There were a number of absentees from this performance. There were so many understudies performing, I might not have remembered them all correctly. But I think Stuart Ramsay (Kenickie), Natalie Langston (Rizzo), Marie Daly (Miss Lynch) and Kristina Macmillan (Cha Cha) were the ones who weren’t there but it could have been three or four other people.
Also missing from the performance was Greased Lightnin’ - the car not the song. The car didn’t appear onstage and the performers kept pointing vaguely offstage whenever they talked about it. Greased Lightnin’ was danced on the stage instead of the car, which probably was a lot safer. All the guys did really well – they didn’t miss a beat, either figuratively or musically, happily adding in extra movements etc and if you didn’t know the show you might easily think the car always stayed offstage.
But the most noticeable absentee was the second act. When the first act came to an end, a man came out onto the stage and informed us the power had gone and it would be unsafe to continue the show with only emergency lighting available. We were all given the choice of a full refund or a ticket to see a future performance at no extra cost.
I was sad – I love Grease so of course I wanted to see it all, especially with all those understudies everywhere – I might never get to see all of them in Act 2. It’s bad for everyone though. The performers who love the show, the understudies who must have been so excited. And the audience, especially the crowds that had cheered Holly Fletcher’s name when her promotion to a solo role was announced (even if Holly did get to perform Friday night or on Saturday her friends might not all have been able to get tickets, not on Friday evening/Saturday), the poor harassed teachers who had more than enough trouble getting the kids to take their seats even once, and the lady on the phone in the foyer talking about ‘another technical hitch’ leading to a cancellation.
But Act 1 was great and I like the idea of reviewing half a musical. It’s hard to judge everyone on this performance – I won’t really know how good a Rizzo Rebecca Hodge is until I’ve heard her sing There are Worse Things I Could Do and I can’t review Holly Fletcher as Cha Cha because Cha Cha is only in Act 2.
First of all I really liked the guy who came onstage and announced there would be no Act 2. He was so nice about it and he seemed really natural. A lot of people when they get up on stage to give announcements seem really uncomfortable and moody which is totally understandable because it’s scary doing announcements like that and they’ve got to deliver some bad news. Also it’s probably more important in that situation to make sure you’re heard than to keep your tone of voice as friendly as possible and often there’s a structured way of making the announcements anyway so it’s going to sound a bit unnatural and robotic. But this guy seemed really nice, it was almost like he was just chatting to us. Actually all the staff at the Piccadilly Theatre are like that. Opera staff should be more like him, I’m scared of going to the opera but I love going to musicals.
Emma Stephens (Sandy) is someone I heavily criticised in my last review but I loved her this time. The fact that I was heavily criticised for criticising her has nothing to do with my change of heart. I wouldn’t change my mind just because someone criticises me, I’m not mature enough to do things like that. It’s possible I was influenced by the fact I heard Emma giving an interview and she is the loveliest person ever but then I think Ray Quinn is really lovely too and I’m still not that keen on his Danny. But Emma is lovely so I’m really glad I loved her this time. Ray is such a lucky guy and I just hope he doesn’t treat Emma like he treated his last girlfriend. Anyway, I really enjoyed Emma’s performance this time. She’s not the greatest singer in the world (the greatest singer in the world is Iain Paton and she’s definitely not him) but she is good and she probably does a much better Sandy than Iain. She has a sweet voice and as I said before her interpretation of Sandy works really well. She’s shy and lacking in confidence but she’s got spirit.
I still don’t particularly like Ray Quinn as Danny but that might be because Danny just isn’t my type. I don’t like swaggering overconfident guys. But even my favourite Danny, Stuart Ramsay, doesn’t really make me like the character, it’s just Stuart’s interpretation happens to be perfectly tuned in to my sense of humour. I didn’t like it when Ray flexed his muscles, that was a bit ewwww but I just don’t like muscles, I like men with weedy arms and muscley bums. My boyfriend plays football so he’s not totally weedy but he has got skinny arms and that is so much sexier than horrible big muscles. Seriously Ray’s muscles are so big they’re practically bigger than he is. Ray and Emma also seemed to have more chemistry this time. They’re probably relaxing into the roles a bit more – in some ways it might be harder for a real-life couple to play a couple onstage because they’re pretending to be different people so they’ve got to relate to each other in different ways onstage.
Michael Melmoe and Laura Wilson were again really funny as Roger and Jan. Michael sounded like he might have had a slight sore throat but the richness of his voice still startled me, really beautiful sound. Benjamin Ibbott is just so gorgeous as Doody, exactly the sort of man I go for. At one point he got out his comb and started doing his quiff, he reminded me of my boyfriend. My boyfriend’s never winked at me though. Robyn Mellor was Marty, she went a bit over the top but it worked because Marty is a poser. Jamie Tyler was so sweet as Eugene – he’s bigger and broader than Ray but you don’t really notice that – you can believe Jamie is frightened of Ray. Jason Capewell was his usual self as Vince. He might have been his usual self as Teen Angel too but he’s in Act 2 so I didn’t see him.
