerging performer on the Sondheim scene in London. Having performed in the Sondheim Society Presents: Alex Young & Friends at the Phoenix Arts Club, and at a range of prestigious London cabaret venues including the Crazy Coqs and Toulouse Lautrec, Olivia is thrilled to be making her solo cabaret debut with Slotted Spoons Don’t Hold Much Soup (& Other Things Sondheim Taught Me) at The Other Palace Studio.

Your upcoming show, Slotted Spoons Don’t Hold Much Soup (& Other Things Sondheim Taught Me), sounds so brilliant. How would you describe it?

I've been describing the show as a deep dive into my brain in the only way I know how: through the music of Stephen Sondheim. I've always wanted to do some kind of showcase of his work, and I've also always wanted to do something that involves my brain and explores mental health, so I've been figuring out a way to merge those two things together. And it was that lyric, "Slotted spoons don't hold much soup," from Into the Woods, that brought everything together for me. It's a solo cabaret through the lens of someone discovering that they're neurodivergent, and particularly focusing on Sondheim’s material from the perspective of a younger person too. 

A lot of showcases of Sondheim's work are presented in a more formal way by these iconic actresses in glittery gowns, and I obviously love that so much and grew up watching Sondheim be done in that way. But there is also so much of his work that is about uncertainty and feeling isolated or lonely and that he wrote as a younger person himself, looking forward. And I think that that side of things isn't performed as often, so I wanted to make the most of the fact that while I haven't experienced the things his older characters have, I can embrace being at that "Our Time" point of looking forward and not quite knowing what's next.

So, this won’t be a Sondheim cabaret that includes an “I’m Still Here…” What can you say about your own song choices? I’d imagine narrowing things down must be the hardest part of putting a show like this together.

I've been really, really careful to not just pick songs that I love or only those that feel within my casting. I've been very intentional with the setlist; with choosing songs that I think will fit the overarching theme of what I'm trying to say with this show specifically. I've done a lot of research and deep dives into lesser-performed numbers, and songs of his that I love but don't see people sing too often. I think there's something in it for everyone, in the sense that there is more than one crazy patter song, and then there's some very heartfelt, earnest stuff in there as well. And I'm a soprano, so I'm having a bit of a warble too. I've also picked some things where I've maybe not felt able to sing that kind of material before, and now I'm trying to be braver.

That also comes with doing something that's semi-autobiographical, in the sense that obviously the material itself is Sondheim's, but I'm bringing my own experiences to it. And then I've found some very niche stuff that he wrote in his early twenties, that I've never seen performed. I love the idea of people hearing a song they've never heard before, even if they're a real Sondheim fan. I think that's so exciting. My musical director is Colm Molloy and he’s an absolute magician when it comes to Sondheim - I feel very lucky to be working with him.

And how did you approach balancing individual song choices with the overall message you want to convey in the show?

It's definitely a bit of a chicken-and-egg thing, where I knew I wanted to do certain songs in a certain order, just because chronologically they fit with certain experiences in my life.

But then obviously, being a music nerd, I'm much more interested in the idea of a song resonating emotionally because it happens before this other one, or a particular song suddenly becomes more meaningful if I've just sung something else. I really wanted to focus on feeling like there is a musical journey happening at the same time as me saying anecdotes as well.

Specifically with this show too, I'm also looking at the idea of masking and unmasking. As someone who’s learned that I’m neurodivergent later in my life and am now in the process of discovering more about my brain, I’m really interested in exploring the idea of what it means to be performing in life to a certain extent as well as on stage. I think a lot of neurodivergent people can relate to having quite different versions of yourself depending on the situation you're in. I was interested in bringing all of those different elements together and seeing what happens! So I really hope that’s reflected in the songs I’ve chosen. 

What made you want to present Sondheim’s work in this way, as a cabaret?

Sondheim's work is so incredible that even though it can feel very context-specific within the shows, I think when you do then take them out of context it can be so exciting too. I absolutely love Eleri Ward’s acoustic Sondheim album, for example. I think when people bring their own artistry to Sondheim, that can highlight different elements of his work in such interesting ways. I loved what Ramona Mallory said to you about Sondheim telling her that she brought things to "Every Day A Little Death" that he didn't know were there, which is such an incredible thing to say to someone when you wrote the work. So many people have stories like that with him. It's amazing that he does give people the freedom to explore within what he's written, which is why I think so many actors are drawn to his work. You get Bernadette Peters' Dot, and you get Jenna Russell's Dot, and you get Melissa Errico's Dot - really unique versions of one character - because the writing allows each actor to embrace their own uniqueness and embrace what is singular about them. And I think that's what makes it so exciting to tackle his music and his characters.

