FIVE QUESTIONS FOR ... JOEL HARPER-JACKSON
MEET JONATHAN BAILEY'S CO-STAR IN "COCK" ON THE WEST END
(Above: Joel Harper-Jackson. His other credits include Charlie Price in the UK tour of Kinky Boots; Mr. Thompson in the National Theatre UK tour of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time; Angel in a UK tour of Rent; Simon in Jesus Christ Superstar at Regents Park Open Air Theatre; and John Brooke in Little Women at the Hope Mill Playhouse in Manchester, where he still lives on a farm on the rural outskirts of the city.)
Cock has been in the news lately over here in London. The West End production of this Mike Bartlett play directed by Marianne Elliott made headlines when its ads were censored and the title wasn’t allowed to be displayed in tube stations by the Transport for London, the authority here that made the decision as if it were making it during the century in which Oscar Wilde was writing his plays. Then there was even more of an uproar when it was discovered that the producers of the hit show had resorted to surge pricing and were for a brief time charging £400 for a stall seat, which made it the most expensive ticket ever on the West End. They dropped the tickets back down to £175.
The production of this play about a gay man leaving his lover because cock isn’t enough and he needs some cunnilingus in his life as well - or something like that, there is a lot of panting and ranting about not wanting one’s life defined by sexuality even when it is saturated with it - has a narrative all its own that has had even more threads than that lone one in the play itself. The most troubling then joyous thread in the production’s narrative involved one of its initial stars, Taron Egerton, fainting onstage on the first night of previews and his understudy Joel Harper-Jackson having to finish the play that night. Egerton was later diagnosed with COVID and left the production. The best decision the producers made - it almost makes up for their later greed - was to give Harper-Jackson the role and not recast it since he is giving a stunning performance that not only signals his own star quality but also his depth as an actor. He kneads a neediness into his sensual presence that adds notes of complexity to the role. The story of his ascension into the part and the fact that the play continued to grow in statue as a hit as he grew in his own statue as a star in his own right going toe-to-toe with the play’s biggest star Jonathan Bailey, who plays the Diva of I Dare Not Be Defined to devastating effect, is inspirational. It turned a story that could have been confusingly sad if it had remained focused on Egerton’s leaving the show into one of clarity, of grabbing chances, of success, of happy endings. In fact, the producers couldn’t have turned greedy if Harper-Jackson had not been so great in the role. So even the greed is limned with proof of this guy’s bankability, a term producers and agents like to throw around as they bank the results of the stardom of others.
Not since an understudy named Shirley MacLaine took over for Carol Haney in The Pajama Game on Broadway when the latter was out with an ankle injury and movie producer Hal Wallis, who was in an audience, was so charmed by her that he signed her to a multi-year contract at Paramount has an understudy story quite gripped the theatre world like Joel Harper-Jackson’s has over here in London. Like MacLaine, Harper-Jackson didn’t think he’d go on during the run of the play, especially that very first night. MacLaine had even taken on second job as the understudy to Gwen Verdon over at Can-Can down the street from The Pajama Game since Haney was known for never missing a performance.
Here is how Shirley wrote about it in her book Sage-ing While Age-ing: “When I arrived at the St James, across the stage door stood Jerry Robbins, Bob Fosse, Hal Prince, etc. ‘Haney is out,’ they said. ‘You’re on.’ I couldn’t believe what I was hearing … the producers gave me the understudy job, but I never had a rehearsal. I had thought Carol would go on with a broken neck. But Carol had sprained her ankle, so …” Later in the documentary, Broadway: the Golden Age, she elaborated. “I had my notice in my pocket, ready to turn it in,” she said. “The subway got stuck in Times Square, so I was twenty minutes late for my own half-hour call … and when I got to the theatre it was ten minutes before the curtain was going up … So I stuffed my notice back in real quick and I didn’t know what key I sang in, I never had a rehearsal.”
I ran into Harper-Jackson at a matinee of Daddy at the Almeida a couple of weeks ago and we decided to do this interview in its cafe before he headed to the Ambassador Theatre in the West End for his evening performance of Cock.
(Above: Harper-Jackson with his hero, Ian McKellen when Sir Ian recently visited him backstage at Cock.)
KEVIN SESSUMS: You just told me you knew the Shirley MacLaine story about her being an understudy. Shirley is the Patron Saint of Understudies. What is your own story to add to The Understudy Narrative to be handed down in the years to come?
JOEL HARPER-JACKSON I was sort of the last to know that I had gotten the role once Taron left. Basically what happened was that the night he fainted during the first show, I went on and did the last twenty minutes of it. All the understudies are there in the dressing room so we’re all just there on standby glamorously sitting by the fire buckets. He did the next 14 shows or something, then he got COVID. I was on-call for ten days or something like that. I was preparing myself for him to come back. There were no conversations that would suggest anything else. Then it was April’s Fool and I got a call from Chris [Harper, the producer] and he said unfortunately Taron is not going to be returning to the production but fortunately we want to offer you the role. As far as I was aware, he was coming back. So it all sort of happened very quickly. But I don’t really look at it as being part of a narrative. I just get on with life. I just deal with what’s dealt.
I am aware of the irony of it all though. When I accepted this job, I had already decided to go to drama school. I auditioned by video for Marianne [Elliott, Cock’s director] and then went on with my plan. I think everyone had their own version of having a shaky moment during COVID and the lockdown. Also, because I come from musical theatre, everyone just thought: oh, you can’t act. It feels that way over here anyway. So I wanted to eradicate that feeling and that prejudice that seems to follow musical theater actors around. I was always auditioning around people who had trained at RADA and Guildhall. I wanted to know what I missed out on. So I was applying for schools when this was casting.
