Things seem to be going very sweetly for Stephanie Grigg at the moment. Since she graduated in 2010 from the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), she appears to have the world at her feet. After spending the best part of this year performing in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies, she has just secured a role in a new Australian production of A Chorus Line.
“This is only the second day of rehearsals but the cast have bonded really well,” she says. “It’s an exciting time for everyone.” Originally from Adelaide, she moved to Perth straight out of school to study Music Theatre at WAAPA, three years of intensive training in singing, dancing and acting. Despite her youth, she doesn’t seem to have been the least bit intimidated by the move. “The transition to Perth was so easy. As soon as you get to WAAPA, you’ve got this big family. Lots of people have moved to be there.”
A Chorus Line should have no trouble attracting audiences. With talent shows like The X Factor and So You Think You Can Dance dominating commercial television, a musical about 17 dancers competing for eight roles is exactly the kind of storyline Australians have shown great appetite for. It was a huge artistic and commercial success when it first opened on Broadway in 1975, running nonstop for fifteen years.
This Australian season is being directed by Baayork Lee who played the character of Connie in the original Broadway version, “It’s great to be working with her. She created her own role in the Broadway production. These stories are real, they came from the dancers in the original workshop,” Grigg explains. Throughout the course of the show, the audience sees the dancers’ auditions, and gets to know their personalities as they strive to succeed. The climax of the show is discovering which ones are successful. But Grigg won’t reveal the fate of Maggie, the character she plays.
“You’ll have to come and see it if you want to find out,” she says. The cast will rehearse throughout December in Melbourne, do a month of shows in Adelaide in January, then go back to Melbourne for another month of shows in February. At this stage, there is a possibility that the production will also tour Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. “It’s great for me because we open in Adelaide, where I’m from.”
Grigg’s grandparents are originally from Greece, her mother was born here in Australia. They have all been very positive about her artistic aspirations and are looking forward to seeing the show when it opens on New Year’s Eve. “They’re very supportive, I’m very lucky. I came from a family where my mum encouraged everything to do with the arts,” she says. “I’m so excited to go back home to Adelaide to do this, and they’ll be there in the front row.”
A Chorus Line plays in Adelaide at the Festival Theatre from Sat 31 December until Sat 28 January. The Melbourne season runs from Sat 4 February to Sun 26 February at Her Majesty’s Theatre.