Out of a hundred performances so far, India Chadwick has taken to the stage in Grease as Marty 85 and a half times.
The other 14 and a half times, as first cover for Sandy, it’s been Sandy that she has gone on as – all a great experience, says India who is on the road with the show with dates including August 12-17 at Eastbourne’s Congress Theatre and from October 29-November 2 at Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre.
The other 14 and a half times, as first cover for Sandy, it’s been Sandy that she has gone on as – all a great experience, says India who is on the road with the show with dates including August 12-17 at Eastbourne’s Congress Theatre and from October 29-November 2 at Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers, and lovely
00:06today to be speaking to India Chadwick, who is part of the touring production of Grease,
00:11which is coming to Eastbourne from August 12th to 17th, and then the Mayflower in Southampton
00:17from October 29th to November 2nd. And you're telling me you are playing Marty, you're finding
00:23plenty in Marty that other people might not notice or think of, but you're also first
00:28cover for Sandy. That sounds the most incredible juggling act that you could be Sandy at not
00:34too much notice. How do you cope with that?
00:39Yeah, so I think I'm learning to cope with it is the honest answer. I've never been a
00:43cover in a long running production like this before. So I think the main thing is we got
00:48a lot of cover rehearsals towards the start. So in the first month, we were rehearsing
00:53our extra parts alongside our principal parts. So for example, that's when the swings got
00:58to practice all their different parts. And that's when I practiced Sandy and that kind
01:02of thing. So we sort of got it under our belt quite early, just in case. But I think honestly,
01:07I'm learning and I think vocal techniques to help me out, mindfulness, managing to stay
01:14calm in those kind of environments where, you know, you wake up every day, you don't
01:19know who you're going to be. But it's one of the biggest challenges in musical theatre.
01:22And like I said, I think understudies, covers, swings are just so underestimated.
01:29Well, that's the part of the business that sounds terrifying to me, that you're focusing
01:33on Marty, but the flick of a switch, you've got to become Sandy sometimes. So how do you
01:38keep Sandy simmering away and ready, just below the level of Marty should you actually
01:44need her?
01:45I've always got my eyes on Hope. Hope is our gorgeous principal Sandy. She plays Sandy
01:50every night of the week. For any reason, if she can't go on, I do. But I keep my eyes
01:54on her, just bubbling away in the back of my mind, just in case. No, I'm trying to tune
02:05into what she's saying as well. I'm trying to keep an eye on if anything changes as the
02:10show evolves and that kind of thing. But honestly, mostly, I just check back on my script, check
02:14back on my vocal notes. I'll always have a quick practice of the mega mix, which is the
02:19little bit of dancing that Sandy does at the end, just before the show, just to kind
02:22of check in with myself. But mostly, it's just being on top of.
02:26The point is, out of something like 100 performances so far, for 85 and a half of those, you have
02:31in fact been with Marty, haven't you? And Marty is clearly a more interesting character
02:37than perhaps we give her credit for, certainly in the way that you see her.
02:41Yeah, Marty has a really special place in my heart. And for a lot of people that have
02:45come to see the show, the familiar words that get said to me a lot are that she's a
02:49comfort character, which I think is so lovely, because she's just a proper girl's girl. And
02:55in saying that, as much as she is on the outside, she's super put together. And, you know, she's
03:00the fashionista of the Pink Ladies, and she's seemingly grown up. There is a layer of vulnerability
03:05to her that I feel like I've been able to have a lot of fun with. And I've really enjoyed
03:09that part of the process. Yeah.
03:10And in this production, there's more value given to the song, which just fits through
03:14the film, which is hers, isn't there?
03:16Yes, Freddie, my love. It's been reorchestrated for this production. And I think it's just
03:24such a huge production number in this show. It kind of comes out of her speech into the
03:29song and it builds into this. One of our associate directors said to me last week, it turns into
03:33like her Ariana Grande moment, which I thought was hilarious, because she is a pop star and
03:38all the girls come on and they're all like looking up to her. And it's all sort of in
03:41her head and this world that she's created.
03:43Well, that's the point for you, isn't it? In this song, you are seeing her vulnerability,
03:47aren't you?
03:48Yeah. And she's singing about this sort of distant lover that she's got or not got up
03:53to interpretation. But she's creating this world of her and Freddie in which he's sending
03:58her these lavish gifts and treating her like a princess. And actually, it's up to the audience
04:03about whether or not that's actually true.
04:06It sounds fantastic. Well, India, lovely to speak to you. Enjoy the rest of the tour,
04:10which takes in Eastbourne in August and Southampton's Mayflower, end of October, start of November.
04:16Lovely to speak to you. Thank you.
04:17Thank you. So nice to meet you.