Cabaret as an artform is something I've always been really fascinated by, and I think it's such a skill to do things well outside the context of a show. A lot of my favourite performers in general are also really skilful cabaret performers. Liz Callaway has one of my favourite voices in the whole world. I really love listening to recordings of cabarets at 54 Below and it would be an absolute dream to get to sing there one day. I think cabarets give people such a great opportunity to share a different side of themselves. I'm a little bit terrified, I’ll admit! But it's something that I feel really called to do. I felt like I needed to acknowledge being in a slightly different phase of my life, and own where I'm at at the moment. I'm not someone who went to drama school, or moved to London with a lot of connections in the industry, and so I felt like I wanted to almost introduce and reintroduce myself - and hopefully shed light on some topics that I really care about too.

And more generally, where did your own theatre bug come from originally, and how did Sondheim fit into that?

My mum's a singing teacher, so there were always a lot of music books and scores around at home when I was growing up. If you're young and nosy like me, you end up just having a look and going, "What are these? What is this?" So I definitely feel like I discovered music and musicals in that way. But with Sondheim, I can't remember the very first time I watched it, but when I was very young I watched the Into the Woods PBS recording. I would just watch that over and over and over... It was my comfort movie. When I was ill or had a day off from school, or at the weekend, I would just go straight to that Into the Woods recording. I couldn't believe it was real. I knew that I wanted to be creative and perform in some way, and that was the level that I really wanted to strive towards. I couldn't believe that so many elements could come together so perfectly, and that there was this real gold standard of the kind of theatre I wanted to make.

Knowing how much I loved Into the Woods, I delved into more Sondheim after that. I discovered most of the shows just from listening to the cast albums, which I think is amazing because you develop this appreciation for the score and the lyrics before you get to experience the show as a whole. When I was younger, no one was exactly talking about Merrily We Roll Along in the playground. It was like I'd discovered this hidden treasure. Like, "No, you don't understand: it goes backwards!" It just felt magic. I'm so grateful that they streamed Maria Friedman’s London production of Merrily into cinemas, because I got to see it when I wasn't living in London yet. It had such a massive impact on me and I could see how emotional it made my mum as well. And I think even with certain elements of it that I didn't necessarily understand fully at the time, I could see how much it hit her. Since then, I've been able to sing for Jenna Russell and sing her some Sondheim, and so getting to meet her and tell her how much that production of Merrily meant to me was a real pinch-me moment.

What is it about Sondheim’s writing in particular that you’re drawn to?

Sondheim is complex but that's what makes it so satisfying to sing. It's worth going into that amount of detail, and it's worth taking that amount of care when crafting something because that’s what creates the magic that we all want. And that's something I love about his work too: in a lot of other areas of my life, the amount of obsessive that I am, or how detail-oriented I am, can be a bit of a pain. But Sondheim is this example of what you can create when you do care a lot and put a lot of effort into something. It's that golden rule of his: God is in the details. I definitely took that very literally when I was younger! I love singing his material because he tells the truth - and he says the things that we can be too scared to say. I've grown up often feeling frustrated when it feels like people aren't saying what they really think or feel. But he actually just says the truth, and there's something so refreshing about being able to be honest in that way. And it can feel exposing, especially when you take his work out of context, because then suddenly you're bringing your own vulnerabilities to it. But that can be really satisfying as well, because it then gives you the opportunity to show up fully as yourself, which is scary, but something I'm putting myself through for some reason! 

And with Sondheim himself no longer with us, what reflections do you have on his legacy?

Although there will always be that tinge of sadness that I'll never get to work with Sondheim directly, the body of work that he's left behind is so vast. I'm hopefully only at the start of my journey of getting to discover more and more about his work. I love the idea of hopefully getting to play some of these dream Sondheim roles as I grow into them. When he died and people were sharing favourite lyrics, I was trying to think which one meant the most to me. And one that came to mind was the lyric from Merrily We Roll Along, "There's so much stuff to sing.” Look at what he's left us. How lucky are we? And while he may not be with us anymore, he's left us with so much “stuff” to explore, to discover, and to make our own.

Olivia’s show, SLOTTED SPOONS DON’T HOLD MUCH SOUP (& OTHER THINGS SONDHEIM TAUGHT ME), is happening at The Other Palace Studio in London at 4:30pm on Sunday 21st July. Click here for more information, and to buy tickets!