Debbie McGee will play Miss Lynch in the new UK and Ireland tour of GREASE The Musical, which opens at the Theatre Royal Plymouth on Friday 23 April 2027.
Debbie McGee takes the role of Miss Lynch, the teacher who keeps order at Rydell High, when the new UK and Ireland tour of GREASE The Musical opens at the Theatre Royal Plymouth on Friday 23 April 2027. The casting was announced by producer Colin Ingram.
Her career began at the Royal Ballet School and has covered rather more than one discipline since. She danced with The Second Generation, appearing alongside artists including ABBA and Chris de Burgh, and in 1979 joined Paul Daniels on The Paul Daniels Summer Show. She went on to become his assistant on The Paul Daniels Magic Show, the longest-running television magic show in the world, and toured with him across the UK as well as in West End seasons at the Savoy and the Prince of Wales Theatres.
In 1991 she became one of the first women admitted to The Magic Circle, which later gave her its Maskelyne Award for outstanding services to British magic; she is now the organisation’s Honorary Vice President. In the early 2000s she started the touring ballet company Ballet Imaginaire, staging traditional works alongside two original pieces, and she later spent twelve years presenting her own Sunday programme on BBC Radio Berkshire, the longest run the slot has had.
A larger audience found her on Strictly Come Dancing in 2017, where she took the earliest 40 in the programme’s history and became the oldest contestant to reach the final. She danced on the Strictly Arena Tour and won the 2019 Christmas special. This year is her fiftieth in showbusiness, and sees the publication of her autobiography, A Magical Life.
The tour is directed by Nikolai Foster, artistic director of Curve, with choreography by Arlene Phillips and book, music and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Designs are by Colin Richmond, with orchestrations and musical supervision by Sarah Travis, lighting design by Ben Cracknell, sound design by Tom Marshall and Richard Brooker, and casting by David Grindrod CDG. GREASE The Musical is produced by Colin Ingram for InTheatre Productions and Curve.
The story needs little introduction. A summer romance ends in September, and the two find themselves in the same corridors when Sandy arrives at Rydell High for her final year and Danny has a leather jacket and a reputation to protect. The score takes in Summer Nights, Greased Lightnin’, Hopelessly Devoted to You and You’re the One That I Want, and this staging is cast young.
Three dates have been added since the tour was first announced: Dublin, Blackpool and Manchester now join the schedule, with further venues and casting still to come.
The 2027 tour dates announced so far are:
- 23 April - 1 May: Theatre Royal Plymouth
- 3-8 May: Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff
- 10-15 May: Theatre Royal Newcastle
- 17-22 May: Wolverhampton Grand Theatre
- 24-29 May: Regent Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent
- 31 May - 5 June: Leeds Grand Theatre
- 8-12 June: Grand Opera House, Belfast
- 15-26 June: Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin
- 5-10 July: Swansea Building Society Arena
- 13-17 July: Mayflower Theatre, Southampton
- 19-24 July: New Theatre, Oxford
- 26-31 July: Liverpool Empire
- 2-7 August: Bristol Hippodrome
- 10-14 August: Blackpool Winter Gardens
- 16-21 August: Darlington Hippodrome
- 30 August - 11 September: Opera House Manchester
- 13-18 September: King’s Theatre, Glasgow
- 20-25 September: Edinburgh Playhouse
- 27 September - 2 October: His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen
- 4-9 October: Sunderland Empire
- 12-16 October: Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham
- 18-23 October: The Alexandra, Birmingham
- 25-30 October: Norwich Theatre Royal
- 1-6 November: Hull New Theatre
Further venues are still to be announced.
