Blood Brothers

Blood Brothers used to be my favourite musical. And in some ways it still is. It was the first play/musical I really fell in love with. I’ve seen Blood Brothers more times than I’ve seen Grease. My parents were always like “no not Blood Brothers again, how about some Shakespeare or Tom Stoppard or another musical? Or what about an opera, I’m sure you’d love the opera.” And I did go to see lots of other plays and musicals and eventually I even agreed to see an opera (which was a very good decision) and I enjoyed them and some of them I did see more than once like The Mousetrap and West Side Story (and there are loads of operas I’ve seen more than once, I’ve probably seen The Magic Flute more times than Grease).

Then I got into opera and I stopped seeing musicals but eventually once I’d seen most operas at least twice, I started to get interested in musicals again, I saw We Will Rock You and Grease (of course) and the other musicals I’ve reviewed on here and I kind of got thinking, well I’ve got to go and see Blood Brothers again haven’t I? That was always my favourite. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to go. It wasn’t that I was bored with it, I was just scared I was going to go, realise it was complete rubbish and feel really embarrassed that I’d given the show so much of my life (and my pocket money).

But anyway I finally went. For maybe the first five minutes, I wasn’t completely into it (although I loved the overture) but as soon as the first scene between Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons happened, I was just hooked. It is just one of the most involving and moving stories I’ve ever seen or read. It has the odd plot hole lying around (which you could also say about all my favourite operas) but you don’t notice that. There is just so much in the story.

Willy Russell wrote the book (that’s the musical’s equivalent of the libretto) and the lyrics, as well as composing the music. That’s unusual. Wagner did everything in his operas and to be honest he fucked it up a bit, some of that libretto could be cut down to half the length, he just says the same thing over and over again and it’s just boring. Even Wagner’s music’s boring except for Die Meistersinger which is basically The X Factor in German. Leoncavallo seems to be the only opera composer who seems to be any good at libretti and composition.

But Willy Russell does really well with everything too. I do have a few problems with the music which I’ll go into later but first of all, the book is brilliant. He has a big story to tell and he manages to scale it down to something like 90 minutes. And in that time he covers a good 20 years. You follow the stories not only of the twins but also their parents (well Eddie’s adopted parents and Mickey’s mam), the twins’ older brother Sammy and their friend Linda, who is loved by both Mickey and Eddie.

The text is very clever and witty, some of the humour is a bit puerile but he only uses that kind of humour when his characters are in a puerile stage of their lives and even though I still find that sort of thing really funny, half the fun is watching the characters being delighted by swearwords/obsessed with sex the way most seven/fourteen year olds are. But it’s not all jokes of course. There’s the Narrator, who is just terrifying (I’m sure he never used to be but he creeps me out now) and the bad luck and superstition is chilling rather than silly. Then of course the ending is heartrendingly sad and there are actually sad bits all the way through, I just didn’t notice them so much when I was younger. Russell can move the story from happiness to sadness and the writing is so clever, your emotions go wherever he wants him to. It’s manipulative but in such a rewarding way.

The lyrics are also good. You do get the odd dodgy rhyme and cringe-making moment but mostly it’s far cleverer than it seems at first. Russell’s lyrics rhyme and scan and make you laugh but at the same time he’s also making a point.

As for the music, Russell has actually composed some good songs. They are catchy songs and they do help to create the atmosphere on the play. The Narrator’s ‘Shoes Upon the Table’ is quite a frightening song whereas Eddie’s ‘I’m Not Saying a Word’ is sweet and romantic, Mrs Johnstone’s ‘Marilyn Monroe’ and ‘Living on the Never Never’ songs are really haunting and I just love the modulation in Living on the Never Never, I always loved that but I didn’t always know it was called modulation. You know in Leporello’s Catalogue Aria where it’s all funny then in the middle it just changes and you kind of see the darker side of Don Giovanni’s exploits? It’s obviously not as good as that because there’s only one Mozart and also Russell’s song is sad all the way through but it’s thrilling in the same sort of way, you really feel it inside you. Mickey’s ‘Long Sunday Afternoon’ wasn’t a song I liked much before but I loved it this time. The slowness of it and the almost random way the lines are sung shows Mickey’s boredom (which also used to make me bored) but it’s a beautiful song with a great originality about it

But the problem with the music – which also affects the lyrics – is that the musical doesn’t have many songs. The same songs appear over and over again. ‘Marilyn Monroe’ is sung three times – the lyrics are mostly different although Mrs Johnstone does keep mentioning Marilyn Monroe and dancing (it’s actually pretty clever the many ways Russell uses the word dancing) but the music is pretty much all the same with few variations. ‘My Child’ and ‘That Guy’ have the same tune and it also appears as ‘My Friend’ in the middle of ‘Long Sunday Afternoon’. ‘Shoes Upon the Table’ appears six times in total and (although I never realised this before) ‘Kids’ Game’ has almost the same chorus and even though the music of the verses isn’t quite the same, it basically follows the same pattern. ‘Easy Terms’ (which is sung through once and partly repeated later) and ‘Light Romance’ have the same tune and the same chorus (‘Living on the Never Never’). Then there are a couple of other songs which feature more than once but only briefly, not the whole song.

But that only leaves two songs that don’t appear anywhere else in the musical – ‘I’m not Saying a Word’ and ‘Miss Jones’. Then there’s also the overture which is stunning – the cast pretty much just sing oooo the whole time but it’s very exciting and beautifully sung.

All the songs are great but it would have been nice to have a few different songs as well. There are always good reasons for the same song to be heard again, there is always a link between the scenes – even ‘Kids’ Game’ shares a superstition theme with ‘Shoes Upon the Table’ - but maybe it would have been even better if there were either a couple more different songs or if the songs that appeared more than once were a bit more varied musically.

Another thing that I think would make the musical even better is a bigger ensemble. For one thing, they could have two covers for every role like Grease (some musicals have three or even four covers for some roles) and there wouldn’t be any need to panic every time there were two male cast members or two female cast members off. Sometimes when I’ve been, they’ve had to call in people at the last minute because they just don’t have enough cast members. I expect they do have people who are kind of on call anyway but if they just had a bigger ensemble, there would be less reason to worry. And also, it would mean more voices in the big ensembles and it would be the most amazing sound.

Also I think more people would really help being out the harmonies. In ‘Tell Me It’s Not True’ there are quite a few different musical lines but only the main tune really comes over strongly because that’s what most people seem to be singing. Also the actress playing Linda is usually crying by this point, either because she really is upset by the story or because she’s just done her big crying scene and she hasn’t stopped yet (or is still acting) so it’s unusual for her line to come out really strongly. Mrs Lyons has a high descant line which is really nice but she’s not at the front of the stage and the actress is partly turned away for some of the song so her line doesn’t come over strongly either. If they could get the harmonies and melody evenly balanced, I think the effect would be really amazing. The programme mentions that there was once a production using a big choir and it says ‘Tell Me It’s Not True’ sounded especially good and I can really imagine it did.

But in some ways I wouldn’t want them to change a thing. It’s such a powerful, moving piece of theatre as it is and it’s got a huge following of fans, the programme says there are people who have seen it over 100 times. So in a way it’s perfect already. It makes people love the show and how could you improve on that? The changes I’ve suggested might (or might not, I don’t really know what I’m talking about) make it a better work of art but probably nothing could give the play a greater emotional impact.

I noticed a few little differences in the performance like when Brenda comes to Linda’s wedding, she now wears a nice dress instead of a suit which I think is probably more realistic, if someone invited me to a wedding there’s no way I’d wear a suit but maybe that’s why I never get invited to weddings. Then there’s a scene where Mickey and Eddie go to the cinema to watch some naughty films and when they came out they meet Linda and her friend Brenda and the lads try to pretend they’ve been to a non-naughty film. Linda then says she and Brenda went to see the naughty film. I’m sure the girls never used to be in the cinema scene but this time, they were there. It’s just a small change but I really liked it.

Niki Evans sang the role of Mrs Johnstone. She came fourth in The X Factor the year that Rhydian shockingly only finished second. Actually, Niki coming fourth was a bit of a shock too since it meant that horrible cringe-making Same Difference were the final.

I really liked Niki though, I wouldn’t have minded so much if Rhydian had finished second to her. Niki really could sing well and she did perform her pop songs in an emotional way. But before I went to see her, I did kind of have reservations about her singing Mrs Johnstone. For one thing, the role is usually taken by women in their 40s or 50s, Niki is in her 30s so I wasn’t sure if she’d be able to bring the emotional depth to the role at that age, especially as the actors playing her children might be well be the same age as her or maybe even older. And of course, Mrs Johnstone is a big acting role as well. She’s feisty and funny and although the role is usually given to a pop singer, my favourite Mrs Johnstones are usually the understudies who have lots of training and experience as an actor. Also, Mrs Johnstone usually has quite a big rock-style voice and Niki always seemed more like a ballad singer.

