Louise Dearman, Alice Fearn and Rachael Wooding will divide the role of Grizabella between them on the UK and Ireland tour of Cats, the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production that opens at Theatre Royal Plymouth on Tuesday 6 October.
Louise Dearman sings Memory first, taking the role when Cats starts its tour in Plymouth, and she is one of three performers who will share it on a route that runs into June 2027. Alice Fearn and Rachael Wooding complete the trio, joining the touring company of the staging that Drew McOnie directs and choreographs.
The dates are not split evenly. Dearman has Plymouth, Birmingham, Bristol, Norwich and Edinburgh, and Wooding, who played Grizabella in the summer season at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, takes the part again in Hull and Manchester. Fearn has the longest stretch: she picks up the role in Llandudno in December and keeps it at most stops from then until the tour reaches Newcastle in June 2027.
Dearman played both Glinda and Elphaba in Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, which by the producers’ account makes her the only actor anywhere to have done so. Her touring work takes in Evita, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jekyll and Hyde and Guys and Dolls, the last of which also brought her to the Piccadilly Theatre, and in London she has appeared in Grease and Kiss Me Kate at the Victoria Palace and in Side Show at the London Palladium and Southwark Playhouse. Her concert work includes the BBC Proms.
Fearn’s stage credits include Kimberly Akimbo at Hampstead Theatre, Wicked in the West End, Come From Away at the Phoenix Theatre, Shrek The Musical at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Into The Woods at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theatre. She has appeared on television in EastEnders, and on film in WICKED: Part One, WICKED: For Good, Mamma Mia! and Sweeney Todd.
Wooding’s credits include Standing at the Sky’s Edge, which she played at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, the National Theatre and the Sheffield Crucible, as well as We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre, Jersey Boys at the Prince Edward Theatre, Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre and Pretty Woman at the Savoy Theatre. Abroad, she has been in Starlight Express in Bochum and in Cats itself at the Operettenhaus in Hamburg.
All three spoke about what the part means to them. Dearman said: “Memory is one of the most famous songs in musical theatre history, so to perform it every night is incredible. Plus, the long list of women who have played ‘Grizabella’ is pretty iconic in itself!”
Fearn added: “‘Grizabella’ is one of those roles I had on my ‘dream’ list. The chance to be a part of this huge CATS legacy and get the opportunity to sing one of the most iconic scores ever written is something I will cherish forever.”
For Wooding, the tour closes a loop: “It feels like a full circle moment for me. CATS was my first musical out of drama school and getting to be part of the Jellicle tribe again, this time as ‘Grizabella’, both at Regent’s Park and now on tour, feels really special.”
The song that defines the role carries a history of its own. Memory won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song, Musically and Lyrically in 1982, gave Elaine Paige, the original West End Grizabella, a top 10 hit in the UK, and has since been recorded by Barbra Streisand and Barry Manilow among many others.
Michael Harrison presents the tour for Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals, taking McOnie’s staging on the road after its record-breaking summer in London. The production gathers London’s strays and rebels under the Jellicle moon, somewhere between Euston station and Victoria Grove, and sets Andrew Lloyd Webber’s score to T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, from Macavity: The Mystery Cat to the Jellicle Ball. Its marketing line is “A new day has begun.” McOnie, artistic director of Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, has directed and choreographed Brigadoon there and choreographed the venue’s Jesus Christ Superstar.
His creative team is led by Sami Fendall, who designs the set, costumes and wigs, with lighting by Jessica Hung Han Yun, sound by Adam Fisher and make-up by Guy Common. Ingrid Mackinnon is intimacy director, Kev McCurdy fight director, Will Burton casting director and Alex Parker musical supervisor.
The three Grizabellas join a company whose casting was announced in August, among them Kalisha Amaris as Old Deuteronomy, Jack Wilcox as Munkustrap, Jaydon Vijn as Rum Tum Tugger, Diante Lodge as Macavity, Jet Yau as Mr. Mistoffelees, Millie O’Connell as Demeter and Katie Dunsden as Bombalurina.
The musical opened at the New London Theatre in 1981 and stayed there for 21 years and almost 9,000 performances, winning Best Musical at both the Olivier and Evening Standard awards. The Broadway production followed in 1983, collected seven Tony Awards including Best Musical, and ran for 18 years.
The full tour, with the Grizabella at each stop:
- 6-17 October 2026: Theatre Royal, Plymouth (Louise Dearman)
- 20-24 October 2026: New Theatre, Hull (Rachael Wooding)
- 27 October - 7 November 2026: Hippodrome, Birmingham (Louise Dearman)
- 10-21 November 2026: Palace Theatre, Manchester (Rachael Wooding)
- 24-28 November 2026: Hippodrome, Bristol (Louise Dearman)
- 1-5 December 2026: Venue Cymru, Llandudno (Alice Fearn)
- 8-27 December 2026: Theatre Royal, Glasgow (Alice Fearn)
- 6-16 January 2027: Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham (Alice Fearn)
- 19-23 January 2027: Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury (Alice Fearn)
- 26-30 January 2027: Empire Theatre, Sunderland (Alice Fearn)
- 9-13 February 2027: His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen (Alice Fearn)
- 16-27 February 2027: Theatre Royal, Norwich (Louise Dearman)
- 2-13 March 2027: Grand Opera House, Belfast (Alice Fearn)
- 16-20 March 2027: Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin (Alice Fearn)
- 23-27 March 2027: New Theatre, Oxford (Alice Fearn)
- 30 March - 10 April 2027: Mayflower Theatre, Southampton (Alice Fearn)
- 20-24 April 2027: Playhouse Theatre, Edinburgh (Louise Dearman)
- 27 April - 1 May 2027: Alhambra Theatre, Bradford (Alice Fearn)
- 5-15 May 2027: Empire Theatre, Liverpool (Alice Fearn)
- 18-22 May 2027: Woking Theatre, Woking (Alice Fearn)
- 25-29 May 2027: Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff (Alice Fearn)
- 1-5 June 2027: Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes (Alice Fearn)
- 8-19 June 2027: Theatre Royal, Newcastle (Alice Fearn)
