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.
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