So I was a bit worried about how Niki would cope but I really wanted to see her. And she really amazed me. Definitely one of the best Mrs Johnstones I’ve seen. She sings beautifully and she manages the rock style really well but she’s also an extremely talented actress. She’s completely at home on the stage and her comic timing is perfect. She was moving in the sad bits but you could also see her kind and motherly side – she was even getting motherly towards Mrs Lyons to begin with. At first I had a slight problem with the idea of giving one of your twins away (not something I’d ever worried about before) but in Niki’s performance you could really see the emotions that prompted it – sympathy for Mrs Lyons, a kind-hearted nature, and sheer desperation. Better to give a child to her rich employer than putting him into care where anything could happen.

Mrs Lyons was played by a much younger performer than usual. Mrs Lyons is an interesting role because you can play her as a completely nice person who gets caught up in something horrible, a right bitch who doesn’t deserve a child or someone who’s obviously off her trolley to start with. I always prefer the nice person interpretation so I was happy that Vivienne Carlyle was such a lovely Mrs Lyons. She also had some bitchy moments and mad moments but she was just so lovely to begin with. She seemed very sweet and young and you could tell how much she wanted a baby. She also has a beautiful singing voice, small but sweet and it’s a shame Mrs Lyons doesn’t even have more to sing. I would love to see Vivienne as Mrs Johnstone, the role she’s covering.

Actually both Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons seemed much younger than before. I used to think they were practically old ladies now I don’t even really think of them as ‘the grown-ups’. Niki is definitely younger than most Mrs Johnstones (although she had been made up to look older) and I think Vivienne is younger than a lot of Mrs Lyons’ but also I think I’ve grown up a bit so I’m identifying with the grown-up characters more than the children now. This time, I actually thought the children were sweet. I never used to think they were sweet. I used to think they were really fun and cool and I just wanted to play with them. Now I’d quite like to adopt them… but I won’t. This musical kind of puts me off the idea of adopting.

Mickey and Eddie were played by understudy Karl Greenwood, replacing Stephen Palfreman (I’ve seen him as Mickey before) and Simon Willmont. And there’s another weird thing. I always used to be in love with Eddie. I thought he was just adorable. This time, I find Eddie a bit annoying but I adore Mickey. Weird.

Maybe part of the reason why I love Mickey now is because Karl Greenwood is so brilliant. He was lovely. As a seven year old, he just seemed to be having a great time (he even enjoyed being ‘pissed off’ because he got to say a naughty word) and there was so much inventiveness in his performance, additions I’d never seen before. Karl didn’t just ride his imaginary horse, he tied it to the wall or the door so it didn’t run away and stroked it. He made little noises and pulled faces and it was great.

As a moody, hormonal teenager he was also very funny and again his body language was really convincing, the horniness and foot-shuffling embarrassment. Then as the Narrator takes you through the Summer Sequences, you gradually see him growing up and becoming more relaxed. The embarrassment does return when Eddie finally gets him to ask Linda out but then his determination to do just that and That Kiss really are very sexy.

Towards the end, the actor playing Mickey has yet another test of his abilities. Mickey’s desperation for money leads him to turn to crime, just once. He gets caught, goes to prison, becomes depressed and never really recovers. Karl’s performance was clever and heartbreaking. It was one of the best portrayals of depression I’ve ever seen onstage. The slow movements, the feeling he could break at any moment, it was all very sharp and real. Horrible to watch but completely compelling.

Simon Wilmont wasn’t a bad Eddie. I think the reason I didn’t like him as much as some of the other Eddies I’ve seen is because I’ve changed. He was very sweet and correct, he was adorably impressed by all Mickey’s rude words He is funny, he has a lovely light singing voice and he really is the complete opposite of Mickey in everything except his taste in girls. One bit I especially liked is where he comforts Linda when she’s upset about Mickey and even though he’s an older, more confident version of Eddie, he is still a bit shy of hugging the girl he’s not so secretly in love with. It’s almost like he has some idea of what might happen but like his (real) mother, he is kind-hearted and wants to help.

Linda was played by Louise Clayton. I have seen her as Linda before and she’s probably my favourite so I was excited about seeing her again, partly because she’s really good but also because I wanted to see if her performance had changed at all. I think maybe she wasn’t completely on top form but it was still a great performance and it hasn’t really changed. She still looks the same too. She’s funny and feisty throughout and also and annoying but utterly charming seven year old and a flirtatious and sexy teenager. Like Karl, she switches seamlessly into the more emotional, worried, scared, overworked Linda at the end. Louise has a lovely singing voice too and I could hear her fairly well in Tell Me It’s Not True.

Michael Southern looked quite old to be Sammy but he still did well as the child and his performances later on, as Sammy turns to crime, were really good. He was nasty and violent but somehow I couldn’t quite dislike him. His sister Donna Marie was played by Rebekah Clifford, who also played Miss Jones and various other small roles. Rebekah seems to be a great performer and she has an impressive biography for someone making their West End debut.

Christopher Dickins did well as Mr Lyons, for the first time I really saw signs of love between him and his wife although understandably he got annoyed with her sometimes. He was also funny as both milkmen. Alex Harland (I’ve seen him before too and he’s on two of my recordings) did well as the Bus Conductor and the Postman and various other roles and Steve Hansell was amusing as the Policeman/Teacher. Simon Turner was the goody-goody Perkins. He can’t laugh quite like David Bingham who used to play the role but I don’t think anyone can and he was very geeky. Simon played lots of other roles too – he mostly played nice characters but they were all different. Kate Sharp completed the cast as Linda’s friend Brenda.

So I’ve seen it again and I wasn’t disappointed and I’d love to see it again. But maybe not until next year.

Grease - Nineteenth Performance (May 2010)

I picked the right night to come to Grease. No fewer than five understudies were performing, including three I’d never seen before. In addition, I finally got to see a member of the new cast for the first time.

Bennett Andrews was on as Danny! I love him as Sonny and Kenickie but I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see him as Danny because the only way that can happen is if Noel Sullivan and Matthew Goodgame are both off. Which in a way isn’t something I really want to happen because I don’t want anyone to be ill. But maybe they were both on holiday or something.

Bennett was really lovely. He might even be my favourite Danny ever but he does have some competition. I really like how he played Danny. He was quite annoying at times (that’s not his fault, that’s how the character is written) but then every so often he’d just smile and it was one of the most disarming smiles I’ve ever seen. And then you can see why all the girls are in love with him, why the boys want to be like him, and why he gets away with murder. He was funny and loveable and he looked great in his gym shorts… what else does a Danny need?

Well he does need to be able to sing and Bennett can. He sounds like a real bass when he’s singing Kenickie and Sonny but he’s got all the high notes too and they sound great. His high notes aren’t quite as beautiful as his low notes, when Danny does have a low note Bennett sings it with this lovely warm burnished sound and you just think wow, he doesn’t have quite the same timbre on his high notes but it’s still a really nice voice.

As Matthew Goodgame wasn’t there and Bennett was sinigng Danny, it meant I had no choice but to see the second cover Kenickie too which I really really really didn’t mind. Damien Poole is the second cover Kenickie. I saw him as Vince the last time I came to Grease (he replaced Jason Capewell whom I’ve heard was delayed by the volcano) and I thought he was great but I did kind of wonder if he really looked young enough to play the other roles he was covering, Kenickie and Roger. As Vince, Damien looked old enough to be completely unconvincing when he tried to tell Marty he left high school last year.

But he didn’t look too old at all. He made a great high school boy and again his singing was brilliant. He has a huge range and a really flexible voice too, which he really showed off in Greased Lightnin’. He didn’t go into the character as deeply as some actors have done but he more than gave an impression of what Kenickie was like. The parts where his acting really stood out were the bits where he had nothing to say and was just in the background, like in the penultimate scene where he and Rizzo are arguing as the others are dancing and singing.

When Bennett is playing Danny, you will always see the second cover Kenickie but Bennett’s main role, Sonny, can still be played by the first cover Sonny, James Marshall. But James was off too so the second cover Sonny, Craig Tyler replaced him. Craig is also the second cover Doody which is a bit hard to imagine but I supposed that’s why they’re called actors. He was good as Sonny. He didn’t sing all Sonny’s low notes in Rock ‘n’ Roll Party Queen but that didn’t matter. He was so involved in the action, he didn’t need to sing too. In a way, it would have been wrong for him to sing because he was clearly much more interested in Marty than in singing with the others. He and Robyn Mellor (Marty) worked really well together.

