‘I love playing ballsy women’: Ria Jones on the women in theatre who inspire her

Will Longman
Will Longman

Ria Jones is a leading lady through and through. She's played some of the biggest roles in musical theatre: Grizabella, Eva Peron, Fantine, and most recently Norma Desmond to name a few.

She's one of the star names on the roster of a concert celebrating 100 years of musical theatre, alongside three former Elphabas: Louise Dearman, Rachel Tucker and Alexia Khadime. Accompanied by a full orchestra, the evening at Cadogan Hall will run through some of theatre's biggest showstoppers of the last century in what will be a wonderful celebration of women on stage.

While the evening will be a celebration of the great performers and writers of musical theatre, it will also provide an opportunity to look ahead towards the future with a performance by 17-year-old Daisy Greenwood, who won an open competition to find musical stars.

Ahead of the concert, which takes place on 30th August, we were invited to get a glimpse of Jones preparing for the concert, and you can watch a video of her performing "With One Look" from Sunset Boulevard, and talking about some of her favourite female musical actors and characters, below.

There Is Nothing Like a Dame is at Cadogan Hall on 30th August.

There Is Nothing Like a Dame tickets are available now.  

Originally published on

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