I saw Faye Brookes as Frenchy for the first time and she is adorable. She had her hairclips lower down than Emily Bull and Lucie Downer did and it looked really sweet. She’s a really great singer too. Frenchy doesn’t sing much but when the overture thing started and they were all singing I could hear this really beautiful female voice and I think it was coming from Faye. I hope I get to see her as Sandy some time. It’s a really strong voice but the sound is quite gentle and lyrical so I bet her Hopelessly Devoted to You is gorgeous.
I’d seen one of the understudies before – Bennett Andrews as Kenickie. I think the first three times I saw Grease he was Kenickie and I loved him but it’s been a while so I’d forgotten how good he is. His low notes are really powerful and he’s really good at the rock style. He’s the second Danny cover and I can’t imagine him as Danny – which makes me want to see him as Danny even more. He did really well with the movement during Greased Lightnin’ – it looked like he was putting extra movements in to make up for the invisible car. As he couldn’t stand on the car, he couldn’t always be seen easily behind all the dancers but he made sure he was the star of the song, just as Kenickie would do.
Rebecca Hodge sang Rizzo and I really liked her. As soon as she walked onto the stage there was all this confidence eminating off her. Lots of sex appeal too. I didn’t get to hear There are Worse Things I Could Do obviously but I think she’d sing it really well. Even though Sandra Dee was mostly sung in various silly voices (she was really good at those but maybe she did it a bit too much?) you could tell she was a strong singer.
Niamh Bracken was playing Miss Lynch and she was great – she doesn’t scream like Chloe Brooks and Lucy Boldero but she’s so wonderfully intimidating, she doesn’t need to. I think it was her body language. I can’t read people’s body languages normally but body language is always bigger and more obvious onstage, kind of like Large Print body language.
Now it gets confusing. Because I was so excited about seeing Rebecca as Rizzo I kind of stopped listening to the understudy announcements a little bit so I’m not totally sure of who was playing Sonny. It’s most likely to be James Marshall as he’s the first cover but it could have been Charles Ruhrmond. I think it probably was James because it wasn’t a name that jumped out at me and a German-sounding name like Ruhrmond probably would no matter how excited I was although maybe it was wasn’t pronounced in a German way. Also I think there were five guys in the ensemble – if the first cover (James) is playing Sonny, I’d expect the second cover (Charles) to be in the ensemble but if the second cover is singing Sonny, I would expect that to mean the first cover isn’t available in which case there would only be four guys in the ensemble.
But anyway whoever he was, he was good. The three Sonnys I’ve seen so far played the scene with Miss Lynch in a completely different way and James (or Charles) was different too. He really seemed to dislike Miss Lynch – probably not surprising really, considering how good she is at making him look stupid in front of his mates. It’s probably happened to him so many times. Also when someone asked him if ‘going all the way’ was all he ever thought about, instead of shouting ‘hell yeah!’ in a gleeful sort of way, it was more like well duh obviously.
Then there’s the confusion of which role Holly Fletcher was playing – I think she’s the only person who’s ever got a cheer when her name was announced as an understudy. But I do think it was probably Cha Cha. She’s covering Patty and Cha Cha – the person playing Patty did look like Lizzi Franklin and Kristina Macmillan who usually plays Cha Cha didn’t seem to be in the opening scene which she usually appears in as a random schoolgirl. But maybe Holly looks more like Lizzi Fraknlin than she does in the programme – Lizzi has really distinctive red hair (gorgeous colour) but maybe Holly does too. Her hair looks darker than Lizzi’s in the black and white programme photograph but not by much. Also if Holly was performing Patty, Kristina mst have been there in which case she’s dyed her hair blonde. The ensemble did seem to have two straight-haired blondes – maybe Charlotte Bull has straightened her hair but if she was there I’m not sure why she wasn’t playing Miss Lynch as she’s the first cover (Miss Lynch was played by second cover Niamh Bracken) but maybe she’s been snogging Michael Melmoe (lucky girl) and caught his sore throat which would affect her ability to screech. I’m sure it was Niamh Bracken who they said was playing Miss Lynch but she’s also the first Marty cover.
But anyway Lizzi (I think) was really funny as Patty and I liked the way she shouted at Sandy a lot more during the cheerleaders’ practice which does make it slightly more forgivable when Sandy decides to push her over. Cha Cha only appears in the second half so Holly didn’t get to play her but she must be great, her name got a bigger reaction from the audience than Ray’s muscles.
I really need to listen to understudy announcements better. After all, it’s not like I’m not interested.
A really lovely girl called Kim kindly confirmed the cast members I wasn't sure about
Sonny – James Marshall
Patty – Lizzi Franklin
Miss Lynch – Niamh Bracken
Cha Cha – Holly Fletcher
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment