Grizabella/Babygriz Gallery

This is the gallery for the character of Grizabella in her ensemble costume, known as "Baby Griz". For Grizabella's full costume, see here.

Most Grizabella performers also appear as Babygriz, but occasionally "Celebrity" cast choose not to dance in the ensemble for the opening number. Babygriz is often not featured in promotional photos; sometimes the costume is worn in promos by the alternate or cover Grizabella performer while the first cast is in the full costume.

Whether this ensemble identity is meant to be a young version of Grizabella or an entirely separate character is up to interpretation.

Interview with Prisca Demarez
Baby Griz is designed specifically to not stand out from the other cats. In an interview, Prisca Demarez describes her feelings about her chorus identity:

"Marie Berson: I, for one, would be very curious to hear more about the cat you play at first with the Jellicles before Grizabella's entrance! Does she have a name? A role?"

Prisca: It's such a delight to perform the opening number with the whole cast! That moment is very important to me. Of course she has a name! Her name is Baby Griz, but I call her Grizzy Baby. She has the same colours as Grizabella on her face. She's as pure as Victoria and doesn't know life's sorrows yet. She's a kitten. I think she rounds everything off. She embodies the beginning of life, in a family, before the choices and difficulties arise.

I'm often asked why Grizabella doesn't come back young and beautiful at the end. I think we actually see her at the start, as Grizzy Baby, like a new life, a blank page to be filled in. It's what Grizabella was when she was little. It's in that form that she'll come back from the Heavyside Layer - as a kitten.

She allows me to have a past with the group, a feeling of having danced with them before I couldn't do it anymore. And she's so joyful and light before she carries the weight of Grizabella's sorrow.

Original London Production
Elaine Paige in the Original Cast, 1981

Subsequent London Casts

 * Angela Richards (05/82)
 * Marti Webb (09/83)
 * Carol Nielsson (07/84)
 * Anita Harris (05/85)
 * Sharon Benson (10/86), (09/87)
 * Verity Anne Meldrum (02/87)
 * Ria Jones (01/89)
 * Di Botcher (11/90)
 * Jacqui Scott (11/91)
 * Clare Burt (11/93)
 * Rosemarie Ford (10/95)
 * Diane Langton (07/96)
 * Lindsey Danvers (10/96)
 * Stephanie Lawrence (10/97)
 * Sally Ann Triplett (06/98)
 * Chrissie Hammond (11/99)

1998 Film

 * Elaine Paige

UK Tour 1989

 * Marti Webb
 * Rosemarie Ford

UK Tour 1993-95

 * Rosemarie Ford

UK/European Tour 2003-2009

 * Chrissie Hammond (03/03, 03/07)
 * Dianne Pilkington (03/06)

UK/European Tour 2013-14

 * Joanna Ampil (02/13)
 * Susan McFadden (08/13 only)
 * Sophia Ragavelas (05/14)
 * Francesca Whiffin (cover)

London / Blackpool Revival

 * Nicole Scherzinger (12/14)
 * Sophia Ragavelas (alternate London 2014)
 * Kerry Ellis (02/15)
 * Jane McDonald (07/15 Blackpool)
 * Beverley Knight (10/15 London)
 * Madalena Alberto (alternate Blackpool & London 2015)

UK/International Tour
UK Tour 2016
 * Anita Louise Combe
 * Joanna Ampil
 * Marianne Benedict
 * Lucinda Shaw (cover)

Broadway Revival
(Babygriz not used in the Broadway Revival)

Equity Cast

 * Keri René Fuller
 * Donna Vivino
 * Madison Mitchell (cover)
 * Maria Failla (understudy)
 * Tricia Tanguy (understudy)

Non-Equity Cast

 * Tayler Harris
 * Kelliann DeCarlo (cover)
 * Carolyn Bacon (cover)

Tokyo 1995

 * Sayoko Kanai
 * Masako Saito

Nagoya 1999

 * Kim Ji-hyun
 * Sayoko Hayami
 * Kazuyo Kawai
 * Fan Wei-Hua
 * Yasuko Sakamoto

Yokohama 2009

 * Sayoko Hayami
 * Chiaki Kimura
 * Mikiko Shiraki
 * Yasuko Sado
 * Rikako Orikasa
 * Honoka Suzuki
 * Aya Kawamura

Sendai 2013

 * Sayoko Hayami
 * Yasuko Sado
 * Rikako Orikasa
 * Yukie Yokoyama
 * Aya Kawamura

Fukuoka 2014

 * Sayoko Hayami
 * Aya Kawamura

Sapporo 2015

 * Sayoko Hayami
 * Kei Miyahara
 * Yasuko Sado
 * Chiaki Kimura

Osaka 2016

 * Chiaki Kimura
 * Nao Matsumoto
 * Sayoko Hayami
 * Masae Ebata

Tokyo 2018

 * Chiaki Kimura
 * Masae Ebata
 * Rikako Orikasa
 * Miki Kanehara
 * Nao Matsumoto

Fukuoka 2021

 * Miki Kanehara
 * Masae Ebata
 * Rikako Orikasa

Asia Tour 2017

 * Laura Emmitt
 * Ellie Nunan (cover)

Asia Tour 2020

 * Joanna Ampil
 * Ellie Nunan (cover)
 * Holly Meegan (cover)
 * Caitlin New (cover)

German Tent Tour 2010-2013
The German Tent Tour used the Babygriz costume for Electra in the first year of the tour.

Brazil 2010

 * Paula Lima
 * Olívia Branco (cover)
 * Carol Puntel (cover)

Oasis of the Seas 2014
Cast 1
 * Vivienne Carlyle

Cast 2
 * Cornelia Luna

Paris 2015

 * Prisca Demarez
 * Virginie Perrier (cover)

Vienna 2019
On at least one occasion, the Babygriz costume was also used as a swing costume for a female performer covering a male kitten track.
 * Ana Milva Gomes
 * Carin Filipčić
 * Wietske van Tongeren
 * Barbara Obermeier (cover)