But with Bennett as Danny, Craig as Sonny and James not there, it did leave the production a bit short of men. Kevin Archbold, Daniel Ionnau and Jon Reynolds were the only three men who weren’t playing a main role so they must have really been hoping nothing happened to anyone else as they only know one role between them (Daniel is first cover Eugene, Jon is second cover, Kevin doesn’t cover any roles). Except actually, one of them wasn’t there so there were only two men in the ensemble. I’m not sure which one wasn’t there but I think maybe it was Kevin. But whoever it was, it left them a bit short of men at the prom. The two remaining ensemble members danced with Rebecca Hodge and Sophie Zucchini which meant Niamh Bracken and Holly Fletcher had to go without (Charlotte Bull wasn’t there, or at least wasn’t performing, perhaps because the high school was overpopulated with girls as it was). Miss Lynch had stated quite clearly that all couples must be boy-girl so they couldn’t dance with each other.

They did manage to bring three male dancers on for Greased Lightnin’ but I think one of them was Michael Vinsen, who plays Eugene. I think the actor playing Eugene often, if not always, takes part in that scene. It’s nice when actors get to perform more than one role, like Jason Capewell when he’s playing Teen Angel as well as Vince, and Stephanie Marshall, who plays a Rydell High schoolgirl before appearing as Cha Cha in the second act. If an actor plays two completely different roles really well, you can see that they’re not only good but versatile too. So Michael gets to be sexy and co-ordinated, Stephanie gets to be demure and a nice person, Jason gets to be really camp and undo his shirt buttons. One of the reasons I like to see understudies is seeing the same actors in different roles. And I get to see that with these roles too.

They were also short of men for the final number, ‘You’re the One that I Want’. Again, only two ensemble girls could dance with a main partner. Interestingly, Sophie didn’t have a partner anymore. One of the ensemble boys was dancing with Rebecca again but the other was with either Niamh or Holly, I think Holly. Poor Cherie Loren (that’s Sophie’s character name) but it does give Grease an extra subplot. All the main couples in the musical have their own story of how they get together and they’re all different. But none of the main couples have a story where someone starts off with one person, then decides they like another person better (unless you count Danny taking Rizzo to the dance, Kenickie taking Cha Cha and Danny dancing with Cha Cha but I don’t think they actually liked each other in that way, they were just trying to prove a point). I wonder if the ensemble characters swap partners in every performance.

Maybe Cherie Loren got dumped because her boyfriend wasn’t happy with her behaviour at the prom. Sophie has started reacting in different ways when Miss Lynch disqualifies her from the competition. The time before last, she actually left the stage in a strop and I don’t think she came back for the rest of the scene. This time, she gave Miss Lynch the finger.

I did get to see one other performer for the first time. Victoria Hamilton-Barritt is the new Rizzo but she wasn’t there the last two times I saw Grease. I don’t want to be mean about her but I didn’t really enjoy her performance. She was funny, she has great comic timing and it was interesting to see the role played in a completely different way. She did give a real sense that Rizzo was playing a role in a way, that her sarcastic exterior was just a screen for a more vulnerable person underneath – there was something a bit contrived about her and I don’t think that’s necessarily wrong for the character. But I was just waiting for the moment at the end where we see the real Rizzo and she didn’t show this in a way that I was able to understand. I hope I’ll change my mind. There have been a few other performers I haven’t liked the first time but I do like them now. Maybe it’s just the shock of seeing such a different interpretation of the role.

The other two understudies were Faye Brookes, who was Sandy, and Alison Hefferon, who replaced her as Frenchy. If I see Alison one more time, I’ll have seen her more times than any other Frenchy. She was someone I wasn’t as sure of at first because I saw Frenchy as being a silly but quite gentle and sweet character. There was variation: Lucie Downer was shy and stammery, a bit like a female version of Doody whereas Emily Bull was far sexier and more sure of herself but in an almost unconscious way and Faye Brookes is excitably sweet. Alison’s Frenchy is much wilder and a bit mad and it didn’t seem right at first but now I really like her. She’s really funny and I can’t quite imagine her as a beautician which is part of what I love about her. I think I’d have a great time if she gave me a makeover and I hate makeovers, they’re boring. I might not be so keen on the result but I’m sure I’d enjoy it while I was there.

Faye was lovely as Sandy. Her interpretation of the role has changed a bit. She’s quite funny, so perhaps she’s been slightly influenced by Siobhan Dillon, the main Sandy. It seems completely natural and she hasn’t lost the goodness and wholesomeness that is such a big part of Sandy’s character, in particular her interpretation of it. Amazing voice too and it was hilarious at the end when she was trying to get Robin Cousins off the stage. He was hanging around, stealing her limelight and she was shooing him away! They really looked like they were having fun.

Robin was great as Teen Angel. He’s somehow not a bit camp which is quite surprising for a male ice-skater, especially one who sings falsetto, and he’s got such a lovely voice. It’s a shame he’s leaving in June but maybe he’ll join a different show. I’ll go and see him even if he’s in Wicked!!

It was also really good to see Susannah Allman as Patty again – it was only the second time I’d seen her. But I still don’t think Sandy should have thrown the pom-pom at her on purpose. Susannah is wonderfully annoying so you can kind of understand Sandy’s feelings, but throwing missiles, even soft fluffy ones - and ruining an entire cheerleading routine in front of a photographer - just isn’t very nice. And they probably aren’t that soft and fluffy. Sophie Zucchini does manage to knock Sandy over with one. And as Sophie does lose her wide cheerleader smile for a minute, that probably was an accident.

I finally worked out why Miss Lynch (Kerry Winter) is so annoyed with Doody (Benjamin Ibbott) at the prom. He was doing pelvic thrusts. I must have been looking at his face or something like that. I also worked out (I’m a bit slow) why Jan (Hayley Gallivan) lies down on the floor while Roger (Lucas Rush) is singing to her. She’s fainting because he’s so sexy when he hits that top note. Understandable really, I can’t think why I didn’t realise that before.

Grease - Eighteenth Performance (April 2010)

You can’t see Grease too many times. At least, I don’t think you can. But if you can I’ll probably find out sooner or later.

I got to sit in the front row which was an amazing experience. Sometimes the singers get so close to the stage, they’re almost on top of you. They’re all gorgeous though so it wouldn’t be a completely horrible experience if they did fall off the stage and land on top of me. One problem there though is that there’s quite a lot of smoke used in the production, some of it from actual cigarettes and some for special effects so I just had to try not to inhale when there was any of it onstage. I wonder what would happen if they had someone in the cast who had breathing problems like I do. Even if they did manage not to die, it would probably affect their singing.

There were lots of understudies at this performance but there were also some non-understudies whom I was seeing for the first time. Robin Cousins is the new guest star Teen Angel. I know him from Dancing on Ice and he’s also a former professional ice-skater and Olympic gold medallist so I was a bit surprised to find out he was in the show. You wouldn’t expect an ice-skater to be able to sing because ice-skating is so intensive, you wouldn’t have much time for anything else. But Robin sings really well. He’s got a really lovely voice and he sounds like a properly trained singer (and maybe he is, maybe he learned to sing after he’d retired from ice-skating). Robin will be with the show until June 19th so I should get to see him a few more times.

Matthew Goodgame was brilliant as Danny the last time I went but now I had the opportunity to see him as Kenickie for the first time. He acted and sang the role really well but in some ways I was quite disappointed because his Kenickie didn’t seem like a very nice person. He was all perverted and up himself. But that shows you how good Matthew’s acting is because his Danny was really lovely. It was like seeing a completely different person.

Michael Vinsen wasn’t there the last time I went so this was my first chance to see him as Eugene. I liked him. He’s a really happy geek. I really can’t imagine him as Vince/Teen Angel so I hope I’ll get to see him prove me wrong at some point. I think he’d be a lovely Doody though.

The only completely new (to me) understudy was Damien Poole. He covers Kenickie, Roger and Vince/Teen Angel so I think I’ve been quite unlucky not to see him before (although he is the second cover for Kenickie and until recently he was the second cover Vince/Teen Angel). But I got to see him as Vince at this performance. He wasn’t Angel of course because Robin was doing that but I hope I’ll get to see him in both roles one day because I really like him as Vince. He’s got a great singing voice and he also seems to enjoy all Vince’s DJ bits.

Noel Sullivan was back as Danny but Siobhan Dillon wasn’t there this time so Faye Brookes was Sandy. The first time I saw them together, they didn’t seem to have that much of an onstage connection – it might even have been the first time they’d performed together – but they’re great together now and they’ve completely solved the problem of Faye’s voice being ten times louder than anyone else’s. Noel is a surprisingly likeable Danny (well of course he is, he’s Welsh) and Faye is a lovely Sandy. Her top notes are really strong now too. They’re both really good singers but also their voices sound good together.

Rebecca Hodge played Rizzo again which means I still haven’t seen Victoria Hamilton-Barritt. Rebecca is great though. She’s a really moving performer and you can feel her emotions even more strongly when you’re in the front row. I would love to see her as Cha Cha sometime, firstly because of my whole understudy obsession but also because you don’t usually get to go deeply into Cha Cha’s emotions. So it will be very interesting to see if Rebecca can win Cha Cha some sympathy.

Holly Fletcher was the other understudy who performed. Luckily she was playing Patty, not Cha Cha so the show didn’t break down. Maybe she’s been reading my reviews (no, I don’t think she has really!) as she is making Patty nastier now. I like nice Pattys more than nasty Pattys because nice people are always nicer than nasty people, that’s what makes them nice. But if Patty’s nice, it’s more difficult to be on the Pink Ladies’ side when they’re mean to her. Holly is a great performer though. It’s great she’s the first cover for two roles but it would be lovely if she could start covering a bigger role. I think she’d be a really sweet Sandy or Frenchy.

Benjamin Ibbott and Alison Hefferon were Doody and Frenchy. Benjamin looks even sexier from the front row and Alison was very funny. Lucas Rush and Hayley Gallivan are working really well together as Roger and Jan. I especially liked Hayley’s performance in the penultimate scene - Jan really seemed upset about Rizzo. Bennett Andrews was also excellent in that scene. I love how he took his sunglasses off when he told Rizzo he’d be there if she needed to talk. It made him seem more genuine, like he wasn’t hiding behind his desire to be cool.

Robyn Mellor was Marty again. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this but I used to be really annoyed when Marty promises not to tell anyone Rizzo’s secret, only to blab to Kenickie three seconds later. But she doesn’t really promise. She says ‘I won’t say nothing’ and grammatically she’s not lying. She says she won’t say nothing and she doesn’t say nothing – she says something. But somehow I don’t think Marty is clever enough to know what she’s saying.

Kerry Winter and Stephanie Powell completed the cast as Miss Lynch and Cha Cha. Miss Lynch is still doing the announcement at the start of the show – I hope she keeps on doing it, it’s really funny but I wonder why she says ‘at this evening’s musical, the role of Sandy will be played by…’ instead of ‘at this evening’s performance’. Musical kind of implies they’re doing a different show every night and it might be more natural for a teacher to use the word performance if she was announcing cast changes in a school play. It doesn’t really matter though.

Stephanie was good as Cha Cha. I liked her before but she seems a bit more predatory now. I could see from the front row that her strapless dress actually has clear straps. I always wondered how that dress stayed up, Cha Cha really throws herself around the stage. Sandy’s sexy outfit doesn’t seem to have straps although it’s hard to tell as she didn’t get very close to me but she’s a lot more restrained in her movements so she’s less likely to end up having an embarrassing accident.

Wicked!

Wicked! is supposed to be the most popular musical in the West End but I really can’t see why. There were some things I liked about this performance – mostly to do with the cast – but I just don’t think it’s a very good musical. If you only want to read good stuff about this musical, you might like to skip the next thirteen paragraphs because I’ve got a lot to moan about.

When I go to see a musical, I like to walk out of the auditorium with the songs in my head. I’m pretty good at remembering songs and when I see a good performance, it’s quite surprising if I can’t remember any of the songs. I’ve even been able to remember bits from modern operas and they don’t usually have many tunes at all.

But in Wicked!, none of the songs really grabbed me. They were just notes sung and played very loudly. They weren’t horrible tunes especially, there just wasn’t anything that was melodically or harmonically interesting to me. The lyrics were a bit weak too. I was a bit surprised as Stephen Schwartz also composed and wrote the lyrics for Godspell which is a brilliant musical.

Also I don’t think Winnie Holzman's libretto of Wicked! is particularly good. There were a few very funny lines, which were very well delivered by the cast and I loved how she explained why there just happened to be a Scarecrow, a Tin Man and a Lion wandering around Oz. It was all cleverly done. But maybe Gregory Maguire, who wrote the original novel, should probably take credit for the twists in the story (I say ‘probably’ because it’s possible the librettist might have added some twists).

The story never seemed rushed and it fitted easily into the 2 hours and 25 minutes. The dialogue told you who the characters were and you never got them confused. It was very easy to follow what was going on. So it wasn’t all bad.

But mostly the words seemed rather uninspired. It wasn’t sharp, snappy, illuminating dialogue. Even the jokes were often carried on a bit long. It was funny for Glinda to take up a new hobby called ‘thinking’ but the whole concept of her changing her name from Galinda to Glinda didn’t really seem necessary. Lines like ‘my name is GAHlinda with a GAH’/my name is Glinda, the GAH is silent’ were quite funny but it didn’t really seem relevant or necessary. There’s nothing wrong with changing your name but if you’re writing a musical about it, there needs to be a point to it.

I could see the big twist coming a mile off, which didn’t really matter but I do think there must be a better way for Glinda to solve the mystery. It all seemed a bit far-fetched.

I also have reservations about the whole idea of writing something based on an existing work of fiction. It can be great – I love the new Naughtiest Girl in the School books written by Anne Digby and The Land of Green Ginger, a sequel to Aladdin, is a work of genius. But I feel these works of ‘fanfiction’ are respectful to the original works and other than the odd mistake, they don’t seem to make any major changes to the characters that affect the original stories. I hated Emma Tennant’s sequels to Pride and Prejudice. My opinion was that they weren’t that well-written, that interesting or that Austenian (although setting yourself up as the next Jane Austen isn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world) but the thing that really bothered me about the books was that they changed your whole perception of incidents and characters in Pride and Prejudice. I’m not sure people should do things like that.

Wicked! rewrites the whole story of the Wizard of Oz, telling you pretty much that actually the original story was a load of rubbish and this was what really happened. I’m not a huge Wizard of Oz fan but it’s a musical, film and book that has made a lot of people very happy. So now these people come along and tell you that it’s pretty much all a big lie, that Dorothy was an annoying, snivelling little farm girl, that the Wicked Witch of the West was lovely and Glinda is a stuck-up cow. It just doesn’t seem right somehow. And if the plot of Wicked! is that strong (not that I think it is) it ought to be able to stand on its own without using an existing story.

But I felt the worst thing for me was what seemed to be the central message of the musical. I actually found it very depressing and offensive. I think the intentions of the story are probably good – the girl with the wrong-coloured skin saves the world. But the problem is, no-one ever knows she saves the world. All the citizens go on believing she’s the Wicked Witch of the West and that she’s a horrible, evil person. Just as they go on believing that Glinda, the beautiful, personable one, is a really lovely person.

So the message here seems to be that if you’re different in any way, if you look different or you behave differently, people are going to think you’re evil – but that’s okay if believing that is going to make everyone happy. The first part is true, there are people who think I’m evil just because I’m not very good at social things like chatting and practical things. And a lot of people clearly do think it’s okay to think that about me. But it isn’t okay. I’m sure I’m not that bad, I’m sure I have some good qualities, and I really want to believe there are some people out there who actually like me. Stories like Wicked! just make me feel there’s no hope for me.

I can see why Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) doesn’t want Glinda to tell people the truth about her. But Glinda should have told them the truth anyway. It’s not fair for everyone to think Elphaba is evil, that she was born to be evil and that she was destined to turn out bad. It’s not fair on Elphaba and it’s definitely not fair on any other babies who happen to be born with green skin.

It’s probably also not very fair on Glinda. I think she really learned a lot from Elphaba, for example that beautiful people can be bad and unconventional-looking people good, that sometimes it’s good not to have your own way, that there are more important things in life than being popular, that just because she’s adored it doesn’t mean she deserves to be. But at the end, people just go on adoring Glinda and I’m not sure that’s very good for her. In a way, nothing has changed. Everyone thinks they’ve been proved right in their belief that people who are different are horrible. The two ‘Wicked Witches’ in this musical are the green-skinned girl and the girl in the wheelchair, while the ‘Good Witch’ is the beautiful blonde girl. And I find that pretty disgusting really.

This musical does have some brilliant performers though. The main reason why I wanted to see Wicked! was because Louise Dearman and Emma Green are in it. They definitely didn’t disappoint me, except possibly by their taste in musicals. Louise played Glinda (or Galinda before she changed her name). Glinda isn’t really a likeable character. She’s very shallow and stupid and annoying.

But Louise is such an amazing performer, I did kind of like Glinda anyway. I wanted her to have a happy ending. Her comic timing was always brilliant – even when the dialogue wasn’t funny, Louise could bring some humour to it. She has a big stage presence and she also sings and dances wonderfully. Her singing is seriously good. No matter what rubbishy music she’s singing, her voice always sounds beautiful. She sings in a classical, almost operatic voice at times and a big, belty rock voice at other times. Glinda has a big vocal range but Louise never seemed even slightly tested.

Emma only had a very small role although she did appear in the ensemble scenes too. She played Elphaba’s mother. She didn’t do much – although she did have to go into labour onstage, which must have been a big acting challenge – and when she was onstage, the lighting was very dark so I never really got a good view of her. But it was great to see her doing some more dancing and to hear her sing a little bit. One of the few reasons I’m glad I saw Wicked! is because I got to see just how versatile Emma is. I thought she did well to do so much with the characters of Marty and Patty in Grease but Elphaba’s mother is a completely different character again, an older, much more seductive character and Emma played that role really well too.

