PHOTOGRAPHY BY CELESTE SLOMAN
Origins: At age 11, Jeanna de Waal—who was born in Germany to a British mother and South African father—began attending The Arts Education School, Tring Park, a boarding school outside London where she performed in shows including a musical adaptation of The Ugly Duckling. “The guy playing the cat lost his voice,” de Waal recalls. “Every time he had to sing a song, I would stand right beside him and sing it while he acted it out. Very bizarre.”
Coming to America: The actress made her West End debut in the Queen musical We Will Rock You in 2009. She ended up befriending some Broadway actors who were in the London transfer of Hair, and they encouraged her to give the “lively melting pot” of New York theater a try. Within a week of her contract ending, she crossed the pond. “I moved in September and started doing open calls in Times Square,” de Waal remembers, “and literally that New Year’s, I was with American Idiot doing the ball drop, so it was good beginner’s luck.”
Next in Line: This month, de Waal plays the title character in Diana, a new musical bio of the People’s Princess by the Tony Award–winning team behind Memphis. While the musical’s sound may evoke ’80s rock (Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan wrote the tunes), de Waal sees Diana as a kind of 21st-century heroine. “She figured out a way to capture [press attention] and use it for the things she cared about. That is what we’re doing now with social media,” de Waal says. “She was so far ahead of her time in her confidence to talk about mental health or eating disorders or being vulnerable or being sad.”
Show Business: In 2017, de Waal and her sister, Dani, founded Broadway Weekends, the first theater camp for adults led by Broadway actors, which offers classes in New York as well as pop-up workshops across North America (some featuring actors from touring shows such as Mean Girls). “I have no formal or experiential education in anything but performing,” de Waal says, “so starting a business has been the most amazing and terrifying learning curve.”
Location: Last Light at Sister City, NYC • Hair Styling by Sam Leonardi • Makeup by Gianpaolo Ceciliato
