I’ve seen this musical four times now with the current cast. FOUR TIMES. And I still haven’t seen the main Sandy and Danny, Nicola Brazil and Danny Bayne, together. Do they not like each other or something? I’ve also never seen the main Sonny. I’ve seen two different Sonnys but not the official one. But I’m not complaining really. I love seeing understudies and if the chance to see the two leads together is a rare and special event, well that’s one more thing to look forward to.
Understudies are usually brilliant. There are lots of reasons why this might be. The main singers might be chosen on reputation or – like Danny Bayne – because an audience voted for them to sing the role. This doesn’t mean they’re not good performers but it might mean they’ve been cast based on their ability to sell out a show and they might not be ideally suited to their role. The understudies are probably more likely to have been chosen because they’re good at the roles.
The other thing about understudies is that they’re probably only going to have a short run of performances in a major role before going back to the role they usually sing. Even though being in the Grease Ensemble looks physically demanding, it’s probably not that vocally demanding. So an understudy who knows they’re only on for a show or two can probably just go for it. Someone who’s expecting to do eight shows this week and eight next week etc probably has to pace themselves a bit more. (I think anyone who can do eight shows a week without dying is amazing. When’s the last time you saw an opera singer doing that? Savoy Opera had their singers doing 4 shows a week for several weeks but that’s not the same and even though the performers might not have dropped dead the opera company unfortunately did.)
Anyway if you do come to Grease and one or more understudies are performing there’s no need to worry. Okay yes if you’re a big Danny Bayne fan or a big Ray Quinn fan like me you’re more than entitled to feel a bit disappointed but that doesn’t mean you won’t end up enjoying the performers who are there. I’ve often liked the understudy better – probably just a personal thing but I think everyone will find something to enjoy in each performance. Even though there aren’t loads of variations in how you can play each character each performer still brings something different to the roles.
Danny Bayne was a lot better than I was expecting. I really should have trusted the audience members who voted for him (I didn’t watch Grease is the Word so I didn’t know anything about him until I saw him). Danny (the character) is a bit of a prat as far as his behaviour goes but Danny (the actor) made it very clear how much he liked Sandy. Lots of lingering glances etc. He doesn’t have a huge voice but it’s big enough and it suits the song ‘Sandy’ which is quite lyrical really but he can also do a bit of screaming in Greased Lightnin’.
Emily Bull was Sandy at this performance. She’s a brilliant Frenchy but you can’t tell from that role whether she’s got the voice for Sandy – although there’s certainly no doubt she’s got the acting talents. But as soon as she opened her mouth I knew I was going to love her as Sandy. I don’t usually do similes because they always sound stupid when I do them but if honey had a voice it would sing like Emily. Really lovely warm gentle sound. I wish a few more opera singers sounded more like her. Her Sandy seems like a genuinely nice girl and she looks AMAZING in her outfit in the final scene. It’s one of those tops without tops which you always secretly wish would fall down.
Lucie Downer replaced Emily as Frenchy. She was quite different from Emily but I liked her just as much. When Doody tries to ask her out he always goes all stammery and cute and Lucie’s Frenchy is just the same. I also like the way her wig is in a bit of a mess as it shows you from the start she’s not really a very good beautician.
Kenickie was also performed by an understudy, Bennett Andrews. I love his really deep-sounding voice which suits Greased Lightnin’ really well and he’s good at being all cool and laid back but when he does have an emotional moment it’s a shock because it’s not like him to show that sort of emotion so it’s also really moving. His girlfriend Rizzo was played by Natalie Langston. She doesn’t always seem like a nice person but there is something quite magnetic about her and you do feel for her at the end. She’s got amazing low notes too. Low notes to frighten the horses as opera critics like to say. (So maybe I shouldn’t take my horse Angel to see Grease.)
Kristofer Harding is very funny as Roger – I don’t know much about his low notes but his high notes are great and he really makes mooning seems like an art form, maybe I should try it. I like the relationship between him and Laura Wilson's Jan. Jan gets on my nerves sometimes because she’s a bit OTT but she’s a good character and if I said no-one had ever told me I was OTT I’d be lying.
Marty and Sonny don’t have very big roles but Emma Stephens and understudy Tyman Boatwright (who was in On the Town for the ENO) are really good as the characters. Tyman is really sweet when he’s telling the others how he’s going to stand up to Chloe Brooks's really scary Miss Lynch. Somehow you can just tell it’s not going to happen (although of course if you’ve seen Grease before you know that anyway).
Emma Green is great as annoyingly perky cheerleader Patty and she manages to make her seem like a really nice person underneath it all even though when Sandy pushes her over you can sort of sympathise (but Sandy pushes Rizzo over too so she’s not a complete goody-goody is she?). And Benjamin Ibbott is absolutely ADORABLE as Eugene the geek. You get to see his pants too.
Jason Capewell was Vince Fontaine and the Teen Angel who doesn’t look like a teenager to me and he’s not much of an angel, how dare he tell Frenchy she looks like a hooker? Frenchy’s gorgeous. He’s the one who looks like a hooker in those silver trousers. And Vince who’s really quite old was trying to get off with Marty who’s probably half his age, what a pervert! I didn’t really like Jason’s characters but he performed them really well. Kristina MacMillan is amazing as Cha Cha. She not only pulled off some impossible-looking dance moves, she managed to pick her nose and look sexy at the same time. I don’t know how she does it. I tried to do it looking in the mirror but it looked a bit yuck really. Maybe I don’t fancy myself enough.
But Ray Quinn who plays Doody is my favourite. I thought he might be a bit rubbish because he was on The X Factor (although Leona and Rhydian were on X Factor and they’re definitely not rubbish) but he’s actually really good. He’s a really good singer but if anything he’s even better at acting and dancing because the dancing looks really difficult and to get the acting right you need to get the comedy spot-on and that’s not easy unless you’re naturally good at comedy from the start. Doody is just so sweet and I want to marry him tomorrow but not today because I’m busy and I’ve got a boyfriend anyway.
I’ll just go quickly though the other performers I’ve seen. Nicola Brazil the main Sandy has a great voice and you always feel the Sandy of the final scene is in there somewhere. Emily Bull’s confident but still very sweet Frenchy makes a great contrast with Doody’s stammery mumbling. Stuart Ramsay gives two very different performances as a very laid-back and cool but not totally charmless Kenickie and a twatty but hysterically funny Danny – there are lots of funny moments in Stuart’s performance that don’t appear in Danny B’s. The second Sonny cover Adam Maskell really brings the tough guy persona over strongly so he’s funny in a different way from Tyman. Selina Hamilton was a real eye-opener as Cha Cha. Chloe Brooks (usually Miss Lynch) is an absolutely adorable Jan – when she got together with Roger, the whole audience went awwww – and she’s wonderful at the comedy. She’s got one of my favourite singing voices too. As Chloe was singing Jan, either Charlotte Bull or Lucy Boldero was Miss Lynch. I can’t remember who which is really annoying but whoever it was she was scary. Sometimes I think it’s Charlotte but other times I’m sure it was Lucy. At the moment I’m positive it was Lucy. So it was probably Charlotte wasn’t it?
Anyway five stars so go and see it but not all at once because I don’t want it selling out on the night I’m going.
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