Elphaba’s father was played by Gareth Chart. He wasn’t always a very nice character. He didn’t want to touch Elphaba when she was born and his attempts to ensure his second daughter Nessarose wasn’t born green resulted in the death of his wife and the confinement of Nessarose to a wheelchair. But I’m not sure he meant to be horrible. He wanted a child who could be Governor of the Munchkins after him and he didn’t think Elphaba would be accepted, which was a fair point – although who knows what would have happened if he’d accepted her himself? And I wonder if maybe he knew that his wife had a wizard from another dimension hidden in her cupboard - that would piss anyone off. Gareth made him seem more unhappy than horrible. It would have been interesting to see a bit more of him but he died too.

Elphaba was played by Rachel Tucker. She, like a number of the cast, was a finalist in a reality TV show – and there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s no reason why a good performer shouldn’t enter a reality TV show. In many ways, it makes sense because it brings you to producers’ attention more quickly than would have happened otherwise – and hopefully stops the less talented performers from getting the best roles. It sort of fast-tracks you into the West End.

I thought Rachel was pretty good. She wasn’t exceptional as a singer although maybe I’d have been more impressed if she hadn’t been sharing star billing with an outstanding Glinda. Her voice was very powerful but it’s not a particularly beautiful voice and she seemed challenged by the tessitura (althogh it's hard to judge when I've only seen one performance, I bet even Louise Dearman ha bad days). Rachel's acting however was brilliant. I was deeply annoyed and offended by the story but I still really felt for Elphaba, and Rachel gave a really good portrayal of what it was like to be different. You could see why people thought her behaviour was evil but at the same time, you knew it wasn’t.

Cassandra Compton played Elphaba’s sister Nessarose, the disabled girl who ends up being known as the Wicked Witch of the East. I actually don’t think Nessarose is that bad. It seemed like she’d been cosseted and cared for all her life and then suddenly her father dies and she has to become the Governor. Even though she’d apparently been groomed for it since before she was born, she never really seemed like the leader type. I think it was all too much for her when she did become the Governor so I had some sympathy for her although I did still find her very difficult to like. It would have been better if she had been remembered as someone who had tried really hard but been unable to manage in really challenging circumstances, rather than as the Wicked Witch of the East.

Cassandra played the role really well, convincing as the sweet, shy Nessarose and the horrible one as well. Cassandra was in The X Factor and I saw her as Mary in The Secret Garden when I was about 11, Cassandra was probably about the same age as me, maybe a year or two older. I was really impressed with Cassandra then because she already seemed like a complete performer. Her voice then was quite sweet like a child’s voice but it was a big sound and the challenging role of Mary was no trouble for her. Nessarose wasn’t a difficult role for her either although I think Cassandra’s vocal talents were wasted a bit in this role. She had so little to sing (although she sounded great when she did) and when she finally got her big scene, she had to spend a lot of it screaming rather than singing.

Lee Mead, who won Any Dream Will Do, was supposed to be singing the role of Fiyero (the hero, loved by Glinda and Elphaba), but he was replaced by his first understudy Lewis Bradley who was also in Any Dream Will Do. I like Lewis a lot. His character is fun and likeable, he has a really beautiful singing voice and a lovely bottom. What more could you ask for? I love how there was so much dancing in his role. Even when he was just walking, he was so graceful, it was almost like he was dancing. But he never seemed weird or camp.

George Ure was Boq, who loves Glinda but marries Nessarose. He was very sweet and geeky to start with and also did well once he’d had the spell put on him (I won’t say any more about that in case anyone doesn’t know the story and wants to see the musical). His character was quite small and insignificant in some ways but he still had a big stage presence. Later on, he wasn’t such a likeable character but Nessarose had probably driven him mad, poor man.

I wasn’t quite so keen on Julie Legrand as Madame Morrible, but I think that was more because of how the role was written than the way Julie played it. The character was a bit like a pantomime villain and Julie was a really good pantomime villain but I find multi-faceted villains more interesting really. Clive Carter’s Wizard of Oz was also quite disappointing but I think that was the whole point.

Shirley Jameson was great as the midwife though. It was only a tiny role but there was a moment where she had to try to give the green baby to Elphaba’s father and he won’t take it. She tries again but he shouts for her to take it away, so she walks away, cradling it in her arms. That was a great moment, in a horrible sort of way.

One part of the musical I really loved were the talking animals. Julian Forsyth was Doctor Dillamond, one of Elphaba and Glinda’s lecturers at university. He was a goat and he seemed like a good teacher but there was a movement to get rid of all the talking animals from their jobs and try to stop them from talking. His scenes were really sad, he seemed like a really nice and also an intelligent goat (not that the horrible stupid goats should be stopped from talking) and I found it an interesting and touching, rather than insulting, way of showing how people who are different can be pushed out of society. But maybe that’s because I’m not a goat.

Sam Wilmott was Chistery, one of the Wizard’s flying monkeys. He was sweet. I really liked the monkeys. They did lots of acrobatic dancing. I really liked the choreography all the way through. It was really varied and the dancing actually demonstrated the emotions in the piece a lot more strongly than the music did. There’s no choreographer credited but James Lynn Abbott did the dance arrangements so it was probably him. It was also clever when the monkeys’ wings grew.

Wicked! is full of special effects and clever lighting effects by lighting designer Kenneth Posner. The stage, the rest of the auditorium and even the foyer looked really beautiful and atmospheric. The ushers were dressed up quite witchily and they looked great.

Maybe that’s what people like about Wicked!, a really atmospheric set can often make the story and the music seem better but it didn’t seem to work with me this time. If other people really do love it, I don’t mind. Why shouldn’t they love it? I’m not sure it sets a great example of how to treat people who are different but even though most people are horrible to me, I don’t usually get treated as badly as Elphaba and I think most people know they can’t behave like that and this musical is unlikely to change their minds.

For me, Wicked! is a bit like Glinda really. It looks beautiful and sparkly and fun but there’s little but nastiness and cruelty under the surface.

Les Misérables (yes I know it's not Grease!)

Queen’s Theatre

I really wasn’t sure I’d like this. I saw it when I was little and I thought it was boring and too operatic, I didn’t like how there wasn’t any spoken dialogue. Now of course I see opera more than anything and I think anything that does have spoken dialogue sounds a bit odd. I don’t mind Mozart’s Singspiels in German but as soon as you start translating them into English, I’m a bit funny with that too. Even though I love Grease, which has spoken dialogue.

I thought this time that I’d think Les Mis wasn’t operatic enough. But I didn’t think that at all. It’s not the most operatic thing I’ve ever heard but it is very classically sung. There aren’t any American accents like you get in Grease and pop songs. The vibrato is like you’d get in lighter operatic styles (I mean light as in Mozart and Handel, not like operetta). I enjoyed the singing a lot.

The production is big and complicated, with loads of huge sets (designed by John Napier), a revolving stage and at least one trap door. It was all very slick and professional. There were no creaks or groans from the set and you didn’t really notice when a new bit of scenery was being put into place, it just seemed to appear. David Hersey is credited with the lighting which is funny in a way because there wasn’t a lot of lighting, the stage always seemed very dark. But in a way, that shows you how clever the lighting was. It seemed dark but you could always see what was going on.

The orchestra sounded great too. It obviously wasn’t a full orchestra and I heard the number of musicians has been cut down since it moved from the Palace Theatre to the Queen’s and that some of the music was electronically produced but it didn’t sound all mechanical or anything like that. It just sounded like a really good small orchestra. It says the orchestra is ‘under the direction of’ Adam Rowe so I’ll assume he was the conductor, he did a good job I thought. And you could see his stick waggling about all the way through, which was nice.

Les Mis doesn’t have the best musical score ever. It does have quite a few songs but they tend to be recycled a lot. So you’ll get the same song, or phrases from the same song, done several times. But that was actually okay. If a song was repeated, there was nearly always an obvious reason for it. There was a connection between the scenes with identical tunes (although usually different words)

Three of the main stars weren’t there which meant I had to see some understudies but I love seeing understudies so I was really happy. In some ways, understudies are more exciting with something like Grease which I see a lot because you can compare the different performers. But there’s also something special about seeing an understudy because it’s a version of the role most people don’t get to see. Also, most reviews tend to be of the main cast so the understudies won’t have many reviews of their performances. Well they’re getting a review on this blog. Even if they’re not interested in reading reviews, it all helps to put their names out there on the web.

The only complaint I have about the understudy announcement is that they only said who would be playing Valjean, Javert and Fantine. The understudies who replaced them all have their own roles as well but it didn’t say who was going to replace them in these roles. They do only have very small roles though and there are so many small roles, it would probably take forever to announce every single cast change.

Even so, it does make reviewing more difficult when I’m not completely sure who I saw. There might also be understudies who I don’t know about. I know that Lesgles, the Factory Foreman and the Crone were almost certainly all performed by understudies because the main performers had been promoted to the big roles. But there could have been other small roles which were played by understudies too.

The Jean Valjean I didn’t get to see was Simon Bowman, who is Welsh. But I still got to see a Welshman in the role because he was replaced by Jonathan Williams. Jonathan was excellent. I know understudies are supposed to be so good, you wouldn’t guess they were understudies but Valjean is such a huge role and he changes so much during the course of the musical. Jonathan really commanded the stage right from the start and was completely convincing whether he was a dodgy convict, the respectable but distant Mayor, the kind and caring man who rescues Fantine (and I think he falls in love with her too), the protective father of Cosette, the brave volunteer fighter, or the old man nearing the end of his life.

He was quite unlikeable early on (although there was something compelling about him) but once he was over being a criminal I liked him a lot. Jonathan looked very handsome (until he got all old) and he was very charismatic. He has a really beautiful voice too. The role has a huge range and at the top of the range, he seemed to go into falsetto (or he tilted his larynx like counter tenors do) but it always sounded really lovely and not unnatural to sing those lines in a slightly different way.

Hans-Peter Janssens was off as Javert and in some ways it was disappointing not to see him as he is a real opera singer who has sung Don Giovanni and Demetrius among other roles. But he too had an excellent replacement. Javert is a difficult role because he’s a bit of a wanker but I really like how Jeff Nicholson performed the role. He said all the cruel things but there was something quite human and slightly vulnerable about him.

Also I’d like to say Javert isn’t quite that bad. Valjean says so himself, Javert has done some bad things but he was only doing his duty. And there are times when Javert could have dragged Valjean back to prison but he doesn’t. Early on, Valjean asks Javert to put off arresting him for three days while he rescues Cosette and in three days time he’ll come back and be arrested. Does he keep his word? Of course he doesn’t. He runs off with Cosette and Javert doesn’t find him again for years. Then later on Javert has another chance to nab him but he agrees to let Valjean take Marius to hospital instead. So I think in some ways, Javert is pretty understanding.

Jeff did a great job with Javert’s suicide. The bridge he threw himself off was only a few inches off the ground and I was thinking, oh dear this is going to look really crap. But it was actually an amazing piece of action and it didn’t matter that he was just standing up and waving his arms around before falling to the floor and rolling offstage. It was really dramatically done and a real OMG he’s going to die moment.

Natalie Day replaced Rebecca Seale as Fantine. Fantine dies pretty early on but she’s an important character up to that point and she gets the big ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ solo. It’s a small role but one with so many acting challenges. Natalie was heartbreaking at the lovely, innocent (except for the illegitimate child), trusting, well-meaning girl who becomes a prostitute in order to keep Cosette alive. She sang beautifully too although it was a shame that her most passionate lines were performed as they were – the words shouted and screamed instead of sung, with lots of arm-waving. I won’t blame Natalie for that though as she certainly wasn’t the only singer who did it, it must be a director thing and quite possibly something audiences at musicals like to see. I think singing it beautifully would be far more affecting but maybe that’s because I’m used to operas and their conventions, if I went to musicals regularly and operas occasionally I bet I’d think it was the operas that were weird. (And how many people would disagree with that?)

The main reason I wanted to see Les Mis was because I heard that Emily Bull, who was brilliant as Frenchy and First Sandy Cover in Grease, was singing the role of Cosette, which she’d previously covered. Cosette and Frenchy both go for geeky boys but apart from that they’re completely different roles. Emily acted the role beautifully and her voice was lovely too, quite soft and sweet but perfectly audible. The only problem was that the role seemed a bit high-lying for her. The single high notes were gorgeous and easily hit but any high-lying phrase seemed like a bit of a stretch. Maybe she was having an off-night vocally because she is a great singer.

Alastair Brammer played Cosette’s boyfriend Marius. He was just my type, all sort of geeky and emotional, a really lovely character. He has a really sweet tenor voice and lovely curly hair (I can quite understand why Eponine loves how it grows) and he did a great job of pretending to be half-dead, hanging off Valjean’s shoulder. That must have been so uncomfortable.

I like Cosette a lot but unlike Marius I would have chosen Eponine. Eponine is the Other Woman in a way and she’s conveniently killed off before she gets too much in the way of the plot but she’s actually a lovely character and her death is one of the saddest moments in the opera. I’m serious, I nearly got drowned because my boyfriend was crying so much. And I really don’t think he could have coped with a second death at that moment (luckily Valjean managed to hang on for another hour).

Eponine is brave, resourceful, intelligent, soppily in love with Marius, who sees her just as a friend, and completely loyal to him. And I’m sure it might have happened for them if Cosette hadn’t come along. Marius told Eponine he loved Cosette but he didn’t know her name and he asked her to find out who she was. And she actually did it. I bet plenty of perfectly nice girls would have pretended they couldn’t find Cosette.

Nancy Sullivan played Eponine and it was an amazing acting performance. Everything I saw in Eponine’s character I saw because of the way Nancy played the role. She also has a lovely voice although she’s another who had to scream notes when she got really upset. I think she’s probably a good dancer too. I don’t think Eponine dances but Nancy had to do lots of climbing and she was very sure-footed.

The stars for most of the audience were M. and Mme Thénardier, two really horrible people who abused Cosette whilst indulging Eponine (it’s a miracle she turned out as nice as she did). But the audience loved them. Well, they probably agreed with me that they were horrible, cruel, money-grabbing wankers but most people found that really funny. Martin Ball and Lorraine Bruce did perform the roles well. They were vibrant and full of character and they have big, powerful voices. I just didn’t find them very funny.

Maybe I might have liked them more if their big scene hadn’t been full of people vomiting (that was scarier than the gun shots, it really was) but they didn’t sing in very nice voices and their acting was exaggerated and they seemed really grotesque and grasping. But I’m sure that’s exactly why they’re so funny and why everyone else in the theatre loved them. And I do think ‘Let’s all raise a glass/Raise it up the master’s arse’ is one of the best lines in musical theatre. I did think that was funny.

Gavroche was the funniest character for me. He’s played by a boy and I’m not sure which one he was – either Jamie Davis, William Eddon, Jonathan Gardner or George Sargeant – but he was great. He had great stage presence and he really seemed to be having a great time. He sang well too and his voice sounded a lot stronger than most young boys’ voices although he was probably discreetly miked up.

Little Cosette sings too – the famous Castle on a Cloud song. She was played by Sasha Eastabrook, Jemima Eaton, Sally Ann Gray or Chloe Panayi. Her music didn’t seem as challenging as Gavroche’s but she sang very sweetly and it just makes me think, why aren’t there more young girls in opera? Why not have some girls instead of some boys in The Magic Flute or a really young Flora in The Turn of the Screw instead of someone who’s probably old enough to drink in America? Or in Albert Herring they usually have a real boy as the boy but two grown-up singers to be the girls. I bet there are loads of girl singers who sing really well but don’t get the chance to show it as much as boys do.

Maybe my favourite voice in the performance was David Thaxton’s. He’s actually an opera singer who’s been in The Rake’s Progress and The Cunning Little Vixen. I didn’t know that until I’d got home but even though Enjolras isn’t a huge role, I really noticed him because I liked his voice so much. He’s probably not really the best singer, it might be just that I love opera voices slightly more than any other kind of voice (although I like all kinds of music really, I love r’n’b too) so he stood out for me. I still think he’s a great singer though.

It would be difficult to mention all the other singers and I’m not sure I do remember quite everyone but there were some performers who particularly stood out. The understudy who replaced Jeff Nicholson as the Factory Foreman was great, he really made a lot out of the small role. I didn’t like the character though, he was horrible. Gavin James who played the Bishop of Digne was a lovely man, he seemed really kind and gentle. I liked the Whores too. One of them was Chloe Brooks, who I loved as Jan and Miss Lynch in Grease. She isn’t covering any of the big roles but she’s probably covering some of the smaller roles. I might have recognised her but I’m not very good at recognising people.

Grease - Seventeenth Performance

March 2010 performance

There’s been a new cast at Grease for nearly a month now but I haven’t been because I’m scared of one of the guys at the box office. But he wasn’t there this time so it was okay. There was a nice man there instead. There were nice men all over London last night. Even the guy who thought I was a popstar was nice. Probably a bit drunk, he thought I was black and I don’t even have a tan. But he was nice.

I think there’s a bit of a curse thing going on at Grease. Every time I go to see it and Holly Fletcher is on as Cha Cha, there’s a technical hitch. Last time they had to cancel the whole second act. This time they just lowered the curtain while they sorted a few things out. But it was still a technical hitch and Holly was Cha Cha and I was there. So it’s probably a good idea if I don’t ask her out. If we’re in the theatre, we just get a technical hitch but if we go anywhere else the whole world could end. Oh well, I’m probably not her type anyway.

Holly is a great Cha Cha though. As with her Patty, maybe she is a little bit too nice but that doesn’t stop her from being scary and sexy. She’s an amazing, effortless dancer, even her hand jiving looks elegant and graceful.

Noel Sullivan (Danny) was ill and new cast members Victoria Hamilton-Barritt (Rizzo), Michael Vinsen (Eugene) and Stephanie Powell (Cha Cha) were also off. And I think ensemble member Daniel Ioannou wasn’t there either. He’s the first Eugene cover but he didn’t perform Eugene and there were only three ensemble boys so he can’t have been there.

I’ve always wondered about how the understudy system works. The actor playing Kenickie always seems to cover Danny, Sonny always seems to cover Kenickie, Frenchy always seems to cover Sandy, Eugene always seems to cover Doody and Miss Lynch always seems to cover Jan.

But for the others, there are slight similarities in the roles they play but if you replace one singer in a main role, it doesn’t automatically mean you’re going to cover the same roles as your predecessor did. The current Marty, Robyn Mellor, is the second Sandy cover but her predecessor Emma Stephens didn’t cover Sandy. When she first joined the show, there were probably two people covering Sandy already (probably whoever was playing Frenchy and Charlotte Bull). Emma did audition to cover Sandy but that was after she’d been playing Marty for a while and both the first and second Sandy covers were leaving. So it’s like being ‘second Sandy cover’ is a role in its own right, and not part of being Marty. (Of course, Emma didn’t get to be a Sandy cover. She got the role of Sandy instead.)

A couple of the old cast members have taken on new roles as covers. Niamh Bracken remains as the first Marty cover and the second Miss Lynch cover but she’s now also the second Rizzo cover. James Marshall is still the first Sonny cover but he’s also the second Roger cover. I really hope I get the chance to see them in their new roles.

Matthew Goodgame is the new Kenickie but with Noel off, he took the role of Danny. Now, if you’ve read any of my other blogs (in which case I love you) you’ll know that I don’t really like Danny as a person. He’s just not my type. The old Danny cover, Stuart Ramsay, was really funny and I really enjoyed Noel’s performance last time I saw him but I still wouldn’t really want to go out with their Dannys. Given the choice of the T-Birds (and it does crack me up that the cool guys call themselves birds), I would have choosen Doody, Roger or Eugene every time. Or maybe Doody, Roger and Eugene.

But I adored Matthew as Danny. He’s funny like Stuart (he does the burp and the squeaky voice and everything), he has a really gorgeous voice and there was something really lovely and likeable about him. He said all Danny’s horrible lines which usually piss me off so badly but they didn’t seem nearly as bad when Matthew says them. He had a strong stage presence too. Really magnetic.

He’s also great in a crisis. During the technical hitch, he tried to keep the performance going while the backstage crew sorted it out. He called after Sandy one more time. He sat there in Kenickie’s car and did a bit of miming, in character the whole time. I actually thought he’d added some extra bits to the role until some of the stage crew came onstage to wheel him and the car away (I think they needed to move the car to bring the curtain down). As the car was wheeled away, he started to sing ‘Sandy’ quite softly without accompaniment. It was great.

Then when the performance restarted, he sang the first line again (‘stranded at the drive-in’) and made a face as he said it and he got a big laugh as the audience recognised he literally had been stranded. He got a short applause too but then everyone shut up and let him get on with singing the song, which he did brilliantly.

Toby Anstis was the special guest star playing Vince/Teen Angel. I was a bit confused about which roles he was going to play because the programme just says he’s singing Teen Angel. Vince isn’t in the programme at all except in the list of songs but Toby sang both roles. Jason Capewell is the usual Vince/Teen Angel but I think he’s been directing a production in South Africa so Toby took over both his roles. But then there was an announcement that Jason, who is only in the current programme as resident director, was going to play the role of Johnny Casino, who isn’t mentioned in the programme at all. Johnny used to sing at the dance contest but for this production they’ve got rid of his role and given his song to Vince instead. It says in the list of songs that it’s sung by Vince.

Except in this performance, Johnny Casino was back. So probably what happened is Jason came back from South Africa and decided he wanted one of his songs back I wish I could do things like that, just show up and take any role I wanted. I wouldn’t want to be Vince/Teen Angel/Johnny Casino, I’d rather be Frenchy or Rizzo but I do think I’d look good in Teen Angel’s silver foil (which Tiby actually didn't wear).

Toby and Jason both did well. Toby isn’t really a singer although he has a nice voice and it didn’t sound horrible or anything. He just sounds like he’s not a proper trained experienced singer which he probably isn’t. So he might have been quite glad for Jason to take one of his songs and give his voice a rest. Toby also struggled a bit with Vince’s DJ stuff. Toby is a DJ himself but it must actually be easier for an actor to play the role of a DJ than for a DJ to pretend to be a different DJ and speak in a different accent. But I liked Toby’s performance because as both Vince and Teen Angel, he came across as a really likeable guy

Jason did really well as Johnny Casino. He can’t have been singing the role when he was in South Africa or wherever he was but I suppose one of the Vince/Teen Angel understudies might have done the Johnny Casino bit if Toby couldn’t. The Johnny song is very low-lying and you have to sing in quite a bluesy jazzy style so I bet there are loads of singers who do a great Teen Angel but couldn’t manage ‘Born to Hand Jive’. Not everyone could do bass and counter tenor eight times a week like Jason.

Neither Toby nor Jason did the understudy announcement at the beginning of the show – Miss Lynch did it again. Kerry Winter is playing Miss Lynch now and she did a great job. I definitely prefer Miss Lynch making the announcement as she says all the understudy names slowly and clearly and it’s really funny being told off by a scary teacher. She also said we’d get detention if we left our mobile phones on (which I actually did but it was on silent).

Lucas Rush is the new Roger and I love him. The last two Rogers – Kristofer Harding and Michael Melmoe – were both brilliant but so different. Lucas isn’t like either of them. He’s loud and rowdy but there’s still something very sweet and gentle about him. He worked really well with Hayley Gallivan, the new Jan. Hayley is an extra-loud and bolshy Jan and I love how she dances. Every step looks perfect but she manages to make herself look clumsy and unco-ordinated, which does make sense as Jan is supposed to be fat.

Susannah Allman plays Patty. I like Patty as a blonde as she’s so much the perky blonde cheerleader type and Susannah played up to the stereotype really well. Second cover Jon Reynolds was Eugene. He’s not quite as inventive as some of the other Eugenes I’ve seen but everything he has to do, he does really well. And he made sure we got a good view of his pants, which is one of my favourite parts of the show.

As Matthew was Danny, Bennett Andrews was Kenickie and James Marshall was Sonny. I’ve seen them before loads of times. In fact, although they’re only the covers for that role, I’ve seen Bennett more times than any other Kenickie and James more times than any other Sonny. But anyway, I’ve got lots to say about the rest of the cast so I’ll just say they were both really good, as they always are.

I saw Siobhan Dillon as Sandy for the second time. I really loved her the first time because she was so completely different from any other Sandy I’ve seen. Her Sandy is very confident and it works. She’s also funny. I did enjoy her performance very much this time and she is an amazing singer and her final transformation is more believable when you’ve already seen her wiggling her bottom at Danny. But there are definitely also advantages when you have a really shy and vulnerable Sandy.

Rebecca Hodge played Rizzo. She gave a really lovely, relaxed performance and I loved how after she made a bitchy comment, she often did a really nice smile as though to say she was just teasing. I loved how she sang ‘Sandra Dee’ too. There was a nice balance between the amazing ways she can use her voice and just showing what a lovely voice she has.

Benjamin Ibbott also sounded and looked great as Doody and it was great to see Faye Brookes as Frenchy for only the fourth time (the third time all the way through). Robyn Mellor is one of the few singers who have been there every time I’ve been to see them. And I’m completely happy with that. I just hope she won’t be playing Marty every time, I want to see her as Sandy.

There are four new ensemble members, all of them male. Kevin Archbold is the new Assistant Dance Captain but he’s not covering any roles. Craig Tyler is the second cover for Doody and Sonny so I might never see him in a main role either. Daniel Ioannou and Jon Reynolds are the two Eugene covers as I said.

The two make ensemble members who didn’t leave are James Marshall (who was Sonny at this performance) and Damien Poole, who is now the first cover for Vince/Teen Angel instead of the second cover. He’s still first Roger cover and second Kenickie cover so I hope I’ll get to see him in at least one of his roles. The other two Rogers were both really healthy whenever I went but Lucas wrote a really sweet blog about hurting his shoulder,so maybe he's not quite as healthy as Kristofer and Michael. Not that I want anyone to hurt their shoulder, it hurts. And I'll miss Lucas if he's not there.

Niamh Bracken, Charlotte Bull, Holly Fletcher, Alison Hefferon, Rebecca Hodge and Sophie Zucchini are all still in the female emsemble although Rebecca was playing Rizzo of course and Holly only joined in the ensembles when she didn’t need to be in her Cha Cha costume,

It was especially good to see Alison in the ensemble as I think I’ve only seen her in the ensemble once before. And Sophie deserves a special mention because right at the end of the show, they all freeze for maybe twenty seconds of the applause and Sophie froze with her leg sticking up next to her ear. And she kept smiling. I can get my leg up by my ear but only when it’s bent and it does hurt, Sophie had her leg straight and it looks like it didn’t hurt at all.

Grease - Fifteenth and Sixteenth Performance (December 2009 & January 2010)

I still love Grease just as much as ever. Occasionally I’ll see a performance and I’ll start to think maybe I need to give it a bit of a break. Then I’ll go again and I’ll love it so much I’ll want to come back and see it again the very next day. It’s just such a lot of fun and it seems like the performers are really enjoying it too.

Noel Sullivan has taken over as Danny and played the role at both the performances I’m reviewing. In the first performance I liked him but I felt he was holding back a bit, like he was still not completely confident at everything. I also thought that perhaps he wasn’t a particularly funny Danny but only Stuart Ramsay has been truly hilarious so far. So I felt Noel was good but he would get better as the run continued.

In the second performance he was amazing. He was very confident, he did well with all the jokes (he burps like Stuart Ramsay! I’m so glad there’s another Danny who does that especially as Stuart is leaving and won’t be first cover anymore) and he sang really beautifully which sadly isn’t a guarantee with someone who’s been in a reality TV music programme. What’s more, I really liked his Danny as a person. Even when he did nasty things you could see he cared about Sandy. Like when they meet and he says ‘I guess I’ll see you around’ some Dannys can make that sound completely dismissive. Noel says it really quickly as though he doesn’t want to say and wants to get it over with (apparently it’s tough being cool). Then he stands and stares at her as the others walk past him.

Faye Brookes was playing Sandy at the first performance as Emma Stephens was ill. Faye didn’t seem as comfortable with Noel as she was with Stuart but that’s understandable, understudies tend to rehearse together so she’d have worked with Stuart a lot whereas Noel was new. Faye just didn’t get as deeply into the character as she did the last time she saw her but her singing was great. She sang just as amazingly as last time but the top notes seemed stronger and easier. I’m very glad she’s not leaving as I’d love to see her as Sandy again. Actually I’d also love to see her as Frenchy again as I’ve only seen her as Frenchy twice (well two and a half times).

Siobhan Dillon had taken over the role of Sandy by the time I went to see it again. It was a shame not to see Emma Stephens again as I did really like her but it was really great to see Siobhan for the first time. She’s very different from most Sandys. Her Sandy is a lot more confident than most which makes it all the more believable that she’s able to pull it off when she turns into a sex goddess but it also works in the earlier scenes. Just because Sandy is such a good little girl, it doesn’t mean she can’t be confident. Siobhan also has an amazing voice, quite a rock-style voice but she can still make it sound gentle. She also says her lines in a different way from any other Sandy I’ve ever heard but everything she does works really well. She’s also the funniest Sandy I’ve ever seen, the comedy really seems to come to her effortlessly. I never realised before how funny Sandy could be. I’m looking forward to seeing her again.

Bennett Andrews was Kenickie again in the December performance. He really is excellent at that role and in some ways I think he deserves to be promoted to the role of Kenickie (which would also make it more likely that I’ll get to see him as Danny) but then again, he’s also a great Sonny. He can be loud and aggressive but he can make you feel for him too.

It was good to see Stuart Ramsay as Kenickie again in January. Most of the time when I’ve been to Grease, he’s either been playing Danny or he hasn’t been there at all. I’ve seen so little of him, particularly over the last six months, it actually took me a while to realise what a great Kenickie he is. He’s a quieter Kenickie than Bennett, he can certainly make plenty of noise when he wants but he’s more the strong silent type than outwardly aggressive. I like him like that, it works well. I’m really disappointed he’s leaving.

Natalie Langston was Rizzo at both performances. Like I said before, she has such a big dramatic repertoire and play Rizzo in different ways. It always gives the performances an extra excitement, not knowing quite what she’s going to do. She’s a good actress and brilliant onstage but she also really seems to enjoy the singing, doing all kinds of things with her voice, not just the emotions she can evoke but also the different ways she uses her voice. The new Rizzo has a big act to follow.

Benjamin Ibbott was Doody at both performances and I’m so happy he’s staying. He’s so sexy and a really amazing singer. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before but there’s one moment when the T-birds have stolen bits and pieces from Kenickie’s car and they’re hoping to sell them. Doody says something like “How much do you think we can get for these really cool dice?” Until recently, he just walked in twirling the dice really cutely but now he hides them under his coat so you can’t see what it is and he does a long pause after “really cool…”, making you think he’s stolen something really good, before pulling the dice out from under his coat and making everyone laugh. It’s so clever.

Frenchy was Alison Hefferon at both performances. I’ve seen her as Frenchy more times than I’ve seen Faye Brookes, who plays the role officially. I think Alison performs the role really well and if you didn’t know she was an understudy, I don’t think you’d guess she was even though her background seems to be more as a dancer than an actress. She is a great dancer, one of the best in the show I think although they’re all brilliant. You can see it even when she plays Frenchy than she’s a good dancer, they’re all good but maybe she moves with just a bit more fluidity than the performers in principal roles.

Laura Wilson and Michael Melmoe are both leaving – I know I’ve sometimes been critical of Laura but I love her now and I really don’t want either of them to leave. They’re both very funny, both individually and as a pair. It’s been really interesting watching them develop as a double act – but I hope I’ll get to see that again soon with the new Jan and Roger. I hope Laura goes on to a show where she can really show her voice off properly. It was also brilliant when she was singing It’s Raining on Prom night and she’d just sung the line about ‘a runny nose and Asiatic flu’ and someone right behind me sneezed! Perfect timing.

Michael is brilliant too, it’s a shame he was only in Grease for six months. He changed the bit where Roger was asked to tell Kenickie whether a car aerial could inflict more pain than a lead pipe but it was just as funny. The other times I saw him, he played it quite cheerfully, as though he doesn’t quite realise he’s about to be whacked on the head. This time, he seemed really really worried and it took him ages to bend his head so Kenickie could hit it. (But they didn’t change it so Kenickie actually did hit Roger. That wouldn’t be funny.)

Bennett Andrews and Robyn Mellor are working well together as Sonny and Kenickie even though I’ve seen Robyn with cover James Marshall’s Sonny more than Bennett’s Sonny. James was at the first performance I’m reviewing though. He gets funnier every time I see him. They’re all staying so I can keep on hoping that one day I might see Bennett and Robyn as Danny and Sandy.

Lizzi Franklin and Jamie Tyler are also both leaving so this is the last time I’ll see then as Patty and Eugene. Lizzi’s Patty is wonderfully annoying and maybe I was just slightly on Sandy’s side when she pushed her over, even though I really don’t think Sandy should do it. It’s sad I didn’t get to see Jamie as Vince/Teen Angel as he was first cover and I thought I was in with a chance but Jason is just too healthy. But at least I got to see Jamie as Doody and Eugene.

Jason Capewell was Vince/Teen Angel and I really like him now. At the end of ‘Beauty School Drop Out’ he holds one note FOREVER, it was like Dmitri Hvorostovsky in BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. They should do a sing-off to see who lasts for longer. I think Dmitri held his note for longer but Jason’s breath might have been longer, he seemed to sing quite a few notes in the same breath as the long one. It’s hard to be sure without a contest though.

Toby Anstis is going to be Teen Angel for a while though. I liked him when he did children’s television and I am quite looking forward to seeing him wearing silver.

At the start of the show, Jason – or rather his character Vince Fontaine- does the announcements of which understudies are performing and asks people to switch off their mobile phones. The only time I haven’t heard him do it was when Callum Nicol, his understudy, played the role. This time, Charlotte Bull did it as Miss Lynch. She did it really well, she was brilliant. She was in character and she was very funny, threatening to give us detention if we had our mobiles on (I didn’t). Marie Daly is leaving this week so I’ll probably never get to see her as Jan. Maybe she’ll come back sometime though.

Stephanie Powell is the new Cha Cha. She’s actually quite softly spoken, the other Cha Chas I’ve seen have been very aggressive but she’s still vulgar and sometimes a quiet voice can be even more intimidating than a loud one.

I’ve found out that from the Ensemble, Craig Daniel Adams, Luke Jackson, Ryan Quish and Charles Ruhrmund are all leaving. I never got to see Craig as Doody, Luke as Eugene, Ryan as Roger (although I loved his Eugene) and Charles as Sonny. But as they’re all second covers for these roles I might not have got to see them even if they’d stayed with the show forever.