Natalie Bassingthwaighte was about to quit her stage career, when Jagged Little Pill came along

Former Neighbours star, singer and X-Factor judge Natalie Bassingthwaighte has had “a rollercoaster” life. She was “done” with musical theatre, until one script came along.

Natalie Bassingthwaighte says she’ll now only take roles that ‘move, challenge or excite’ her, and Jagged Little Pill did just that. Picture: Mark Stewart

Natalie Bassingthwaighte has found strength in uncomfortable truths.

“I’ve come out of lots of different rollercoaster rides in my career, and my life, as have many people,” Bassingthwaighte, a pop singer, actor, TV presenter and musical theatre star, said.

“I feel I’m at a really great place, and I think we need to share our stories, the highs and the lows, and everything in between.”

Indeed, Bassingthwaighte, 46, spirals most nights as Mary Jane Healy, leading lady in the harrowing, but ultimately uplifting, Jagged Little Pill, a musical centred on the songs of Alanis Morissette, and story by Diablo Cody.

As the opiate-addicted Healy, Bassingthwaighte plays, masterfully, a wife and mother in denial, struggling to cope with a workaholic, porn-Googling husband, Steve, played by Tim Draxl, while pressuring her preppy son, Nick (Liam Head) to be perfect, and making her adopted daughter, the idealistic Frankie (Emily Nkomo), feel second best.

Liam Head, Emily Nkomo, Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Tim Draxl in Jagged Little Pill. Picture: Daniel Boud

In a broader sense, Jagged Little Pill is about a family and community facing up to complicated issues, such as rape, race, drugs, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

Bassingthwaighte, 25 years into a theatre career, is at the peak of her powers in a compelling character arc that includes keeping up appearances, delusion, a tragic secret, downfall and healing.

“It’s exhausting, I won’t lie. It’s emotionally and physically exhausting,” she said, of unravelling on stage nightly.

“At first, I felt like I woke up and had been hit by a bus. I felt quite abused.

“We’re four weeks in now, and I’m getting better at releasing it. But it’s the most challenging role I’ve ever taken on.

“We’re not perfect, we’re not cardboard cut-outs, Photoshopped, airbrushed, filtered photos on Instagram,” she added. “Our lives are not perfect, and that’s the beauty of this piece.”

The Jagged Little Pill role came to Bassingthwaighte as she thought about taking her final bows as a musical theatre performer. Her theatre credits include the Broadway blockbusters Chicago and Rent.

Natalie Bassingthwaighte, pictured in New York, says her life journey has been ‘a rollercoaster’. Picture: Evan Zimm

In 2020, in a bid for a lifestyle change, Bassingthwaighte, husband Cameron McGlinchey, and their children, Harper and Hendrix, moved from Melbourne to Byron Bay.

“It’s too hard,” Bassingthwaighte explained, of her plan to quit musical theatre.

“Eight shows a week on anyone is demanding, but when you’ve got young kids, it’s difficult. It’s a lot to have a young family and to be on the road that much.

“It was, ‘OK, that’s enough, that’s done’.”

But Jagged Little Pill changed her mind.

“It screamed at me to take part in it. I had a very strong pull towards the piece, and I feel at this stage in my life, in my career, I couldn’t say no,” she said.

“I felt I needed to tell the story for people that I love, people that I care about, people that I don’t even know, who are going through this stuff. I want to do it to make a change and speak out about things that are forbidden.”

The characters facing truths in Jagged Little Pill have parallels to Bassingthwaighte, who opened up about her mental health journey a few years ago.

In 2018, Bassingthwaighte had a breakdown related to personal and professional crises.

She had juggled acting work (Neighbours, The Wrong Girl, Underbelly), talent show roles (So You Think You Can Dance, The X Factor Australia) and a pop career in Rogue Traders and as a solo artist.

Natalie Bassingthwaighte in 2005 fronting the band Rogue Traders. She’s now a mum of two.

“Financially, it had been quiet,” she said in 2019.

“In this industry, people don’t talk about that enough. I know one high-profile actor who told me he’d been living in his car. Sometimes you only work three months a year. But the perception is you’re rolling in it.’’

That dark patch, in which she spent six weeks “curled up and crying”, led to a healing, and a vow to uncomplicate her life.

Today, Bassingthwaighte says she’s blessed to have showed many sides of herself on different stages.

“It definitely suits my personality. I would get too bored doing a desk job, or one job in particular,” she said.

“I love the variety I’ve had in my life. I feel really grateful that I’m still employed after all these years, and I’m still being offered some pretty juicy things. It’s exciting and I don’t take it for granted, but I’m at the point in my life where I only want to say ‘yes’ to things that move, challenge or excite me.”

Bassingthwaighte shot to fame as the villainous Izzy Hoyland on Neighbours, but the performer, born and raised in Wollongong, started her career in amateur theatre.

Natalie Bassingthwaighte as a judge on a former season of The X Factor, with Redfoo, Dannii Minogue and Ronan Keating. Picture: Ian Currie

Her big break came with a role in Rent, alongside Rodger Corser and Christine Anu.

“There were so many people going for it, and I’d gone for so many things in the past, but didn’t get them,” she said.

“It was one of those musicals where I thought, ‘I belong here, this is for me’, whereas others I’d gone for were just because I wanted a job, but my heart and soul wasn’t in it.

“It really changed the trajectory of how I choose things. Unless I’m passionate about it and love it, why would I go for it?

“I never saw myself as a musical theatre performer but that’s where I started.

“But I feel like I’m a storyteller in whatever form that is. I love telling stories, and I love to research characters and delve into worlds.

“Nowadays, the world embraces diversity as far as musicianship goes. You can pop in and out of the entertainment industry on stage and TV and film. It’s more celebrated, in a strange way. But it wasn’t when I started out. You were put in a box.”

Of course, Natalie Bassingthwaighte has a far more important role to play after Jagged Little Pill. Motherhood.

“I get to see these two gorgeous humans become who they’re going to be, and discover who that is. It’s definitely challenging, as everyone says, but it’s really special and I don’t take that for granted. To be able to pull myself away from them, a show has to say a lot, and Jagged Little Pill says a lot. But I’ll be excited to get back home to the best job in the world.”

Jagged Little Pill is playing at the Comedy Theatre. Tickets: jaggedmusical.com