A professional career in theatre was not always on the cards for Marisha Wallace. The Broadway and West End star, who was born and raised on a pig farm in North Carolina, rarely saw people that looked like her on stage.
As she takes on the coveted role of Ado Annie in the revival of Oklahoma! at London’s Young Vic theatre, Wallace is on a singular mission to call out the lack of plus-sized black actors on stage and to inspire young girls just like her.
“It’s a role I never thought I could play because it’s usually played by very thin white women,” Wallace said. “Ado Annie is the town’s object of love and affection so to have a plus-sized black woman playing her is incredible, I’d never seen it on stage before.
“I know it’s going to inspire a lot of women out there who may feel like their body type or how they look isn’t accepted or worthy of love.”
Wallace, 36, first played Ado Annie in an all-black version of Oklahoma! in the US, the first time she was cast in a lead role. “I remember it changed my whole life. It was like, ‘Wow, I don’t have to be the random black girl who sings and then leaves and no one ever knows what ever happened to her’.”
The actor and singer, who has starred in stage hits including Aladdin, Dreamgirls and Hairspray, as well as onscreen in Netflix’s Feel Good, said the new “sexy” Oklahoma! was a reimagination of the show for the 21st century. It even inspired show runners from HBO’s Euphoria to include Oklahoma! in their plot.
“When we walk outside we don’t see all the same race, gender or body type,” Wallace said. “So why does our theatre and our art not reflect that? I think that’s what’s key to keeping theatre alive.
“As a little black kid, I was never like, ‘I’m gonna go to theatre’, it didn’t feel like it belonged to me. So I want to grant accessibility to everyone.”
That accessibility is reflected in Wallace’s Instagram which is full of funny and affirmative videos of her rehearsing, trying on outfits or messing around in the gym. It is a rare insight into the life of theatre stars who might feel more removed from younger, online audiences.
“Everyone gets to see us on stage and they don’t see how the sausage is made,” she said. “I thought it was really important to have a presence on social media because there’s other people out there that are like me and maybe come from a small town. Maybe they don’t really know that they can have a job as a professional actress full-time.”
For Wallace, it’s serendipitous that she ended up in Oklahoma!, a show she said is close to her heart. “I was the granddaughter of a hog farmer. We had all kinds of crops. We raised pigs and then they would be sent off, it was like Charlotte’s Web.”
While her family were musical – they owned the church on the corner of their small town, where her father played every instrument, her mother was a choir director, her sister played the drums, and her brother played piano – they never pursued it professionally.
“I was the first one to ever take it out of the church and into the world. I had this amazing teacher who trained me on weekends. She even took me on her own teacher’s salary to see a Broadway show. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have gotten into this at all,” said Wallace.
Wallace’s work to inspire others does not begin and end on stage. She fronted a Charlotte Tilbury campaign “which showed beauty comes in all forms” and during the lockdown, released a cover of Annie’s Tomorrow to raise funds for performers out of work during the pandemic. The song went viral, reaching No 2 in the UK download charts, with Michael Ball playing it regularly on his BBC radio show.
Decca Records, which represents Diana Ross, Shirley Bassey and Gregory Porter, offered her a record deal, and she spent last September touring her album.
She performed Tomorrow for the Queen at the Royal Variety Show, and the cast of RuPaul’s UK Drag Race did a version of the track. This summer, Wallace and her band will open for Simply Red as well as Michael Ball and Alfie Boe across multiple venues.
“I know what it’s like when you don’t have a job for two weeks, let alone two years,” she said. “I did the recording of Tomorrow in my living room while I was at one of my lowest times. I was feeling like I was getting some headway in my career and it all came to a halt. And I just needed something to give me some hope.”
