Grease - Fifth and Sixth Performance (December 2008, January 2009)

This is a review of the last two performances I saw – one in December and one in January. Since my last review, I’ve seen five understudies, two long-term replacements, one short-tem replacement, and one original performer for the first time. It’s really exciting, and not something that happens often in opera.

I also finally got to see Danny Bayne and Nicola Brazil performing together as Danny and Sandy. I still prefer understudies Stuart Ramsay and Emily Bull in these roles (that’s just my own individual opinion) but Danny and Nicola have obviously built up a really strong connection that you can see when they’re performing together. Nicola is actually starting to get on my nerves a bit but I’m sure that’s Sandy’s fault. She’s so goody-goody.

The fourth performance I saw was good, but the fifth was even better. Somehow, almost all the cast members have found a new energy to bring to the role. They’re experimenting with new ways of performing the character, and that’s really interesting to watch, as well as fun.

I won’t go into detail about all the performers I’ve seen before, but I love Stuart Ramsay (Kenickie), Kristofer Harding (Roger – the only character who was played by the same singer at every performance I’ve seen, not that I’m complaining, I love him) and Chloe Brooks (Miss Lynch) more every time I see them. Emily Bull, always excellent, offered a slightly new interpretation of Frenchy where she sees Teen Angel’s cruel comments as a joke, and Emma Green (maybe it’s not fair on the others to say this, but I’m sure she has the talent to play every role in the show) is loveably annoying as Patty.

In the December performance, I saw a number of understudies, as well as two replacements. Bennett Andrews, whom I love as Kenickie, played Sonny for the first time with me watching. If I was a guy, I’d love to play Sonny because there are so many different ways to play him. Bennett is just as much fun as yet completely different from the two covers I’ve seen, Tyman Boatwright and Adam Maskell. Bennett has a go at showing off his tough talk to the terrifying Miss Lynch, but then he kind of crumbles mid-sentence. He’s so funny – but so are the other two. I hope one day I’ll get to see the third cover, Philip Comley (Sonny is the only role with three covers).

I wasn’t sure how much I’d enjoy Grease without Ray Quinn – but in some ways, it’s better when he’s not demanding all my attention. I never really registered it before, but during his first song, Those Magic Changes, all these hot guys come out of the shower wearing nothing but these little towels! There are also some nice moments at the High School Hop – small exchanges between the different couples. Lucie Downer seemed to have a bit of an argument with her partner (I wish I could have worked out which one he was – I really am bad at recognising people), while Karen Aspinall (I think) was shouting at her boyfriend (Callum Nicol?) like PUT ME DOWN (I’m assuming these were part of the show, anyway).

Benjamin Ibbott, formerly Eugene, has replaced Ray as Doody. I really like him, but I think Ray gave a much stronger impression of how cute Doody is (although Benjamin is gorgeous). Benjamin’s Doody is more like one of the lads – maybe he wanted to make his Doody as different from his Eugene as he could. Ray’s Doody does have an element of geek about him, which might seem slightly odd when he’s hanging around with the T-Birds. There are definitely advantages in both interpretations.

Jamie Tyler has joined the cast to play Eugene. He has the geeky moves down perfectly, but the first time I saw him I thought Eugene’s geeky clothes clung to Jamie’s sexy bum a bit too tightly. I adore Eugene, but I feel like I shouldn’t really be thinking about his bottom. I don’t think he’d like that. At the January performance, Jamie looked a bit less manly – maybe the costume department has got him some new trousers or something – and that made him seem even geekier.

In December, I saw Emma Green (usually Patty) as Marty. Emma G is a beautiful girl, but a real character actress. The official Grease website says Marty is the one who really tries to act grown-up, and this wasn’t really something I’d noticed before. But Emma G brought this aspect across brilliantly. I hadn’t realised what a funny character Marty is. Emma Stephens sang the role in the January performance – in the first scene, I was half-convinced she was Emma G because she was playing the role in exactly the same way and they do look very alike. Maybe Emma S was always that good, and it took me this long to see the humour in the character.

Laura Wilson (Jan) is certainly growing on me – I thought she was very sweet (and not nearly as annoying) in January. Kristina MacMillan played Cha Cha with lots of extra Spanish Carmenesque fiery passion in January – just like her cover did in December. The name of the cover wasn’t announced, but as Kristina was playing Rizzo, it probably wasn’t her. I think it was Karen Aspinall, but it could have been Selina Hamilton.

As Emma G was playing Marty, Danielle Crockford replaced her as Patty. It took a while to get used to her dark hair – all the Sandys, Rizzos, Frenchys Jans and Martys I’ve seen so far have identical-looking hair, and that’s usually how I recognise them. But once I’d got used to that, I really liked Danielle because she really made the role her own. She had her own way of saying each line, and bringing over each joke.

When I saw Kristina MacMillan as Rizzo in December, I felt that sometimes she had a bit of trouble getting into the character. But I got the impression she had very little notice that she was going to be playing the role, and possibly not that much chance to rehearse – I think cover rehearsals often take place on the night of the performance. Usually, the list of performing covers is announced more or less in order of importance/size of the role. But this time, Marty and Patty came before Rizzo. The announcer also forgot to say who was Kristina’s replacement as Cha Cha, and the way the way he paused before announcing Rizzo’s cover suggested he wasn’t aware of this cast change. But there were some really good moments from Kristina. Rizzo and Cha Cha aren’t all that alike, but they’re both very strong-minded, confident, sexy characters, and Kristina was all these things as Rizzo.

Lucy Boldero sang Rizzo in the January performance (and presumably had plenty of notice). I loved her. She performed the role in quite an unusual way, but it really worked for me. Her Rizzo had lots of attitude, but there were several moments where Lucy gave a glimpse – to the audience, but not to the other characters - of the more vulnerable Rizzo we see in her second song. Also, Lucy’s Rizzo had a sense of humour, and she seemed to show some real affection towards her friends and Kenickie. It could have detracted from the hard side of her character, but it didn’t.

The expected cast change was Jimmy Osmond replacing Jason Capewell as Teen Angel, with Jason continuing to sing Vince. Jason plays both roles in quite a smarmy, smug way – although this doesn’t stop Beauty School Drop-Out from being one of my favourite songs. He plays the roles well – just smarmily, although I thought his Vince was less twatty in the January performance. Jimmy seems like a much warmer Teen Angel, a bit less in love with himself. Maybe he’s not as funny as Jason, but Jimmy is more the sort of guardian angel I’d want. He’s also a great singer. I don’t know much about the Osmonds, but often when you get a big star to play a particular role, it doesn’t work because the role doesn’t suit them. It happens all the time in opera. But Jimmy is perfect.

Jason is a bit of a cheeky git though. After the December performance, there was a charity collection, which he told us about during the curtain calls. At the end, he said: “If you enjoyed the show, my name’s Jason Capewell and you’ve just been watching Grease. If you didn’t enjoy the show, my name’s Lee Mead and you’ve just been watching Joseph.” I hope he was just joking. Considering one of the winners of reality show Grease is the Word (Danny Bayne) was on the stage with him, and an X Factor runner-up (Ray Quinn) had left the show only a few weeks ago, it was a little bit naughty. But it was funny too. Actually it was hilarious.

Also, I got to see an understudy conductor – but he wasn’t completely new (actually 2 out of the 3 performances I’ve seen this year haven’t had the scheduled conductor). His name was Richard Beadle. As soon as I heard his name, I was sure I’d heard of him - and I certainly should have done. He was the conductor for every other performance of Grease I’ve attended. Dan Wilkinson, the former Assistant Musical Director, has taken over as permanent Musical Director, but presumably neither Dan nor the new assistant, Adam Dennis, was able to perform. So there are some more new performers I can look forward to seeing. I wonder if I’ll hear the difference.