Aimie Atkinson interview: 'Our Pretty Woman is about someone not willing to settle for less than she’s worth'

Oh, Pretty Woman: Aimie Atkinson stars as Vivian Ward in the musical
Matt Writtle
Zoe Paskett9 March 2020

Julia Roberts left some big, thigh-high, patent boots to fill.

Her performance in Pretty Woman was the reason early nineties audiences fell back in love with rom-coms and why, 30 years later, the movie’s creators are bringing a musical version to the West End.

The show’s star, 32-year-old Aimie Atkinson, who is stepping into Roberts’s role as Vivian Ward, opens the door to her Piccadilly Theatre dressing room with a Julia-esque winning smile. “I’m still in shock honestly!” she says.

Atkinson re-watched the film only once in her preparation, but insists she doesn’t feel pressure to live up to that iconic performance. “No, because we’re paying homage to the movie, but I’m not doing an impression of Julia Roberts.”

Jerry Mitchell, who has Kinky Boots and Legally Blonde under his belt, directs the show, with original songs by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance and a book by the film’s director Garry Marshall and screenwriter J.F. Lawton. Atkinson caught Mitchell’s eye when she played Katherine Howard in Six the Musical, about Henry VIII’s wives — he saw her in the show four times, she says, “and that’s probably why I’m here”.

The show’s road to the West End has been one of twists and turns. Way back, before the film was shot and before it became a love story between sex worker Vivian and wealthy businessman Edward (eventually played by Richard Gere in the movie), Pretty Woman was originally conceived as a dark tale about drugs, class and sex work in a financially corrupt America, in which Vivian was eventually abandoned in an alley by Edward, and used the money he paid her to go to Disneyland with her friend. Its re-nosing as a modern-day fairy tale made the film a huge box office success that triggered a revival of romantic comedies, of which Roberts became a mainstay.

Helen Maybanks

There was scepticism when it was announced that the story would be returning as a musical, and it wildly split opinion on opening on Broadway in 2018. The Guardian’s Alexis Soloski labelled it “offensive” that the show failed to make any nod towards cultural changes in the past 30 years; others including the Telegraph praised it as a “joyous” staging that translated the film faithfully to the stage.

“It’s very true to the movie,” says Atkinson. “It’s got those iconic moments you would want.” The famous red dress, Vivian’s Hollywood Boulevard shopping scene, her giggle when Edward snaps the necklace box on her fingers all remain intact. “But we’re not really commenting on prostitution. It’s more about the love story and the connection that these two people have.”

Critics argue that the narrative isn’t particularly empowering, but Atkinson insists that, despite being a fairy tale, “at the end of the day, it’s not a knight-in-shining-armour kind of moment.

“She isn’t willing to settle for anything less than what she’s worth,” she continues, “and I think that’s incredible. He offers her what he believes is everything — money and cars and jewellery and people sucking up to you all the time, whatever you want — and she says, No that’s not enough. I think she is a very strong role model because she chooses a better life for herself, and she’s more than what people think of her.”

Atkinson says that her time in Six the Musical was great preparation. Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow’s musical can only be described as a phenomenon, a show came out of nowhere and quite literally took over the world. As well as the West End and Broadway, it’s on a UK tour, is running in Australia and soon New Zealand and Chicago.

Atkinson was there from the start of Six’s London run and remained in the cast for two years. Howard — wife number five — was often described as promiscuous and was beheaded for her perceived sins. “She was a 13-year-old girl,” says Atkinson, as she tells me about the research she did into Howard. “I was obsessed with the Tudors at school, but she only had one paragraph and it was all about her affairs.” Not to give out spoilers to anyone who hasn’t seen the show (you should), but she says that a number of times teachers who had been in the audience would tell her “I’m going to reteach my class”.

Atkinson as Katherine Howard in Six
Idil Sukan

“The role I played was a champion for MeToo. Young girls would come up to me and say, ‘This has happened to me’ and tell me their stories. I felt so empowered that I was helping them through that. It was kind of hard to deal with but eventually I thought, no, this is really good because people are coming to terms with whatever has happened to them.”

She shared the stage with her partner, the actor Genesis Lynea, whom she had first met when both women starred in the London production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical In The Heights in 2017.

“It was a complete coincidence!” she says of them both landing Six roles at the same time — Lynea played Anna of Cleves. “What’s amazing about that is that they were actually friends in real life. Me and Gen, we’re best friends, and we really bounce off each other. We would just cry with laughter every day.”

Atkinson had a lucky break into musical theatre aged 18. She entered an amateur competition in her hometown of Stevenage on a whim and won, which put her into the professional competition as well. “And I won that too!” After that, “everything changed overnight. I got an agent and started auditioning for massive shows. It’s lucky because I always wanted to do it; I wasn’t really good at anything else.”

While Atkinson is no stranger to rejection (“I’m used to it now and I don’t take it personally”), she’s found herself in an enviable place for a musical theatre performer: “I always wanted to originate roles in the West End and that’s what I’m doing.”

Pretty Woman opens at the Piccadilly Theatre, W1 on March 2. Ambassador Theatre Group was a partner for the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2019

New London musicals coming in 2020

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