When Keala Settle enters the Kennedy Room of the Cambridge Union, she does not greet me. In fact, she does not speak at all – she hugs me, complimenting my dress before sitting down. Surrounded by dark oak and leather furniture, Settle’s sunny presence is a welcome contrast.
Her voice is loud and commanding, but her presence is inviting. “If you could take anything away about the Maori culture,” she tells me, referring to her mother’s heritage, “they are really strong people”. Settle, born and raised in Hawaii, made her Broadway debut in , and quickly became a musical theatre legend, best known for her role as the bearded lady Lettie Lutz in .
However, what seems like a dream come true for many was anything but for Settle. In fact, as Settle began her time in the original Broadway cast of , she remembers thinking, “I don’t have to be here anymore.” While her castmates were celebrating, she was planning her escape route; the night before opened, her mother passed away, which marked the end of a mission of defiance which spanned more than three decades.
Although her father was supportive of her wishes to relocate to the UK for musical theatre training, her mother would “catch [leaflets] in the mail” and “tell me I couldn’t go, couldn’t leave her,” picturing instead a record deal in her daughter’s future. Settle tells me it was her defiant nature which inspired her to go against her mother’s wishes, and pursue a life on the stage. “If you’.