Then when I got the job, some of my agents were advising me not to do it because it was an understudy and it had the feeling of going backward. But then I considered the calibre of the production and who I was understudying. I thought I wouldn’t really ever get on, but I would get to watch two amazing actors at work. But the fact that we’re now here in the way it all unfolded … well, everything feels like a kind of bonus. I’d like to think the theatre gods were looking out for me, but the realist in me just thinks it’s all a coincidence.
(Above: Jonathan Bailey and Joel Harper-Jackson in Cock at the Ambassador Theatre on the West End. Photo by Matt Crockett.)
(Above: Bailey and Harper-Jackson during a curtain call at Cock. Photo by Craig Sugden.)
What were your sixteen months like touring in Kinky Boots?
Amazing. When I was 16, I sold programs and ice cream in my local theatre and when we were touring I got to return to that theatre and see my name on the marquee and on billboards. Things like that. My family and my friends and everyone got to see it. I learned a lot. I was so tired all the time. But it was fantastic. It made me stronger. In the middle of the tour after saying the lines over and over, I suddenly had a panic that I wasn’t going to remember my lines and I didn’t really know what I was doing. It finally made me stronger mentally, not just physically and vocally. It made me resilient up here. (He points to his head) It taught me to just keep on going. I became older and wiser. I’m 30 now.
That’s prime rib: 30 -35. You’re entering your prime-rib years. We just saw Daddy here at the Almeida. What is your own daddy like?
Interesting story with my mum and my dad. When I was about 18 or 19, my whole family broke apart. My mum and dad separated. My dad went to jail. He took the rap for my sister’s boyfriend at the time. It’s a long story. Basically my sister’s partner was on a suspended sentence. My dad at the time was 65 with no convictions. So he had to serve about six months in jail. But because we were already on the brink financially anyway, we then went bankrupt because my dad wasn’t earning. He had a breakdown. Are you regretting you asked me now? They were separated for five or six years. The next thing was my sister had kids and they were forced to be in the same room with each other and then they got back together. So that’s where my hyphenated name came from. My mother’s maiden name is Jackson and my dad’s name is Harper. When they separated me and my dad didn’t get along. I think it’s fucking ridiculous anyway that a kid should only take his dad’s name.
I still live outside Manchester on a farm in the village I grew up in. There is something about being from the north. We’re very down to earth. You don’t have to live in London anymore. The way that we audition now has changed. I get parts from auditioning by tapes. When I auditioned for Cock by tape I actually had COVID at the time.
Cock is about being defined by one’s sexuality and the main character rebelling against that. Are you open about your sexuality - are you gay or straight or like Jonathan’s character in Cock you don’t like definitions?
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m gay. I came out when I was 11 to my mum and dad. It is why I was kind of interested in doing this play though, this continued questioning you go through. I think we members of the cast have all had a moment when we’ve gone through a questioning of ourselves. I came out as gay, but I don’t really see it as that anymore. I do see it as a spectrum. Would I say I’m 100% gay? Hmmm. Not sure. I would prefer to be in a relationship with a man than with a woman, but sexually I do find very strong women attractive. So there is a spectrum there. As for coming out at 11, let’s just say I have always been very headstrong about what I wanted.
In my family for a couple of generations it was all girls being born - just girls girls girls girls girls - and I was the first boy to come along. They were all about my finally carrying on the name. A huge fuss was made. A huge fuss. I’m told that all the men came to the hospital to see me dressed in suits. And everyone came to the christening - because I was a boy. My mum said she told them back then, “You all better watch out. He’ll turn out to be gay.”
My partner, Lloyd Daniels, was on The X Factor when he was 16. He came in fourth, or something like that. His stepdad was auditioning for the show and he went along. The producers looked at him and asked if he could sing. He was a cute Welsh kid with blonde hair. I couldn’t stand him on The X Factor. I could not stand him. I was like: who does this guy think he is.
We met two years ago. Some random friends invited us to a dinner party. I got up to say hi to some people and he just completely walked past me. And I thought: you asshole. But he later said it was just because he was nervous and he found me attractive. He lives on the farm with me. He is now going into being an agent. As I said, he didn’t seek out being a performer. He never pursued it like me. I really wanted this. He originally wanted to be an architect. He’s not only cute. He’s a good lad.
I do back and forth about children. I'd like to be financially in a really comfortable position first. There are right now things I still feel I need to do and once I’ve done them … I mean … look, if this all takes off and I was getting paid lots of money and things were easier, it would be more of a yes about children. But there’s too much I want to do.
We live an hour outside of Manchester. My sister is a farmer’s wife. They have horses and cattle and have properties on their farm. So we rent one of my sister’s houses.
Sounds like a lovely place to raise children. But let’s get back to those things professionally you still feel the need to do. What is your dream role?
The sky’s the limit? Okay. I would like to play the first openly gay super hero.
(Above: Joel Harper-Jackson and his partner, Lloyd Daniels, from Daniels’s Instagram page. )
(Above: Joel Harper-Jackson from his Instagram feed. )
(Above: The UK edition of Perry Moore’s Hero. When Joel answered the last question, I told him about Perry’s novel about a gay super hero. Perry died at the age of 39. I dedicated my second memoir, I Left It on the Mountain to him. I really liked Joel Harper-Collins when I met him and was deeply impressed with his talent in Cock, but the thing I will always carry with me is his answer to that last question and its conjuring Perry for me - for us - that day at the Almeida Theatre’s cafe. This whole interview led to that moment and to this thank you to Joel for that. If you would like to order Perry’s book, here is a link. And here is a link to its audio version read by Michael Urie. In the UK, here is the link at Amazon UK. )
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