PETER ANDRE TAKES ON TWO ROLES AS GREASE HEADS TO CITY
P❝ It’s one of my favourite cities in England. I love the cafes and bars and restaurants and the way it’s set out, with all those hills Peter Andre
ETER Andre will star in an iconic musical at the Bristol Hippodrome this autumn, playing not one but two famous roles.
The British-Australian singer will take to the boards on Tuesday, September 21, in a four-night run of Grease.
Playing Vince Fontaine and the Teen Angel, Peter will have some quick costume changes and a lot of choreography to learn.
The Grease tour had to be put on hold last year due to coronavirus restrictions but now it’s full gas for curtain-up in just two months’ time.
Peter said: “I’m looking forward to everything, especially because everyone is going to be so happy being back at work – and that doesn’t just include us on stage, it’s everyone from the lighting guys to the sound guys to the people who work in the venues.
“The atmosphere is going to be, excuse the pun, electrifying.”
The star added that Grease was “a great show to put a smile on people’s faces” and he will certainly be doing his bit to light up the stage.
Andre may even feature as a policeman in the show – as well as his carrying off his two main roles.
He said: “The more characters the better for me. Each one of them has a different accent, so I get to do different dialects, and it’s good to be acting as well as singing.
“With Vince Fontaine and Teen Angel it’s very quick change but I love the energy of that.
“There’s just one song, which I’m not in, during which I have time to get out of one outfit and into a completely different one, with the wig and everything. But it’s really good fun.”
That wig will have a challenge fitting over Peter’s hair if he has his way. He said: “Nowadays you don’t want to look too vain so for guys it’s short-ish hair but back then it was all about the quiff and the DA, and I love that.”
The movie itself holds a special place in Andre’s heart, as it was one of his favourites growing up.
“Everyone can relate to being a teenager, whether that’s from a nostalgic point of view or if you’re a teenager right now.
“There’s a glamour to the teenagers
in Grease, though, and that’s another draw; it’s set in sunny America whereas you might have grown up in wet and windy England,” he mused.
But Peter added that it wasn’t until he took his kids to see the stage production of the iconic show that they fell in love with it.
Speaking about musical theatre, he cast his mind back to his own childhood and said: “Acting is something I studied as a kid and I love doing something that combines acting, singing and dancing.
“Back in the old days, if you wanted to be an actor you had to learn how to sing and dance and if you wanted to be a singer you also learned how to act and dance.
“Now a lot of kids are like ‘I want to be a singer’ and that’s it. In the olden days it was all about performance.
“You would go and see artists like Michael Jackson, Prince or Madonna and it was all about the show – the dancing, the singing, the drama. Getting to do all three with a show like Grease is brilliant.”
And it’s not just about the show either, as Andre added how glad he was to be back in the heart of the South West.
“Bristol means a lot to me. My brother Andrew, who we’ve sadly lost now, used to live in nearby Weston-super-Mare and we spent a lot of time in Bristol.
“It’s one of my favourite cities in England. I love the cafes and bars and restaurants and the way it’s set out, with all those hills,” he said.