Two sides of Cynthia Erivo: Dracula by night, marathon runner by day

For the past two months, Cynthia Erivo has spent close to two hours every night on stage at the Noël Coward Theatre. For that time, she is transformed into Count Dracula and 23 other characters featured in Bram Stoker’s novel for Kip Williams’ production. On Saturdays, she does two shows and on Sunday, she has the day off. Next week, she will be using that Sunday to run the London Marathon.

Anyone who has seen the show will know that Erivo is not someone who does things by halves. It should come as no surprise then that in order to prepare for the 26.2 miles, she recruited a professional marathon runner, American Erika Kemp, to train her for the race.

Kemp holds a personal best of 2hours 22min 56sec over the distance and represented the United States at the 2025 World Athletics Championships. Yet despite her career, Kemp describes her coaching experience as extending as far as “my friends asking me for questions because I’m good at running”.

So how do you prepare an actor in the middle of an extensive and exhausting stage commitment for something as gruelling as the marathon? Kemp and Erivo were paired by Kemp’s sponsors Brooks because they thought the duo would connect – Kemp describes herself as a “huge fan” of Erivo.

“With the running boom, a ton of people are getting into it but you have no idea what running means to them,” says Kemp. “Talking to her about running was crazy. She trains very seriously. But I guess I shouldn’t be shocked because she does seem very hard working. She is definitely a grinder. Always busy, always full of energy. I saw that reflected a lot in her training.”

Kemp was not sure how much Erivo would want to be in contact but when she asked Erivo about her expectations the response was clear: “Constant contact”. Erivo texts Kemp practically every morning.

With Erivo having already run two marathons – London in 2022 and New York City in 2016 – Kemp knew this was not a case of putting together a Couch to 5k programme for the actress.

“She said her big goal was to figure out how to get to that next step as an athlete,” says Kemp. “The goal she is shooting for is quite a bit faster than what she has run previously.” Erivo’s personal best is 3:35.36, which she ran in London. However, when Kemp began talking to her about how she trained, she realised there were a few ways Erivo could take the next step to reach her goal of 3hours 15min.

“I didn’t think she was varying the paces on her runs enough,” says Kemp. “She was putting in great miles but it was a lot of the same. One big thing I notice between amateur runners and professional runners is there is a huge variance in the paces that we run from day to day.”

Another change Kemp thought Erivo could make was to begin fuelling for her sessions and during races. “Fuelling was huge for her because she didn’t really do it,” she says. “I empathise with that. When I first started the longer distances I was reluctant to buy into the fuelling part of it. Cynthia was like, ‘Well, I don’t feel like I need it’.”It is a common attitude, with another celebrity marathon runner and trainer, Joe Wicks, being criticised this week for promoting running a marathon without fuelling. “I ran a marathon with no water, no toilet break, no food, so I don’t think we need as much as we’re told,” he said in an interview with The Running Channel about his work training Daddy Pig from Peppa Pig for the race. The Running Channel later edited out this comment from its interview.

“Forget the word need,” says Kemp, talking about fuelling. “It’s less of a need and more of a tool to help you run faster on the back half of the race, which is how you’re going to get to your goal.

“That got through to [Erivo]. After three weeks, she was fuelling regularly and she’s definitely noticed a difference in her energy at the end of those long sessions.”

Kemp is positive about the number of high-profile celebrities who are taking part in the running boom. Popstar Harry Styles was recently on the cover of global running magazine Runner’s World talking about his relationship with running. Last year Styles ran an impressive 2:59.13 at the Berlin Marathon.

“In general, I will always be a champion for running as part of a healthy lifestyle,” says Kemp. “It’s easily accessible, it’s not particularly expensive and you get a lot out of it.

“I think it’s good to see people out there running for fun. But it’s also nice to have someone like Cynthia putting a big scary goal out there and then training hard for it and going for it. Because I feel people struggle with getting on that start line without a purpose.”

Having prepared Erivo for London, will Kemp be throwing herself into more coaching?

“I think Cynthia would have been an incredible team-mate,” she says. “It’s been super easy to work with her because she’s so committed. She knows herself as an athlete and as a person. After her, I don’t think I could coach anyone else!

“I don’t think I have the credentials for newbies just yet but I do feel pretty confident with a semi-experienced runner. A really good coach can do it all but I’m not there yet. So business is not open just yet.”