A busy year ahead for Self-Esteem

Will it be a full-time return to the music industry or will she continue to star at the theatre and on TV?The answer seems to be both, for a performer who says she has a “need to be constantly working”.The Anston-born woman had a phenomenal 2023 during which time she added to her previous CV as Indie singer Self Esteem.She landed a lead role in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club in London, until January 20.Such was her success, and the show’s general popularity, she has now extended that stay until March 9.That means she will have been treading the West End boards since September 25...a stamina-sapping and nerve-shredding 166 days.And the Playhouse Theatre isn’t the only place you can Rebecca, who turned 37 during her elongated time playing Sally Bowles, made famous by Oscar-winning Liza Minnelli.The one-time Dinnington Operating Society cast member is also on our TV screens in Smothered, a series filmed in 2022 available on demand on Sky Comedy and on NOW for the foreseeable future.Described as a “not so typical rom-com” created by Monica Heisey (Workin’ Moms, Schitt’s Creek) Rebecca plays a robust flatmate of the lead character.The former South Yorkshire U16 ladies cricketer has always loved acting - even if she hasn’t always rated herself highly.“Theatre was always my first love, right from school,” she told The Standard.“But I tried for drama school and didn’t get in...now I’m like, ‘Oh of course you didn’t get in. You were 18, working class from Rotherham.’“Every time I filled in the forms I didn’t tick ‘can pay the fees’ it would be ‘need the scholarship’. But I’ve spent 20 years thinking it was all just because I’m not a good actress.”The exhausting show has been a pleasing one for the versatile star.“My experience on Cabaret has been so joyful and I’ve felt so supported, in a way I rarely did in music.”Yet she is working on another Self Esteem album.In fact, she could combine her two professional loves, music and theatre.“I’m considering making a sort of theatre-based live show, like an installation piece that you can tour, but mostly that people have to come and see.”Rebecca is making a decent living in theatre, she says.“Obviously, I want to be very rich and have everything I want, creatively, but as long as I can afford to pay my rent and not have to live with ten housemates and a family of mice, and I get to make the art that I want to make, then I’m happy.“Right now I’m here, I can get a lead role in a West End show, I’m not going to be skint for a bit so I can focus on the art I want to make.“Ultimately, I want to make like 20 records, I want to be an absolute legacy artist that changes s***.“And for decades after my death, I want people to reference me in what they want to do with their own art.”