Tonight, Gunilla Backman and Helen Sjöholm are on stage in the musical Company – but never at the same time
Aftonbladet Friday 2024-08-30
By: JAN-OLOV ANDERSSON
Gunilla Backman and Helen Sjöholm. Two of Sweden’s greatest musical stars. Starting tonight, they are on stage in the Stephen Sondheim musical Company – but never at the same time!
– It’s a fantastic luxury that we share the role, that we get to share the workload, says Gunilla.
The musical Company, premiering tonight, is Stockholm City Theater’s biggest production this fall. To be played on the main stage throughout the fall and over the winter.
It’s the first time that the new version of the classic has been performed outside of New York or London. The original 1970 production still holds the record for the number of Tony Awards on Broadway in New York, theater’s equivalent of Oscar statuettes.
Calle Norlén has translated both the script and song lyrics. And those who have the rights demanded that Maria Sid, the theater director herself, should direct (…)
Has been in major roles
Neither Gunilla Backman nor Helen Sjöholm can really put their finger on who came up with the idea that they should share the second biggest role, as Joanne.
– We were simply asked. We thought it was the best idea on earth. We both had the situation that we might not be able to take a role 100 percent. And it’s a fun and energizing thing to share the role with each other and think about slightly different point-of-views, says Helen.
– I’m inspired so much by this fantastic artist, says Gunilla and looks at Helen, before she continues:
– You and I have enough experience to do this. If you are younger, there is perhaps more competition. We are over and past that. We’ve already gotten to do such amazing things.
Yes, a short summary:
Gunilla, 59, has played major roles in most famous musicals in Sweden, Germany and London. And of course the main role in Mamma Mia! at Circus 2005–2007.
Helen, 54, had her breakthrough in the Björn & Benny musical Kristina from Duvemåla 1995–1999 (…)
– Sometimes you want to move on and maybe not work five days a week and every weekend. That’s how it was for me. An opening to not work yourself to pieces.
History was rewritten
Both were attracted by the fact that it was a Stephen Sondheim musical. Both have sung Sondheim melodies in different contexts (…)
In the new version of Company, the main character Bobby instead became Bobbie, a 35-year-old woman looking for love. She is played by Frida Modén Treichl, also a seasoned musical artist, without being as well-known as Gunilla and Helen.
The story was rewritten and modernized in 2018, in Sondheim’s good memory, three years before he passed away in 2021, aged 91.
Other roles in the large ensemble include Rennie Mirro, Linda Olsson, Sara Jangfeldt, Lisette T Pagler and Robert Fux.
Who is Joanne then?
– A good friend of Bobbie’s. But she has more life experience, is quite tough, she is rich, married for the fourth time, moves in sophisticated environments and has a hard surface, is a little bitter about life, says Gunilla.
– She is quite crass and a bit alcoholic and also a bit provoked by Bobbie. It’s like she’s challenging Joanne with her youth. She has all that in front of her that Joanne can’t back the band up to, says Helen (…)
How much of Joanne is there in you?
– You always have to find that. But she is quite far from us as people, says Helen.
Are there any big differences in how you portray her?
– I don’t know a big difference, but… physically and energetically it will be a little different, says Helen (…)
Time for other things too
Both say that it isn’t completely uncomplicated to rehearse a role that is to be shared. Sometimes they do it next to each other, but that doesn’t always work. So in total, they get a little less time to rehearse everything than the others in the ensemble. The fact that they are not in every single performance means that they have time for other things too (…)
– I do some Christmas concerts with Anna Stadling. And Bengan Jansson, Lennart Jähkel and I will do a couple of concerts that are a small tribute to Allan Edwall, says Helen.
You have both done things with Björn & Benny. Do you keep in touch? Are you teasing them to write new things?
– We absolutely have contact with them, in different ways. But we don’t hang out everyday, says Helen.
– Helen and I have a small idea for a project in the future that we want to do next year. Then we might get help with song lyrics from Björn Ulvaeus, says Gunilla.
“Every other performance”
At the premiere tonight, Helen Sjöholm plays the role.
– It wasn’t us who decided. Then we do about every other show. But the audience doesn’t get to know in advance which of us is playing, says Gunilla.
So if you’re a real fan of one of you, how do you act as an audience?
– Then you get to go twice. We do this to sell more tickets, says Gunilla and laughs.
Name: Gunilla Backman
Age: 59 years
Lives: Lidingö
Family: Fiancé Jens Hultén, soon-to-be 15-year-old son
Name: Helen Sjöholm
Age: 54 years
Lives: Stockholm
Family: Husband David Granditsky, sound engineer, 17-year-old son, 12-year-old twins, one son, one daughter
Gunilla Backman about…
…an unforgettable musical memory:
– It’s fucking difficult, you’re so damaged, you look so critically. But way back in 1992 I saw Miss Saigon at Royal Drury Lane in London and thought: I would like to do that. And much later I stood there and did it.
…biggest personal challenge:
– Playing Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard at the Gothenburg Opera was very far from myself. A real diva. It was fun to make such a crazy person lovable.
Helen Sjöholm about…
…an unforgettable musical memory:
– My husband and I had gone to New York to see Springsteen on Broadway. And it was amazing. But then we saw the musical Hamilton. I didn’t even have the faintest idea what it was. When the first act ended, I sat in exactly the same position as when it began. I hadn’t moved. It was so great.
…biggest personal challenge:
– When Peter Jöback and I were going to pay tribute to Sondheim at the Berwaldhallen, it was a duet from Passion with a very special harmony. It was a memory of a lifetime that we could get through it. Making House of Angels or Kristina from Duvemåla, then you can pick up everything again when you make a big role. But it was a challenge when Rut had those explosive outbursts that so many saw in the film and to play Kristina, where everyone had a warm relationship with Liv Ullman.
(The entire interview is not reproduced for copyright reasons)