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.
Designs[]
UK Productions[]
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[]
UK Tours[]
UK Tour 1989[]
UK Tour 1993-95[]
UK/European Tour 2003-2009[]
- Chrissie Hammond (03/03, 03/07)
- Dianne Pilkington (03/06)
- Chevaun Marsh (cover)
- Roimata Templeton (cover)
UK/European Tour 2013-14[]
- Joanna Ampil (02/13)
- Susan McFadden (08/13 only)
- Sophia Ragavelas (05/14)
- Francesca Whiffin (cover)
_-_2013_UK.jpg "BabyGriz (F. Whiff) - 2013 UK.jpg (380 KB)")
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)
- Grace McKee (promo)
UK/International Tour[]
UK Tour 2016
UK Tour 2017
- Joanna Ampil
- Agnes Pure (cover)
- Charlotte Scott (cover)
UK Tour 2018 (01/2018-10/2018)
- Joanna Ampil
- Ceili O'Connor (cover)
- Elizabeth Futter (cover)
UK Tour 2018 (12/2018-04/2019)
- Jenna Lee-James
- Ceili O'Connor (cover)
- Elizabeth Futter (cover)
UK Tour 2019
- Li-Tong Hsu
- Joanna Ampil
- Abigail Dever (cover)
UK Tour 2022
- Jacinta Whyte
- Ina Wroldsen
- Gunilla Backman
- Aimee Hodnett (cover)
- Sarah-Marie Maxwell (cover)
- Anna Campkin (cover)
- Kayleigh Thadani (cover)
- Carrie Willis (promo)
Older Jennyanydots costume used as Babygriz costume for shows in Norway and Sweden. Nicknamed "Autumn" by Anna.
Electra costume used as Babygriz for shows in Sweden.
US Productions[]
Original Broadway Production[]
US Tours 1-4[]
US Tour 5[]
Broadway Revival[]
(Babygriz not used in the Broadway Revival)
US Tour 6[]
Equity Cast[]
- Keri René Fuller
- Donna Vivino
- Madison Mitchell (cover)
- Maria Failla (understudy)
- Tricia Tanguy (understudy)
Non-Equity Cast[]
2021-2022
- Tayler Harris
- Kelliann DeCarlo (cover)
- Carolyn Bacon (cover)
- Lauren Louis (cover)
2022-2023
- Tayler Harris
- Rachael Haber (cover)
- Clara Hevia (cover)
- Megan Arseneau (cover)
Japanese Productions[]
Tokyo 1995[]
Nagoya 1999[]
Yokohama 2009[]
Sendai 2013[]
Shizuoka 2013[]
Fukuoka 2014[]
Sapporo 2015[]
Osaka 2016[]
Tokyo 2018[]
Fukuoka 2021[]
Nagoya 2022[]
Australian Productions[]
Australian Circus Tent Tour[]
Australasia 2007-2010[]
Australia NZ 2015[]
Asia Tour 2017[]
- Laura Emmitt
- Ellie Nunan (cover)
Asia Tour 2020[]
South Korea 2020
- Joanna Ampil
- Ellie Nunan (cover)
- Holly Meegan (cover)
- Caitlin New (cover)
Taiwan 2022
- Joanna Ampil
- Holly Meegan (cover)
- Caitlin New (cover)
- Ellie Nunan (cover)
Asia Tour 2022-2023[]
- Joanna Ampil
- Anita Louise Combe
- Madison Green (cover)
- Lydia Gerrard (cover)
German Productions[]
Hamburg 1986-2001[]
Stuttgart 2001-02[]
Berlin 2002-04[]
Düsseldorf 2004 / German Tour 2005[]
- Nadja Solovieva (03/04)
- Cornelia Drese (09/04)
- Maaike Schuurmans (02/05)
- Masha Karell
- Francesca Taverni (cover)
- Eva Gullvag Aasgard (cover)
- Petra Madita Kübitz (cover)
German Tent Tour 2010-2013[]
The German Tent Tour also used the Babygriz costume for Swings covering Electra in the first year of the tour.
Other Productions[]
1980s[]
Toronto 1985/Canadian Tour[]
Amsterdam 1987-1992[]
- Ruth Jacott
- Pia Douwes (cover)
Paris 1989[]
1990s[]
Zurich 1991 / Euro Tour 1994[]
_Asparagus_(Campbell)_Babygriz_(Jacott)_Zurich.jpg "Jelly (Romjin) Asparagus (Campbell) Babygriz (Jacott) Zurich.jpg (66 KB)")
Antwerp 1996[]
2000s[]
South Africa/World Tour 2001-05 / South Africa 2009[]
Madrid 2003[]
.jpg "Group Photo Madrid 2003 (1).jpg (81 KB)")
Moscow 2005[]
Dutch Tour 2006[]
2010s[]
Brazil 2010[]
- Paula Lima
- Olívia Branco (cover)
- Carol Puntel (cover)
China 2012[]
Oasis of the Seas 2014[]
Cast 1
Cast 2
Cast 3
Cast 4
Cast 5
- Heidi Karlsson
- Lily de-la-Haye (cover)
Cast 6
Cast 7
Cast 8
Cast 9
Cast 10
- Robyn Tempest
- Helen Turner (cover)
Cast 11
Cast 12
Cast 13
- Ellie Monkley
- Emily Ormiston (cover)
- Emma Brynn Cooper (cover)
Cast 14
Cast 15
- Yardén Barr
- Sarah Moore (cover)
Paris 2015[]
- Prisca Demarez
- Virginie Perrier (cover)
Vienna 2019[]
- Ana Milva Gomes
- Carin Filipčić
- Wietske van Tongeren
- Barbara Obermeier (cover)
- Denise Jastraunig (cover)
- Jo Lucy Rackham (worn covering Carbucketty)
On at least one occasion, the Babygriz costume was also used as a swing costume for a female performer covering a male kitten track.
