Grease The Musical - Russell Grant

Russell Grant

Teen Angel

Russell’s first television acting role was at the tender age of ten for BBC TV’s very successful Wednesday Play. He was then signed up by Richard Price, Head of LWT Entertainment and was cast in On The Buses, Please Sir!, The Fenn Street Gang, the Doctor series starring both Barry Evans and Robin Nedwell, and roles in programmes starring Hylda Baker and Yootha Joyce. He also played alongside Daniel Massey in The Roads to Freedom, and with Joss Ackland and Barbara Jefford in BBC 2’s Canterbury Tales. A landmark role was his appearance in the very first colour British television series set in a local newspaper, Gazette.

His movie debut was with Doug McClure in The Land That Time Forgot and he has gone on to play a number of characters from the good, the bad and the ugly on stage and screen. In his first role for Naked Films, Russell played Roxy, a transvestite paramedic in The Healing Game. The film won the Crystal Palace International Film Festival Comedy Award with judges Johnny Vegas and Mark Steel singling out Russell’s performance calling him ‘comedy genius’ with ‘brilliant timing’.

Russell toured in Ivor Novello’s King’s Rhapsody and played Prince Chululongkorn in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I. He headed into his first West End show as Slogger Williams in the musical Tom Brown’s Schooldays (Cambridge Theatre). He then took to the stage of the London Palladium with Tommy Steele in Hans Andersen. Roles in Oh What A Lovely War! (Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury) and Oh Camille! (Arts Theatre, London) brought many more opportunities including pantomime.

From Hansel in Hansel and Gretel to The Wizard not just in Oz but also Rumpelstiltskin and also Mr Stromboli in Pinocchio and Wishee-Washee in Aladdin, Russell has also played Dame in many theatres including the New Theatre, Cardiff with Ruth Madoc, John Nettles and Andrew O’Connor – Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford and Grand Theatre, Blackpool. A great honour was singing songs from Disney’s musical Pinocchio, with Iain Sutherland’s BBC Concert Orchestra for Radio 2’s homage to 60 years of Walt Disney hosted by David Tomlinson at the Royal Albert Hall.

One of Russell’s most treasured moments was to be invited into the Royal Command Variety Performance at the Victoria Palace in front of Their Majesties, the Queen and the Queen Mother and HRH Diana, Princess of Wales, where he performed with Angharad Rees in the Marilyn Monroe hit I Want To Be Loved By You.

Playwright Paul Doust offered him the star-role in the London Evening Standard Award-Winning Probably Wanstead (Brighton Festival). Then heading up to the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s HQ in Scarborough, Russell played a dual role, Floss and Peter, in a new work Soap with top soap stars Sue Twist (Brookside) and Hannah Waterman (Eastenders).

Russell took the Narrator’s role in Rocky Horror Music Show (National tour) but it is as the director of the classic Dylan Thomas play Under Milk Wood and his performance as the Narrator that had the audience and critics shooting off superlatives.

In honour of the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, Russell directed and starred as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A totally original production with Puck as a skinhead, complete with Thames Estuary accent, braces and Athenian lovers in pencil-thin 50s skirts and football shirts sporting rival Athens clubs Panathinaikos and Olympiakos. It had the audience in raptures, with full houses throughout the run.

Russell’s professional dream came true when given the opportunity to learn how to dance on the BBC’s top-rated series Strictly Come Dancing (2011). Russell was partnered with World Champion Latin dancer, Flavia Cacace. The popular couple won both critics and viewers hearts and were nominated for a BAFTA TV Highlight of the Year when Russell was shot out of a cannon as part of their Jive routine at the Wembley Arena.

Russell has also enjoyed playing cameo roles in Channel 4’s Brookside and Sky TV’s Stella. He was invited to guest star for First Family Entertainment as Genie of the Lamp in Aladdin with Gareth Gates. Russell picked up the phone one day to hear Andrew Lloyd Webber asking him to star at the London Palladium in The Wizard of Oz. Complete with new vocal arrangements and dance routines written specially for him, Russell won rave reviews. Before playing The Wizard, Russell returned to the West End at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Stephen Schwartz’s Children of Eden playing the Snake.

Now intent of dancing, singing and acting more than ever thanks to his new-found-fame on Strictly, Russell is set to play Teen Angel in this 20th Anniversary tour of Grease.