Simone is very grateful to her best friends for that, she says in conversation with The Telegraph. “If I had to deal with that on my own… I couldn’t have,” she says. She has been good friends with the couple for forty years. “They were always there. Once a week we have extensive contact, we eat something or at least we call. I am very grateful to them for that, what would I have done without them?”
In the meantime, Simone does not want to think about her retirement. She works with a lot of love and passion on two Van Den Ende shows that will premiere this year. Joop reveals that they have drawn up a five-year plan together, so there is no question of stopping just yet.
The musical Sweeney Todd is a birthday present, says Joop. “I asked her: what do you want for your birthday? Simone then called Sweeney Todd. I could imagine something about that, because there is a role in it that you can play at the age of thirty, which is very unique, but also at sixty.”
He continues: “We’re only going to do it for a few weeks in April and May, but she wanted so badly to do this true Broadway classic again. I’m employed by my daughter Iris. She produces the show, I recommend. It will be a real tour de force. And indeed, a present from Janine and me for Simone.”
