With decorations in the shops and Christmas fast approaching, the festive season is coming to Sheffield’s theatres! Amongst the range of pantomimes and shows gracing our stages is White Christmas, a musical based on the 1954 film of the same name. With casting announced and rehearsals underway, I sat down with West End actress Grace Mouat, who will be playing Betty, to talk about the show and her career in the spotlight.
Grace Mouat trained at the Guildford School of Acting, from which she graduated in 2018. She went on to become dance captain & swing of all queens in the first U.K. tour & original West End production of SIX, the first to cover all of the principal queens. She then progressed to play Judith, as well as covering Juliet, in & Juliet in Manchester and the West End. Grace has also held the roles of Chloe in Be More Chill, Pilar in Legally Blonde, the titular role of Ella in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Izzy in The Great British Bake Off Musical and Lucy Wyman in the workshop of 13 going on 30. She has also run the podcast ‘Cut to the Grace’ and is a member of the band SVN, formed from the original West End cast of SIX.
Could you tell me a bit about the story of White Christmas?
White Christmas follows the story of Phil Davies and Bob Wallace who are in the war, and they then become Broadway stars. They are looking for a sister act and find the wonderful Betty and Judy Haynes, who are played by me and the wonderful Natasha Mould, and there is some romance in the air (without giving too much away!). They end up finding themselves in an inn they weren’t meant to be in, well at least one of them didn’t think they were meant to be there, and they meet General Waverley, who they had worked with before. They decide to put on a show in the barn, so it’s very show-within-a-show vibes, and there’s lots of comedy and romance, and friction let’s say, that gets resolved. But it all comes together in the end – it’s one of those lovely, nostalgic Christmas stories that’s got something for all ages and different people within your family, so it’s perfect for everyone!
You touched on the fact that you’re playing Betty, one of the sisters who end up working with Bob & Phil. What’s Betty’s character like and what can we expect to see from her in this show?
Ooh great question! Betty is very practical, she is quite reserved and sometimes quite insecure, and I think she goes on a really lovely journey in the show of finding who she is outside of her sisterhood and the act, and finding out what she really wants. She’s also very funny, it’s really lovely getting to play someone quite different from myself, in terms of she can be quite serious sometimes, and I’m not a serious person at all! But then as the show goes on, she really opens up and has a lovely story with Bob, and it’s kind of one of those love stories where the audience, for the whole show, are just wanting for them to get together and rooting for them but they just keep missing each other with miscommunications and things like that. And then by the end of it, it’s finally all resolved, and they finally get their happily ever after. She’s a lovely character and I think what I love the most are the songs I get to do. There’s an amazing song in act 2 called ‘Love – You Didn’t Do Right by Me’, which is where Betty goes to the Regency Rooms in Manhattan and has this big “I’m a solo act” kind of moment, so I’m really excited for that one.
Are they all original songs, or a mix between original and things we’ve heard before?
Yeah, so it’s a beautiful score by Irving Berlin. It’s mostly the same songs that are in the film, so there’ll be lots of recognisable tunes. For example, even though my nan hasn’t watched films for so long, I’ll sing her some of the songs and she’ll sing along, so she knows some of them from being standalone songs of that time anyway, which is really lovely. And of course, the absolute classic ‘White Christmas’ is in there, so there’s some absolute bangers and it’s a beautiful score to sing, as I’m sure the whole company would agree.
When people walk out of The Crucible having just seen White Christmas, what is it you want them to feel or take away from the show?
I think no one is going to be able to leave without feeling very festive, very nostalgic and cosy. It’s basically like a cup of warm mulled wine, if mulled wine was a show. It’s just a lovely, festive, Christmassy, cosy, fuzzy feeling. That’s what they’ll feel.
It would be bad of me to have you here and not talk about some of the other shows you’ve been involved in, particularly SIX. You were in the original West End cast and the first U.K. tour, and you’ve covered, I think, every single one of the queens? How’s that for an achievement?
Yeah, first person in the world to do it. That’s my fun fact.
How did you manage to cover all of them, and everything that entails? On the first U.K. tour, you made your debuts as Seymour, Cleves, Howard and Parr all within a week!
Wow, I didn’t even know that one, that’s a great fact. I ask myself that question every day. I have no idea how I managed it, but it was one of the biggest achievements of my life. It was very hard, I didn’t have much of a social life for a period of time whilst I was learning the tracks anyway, but I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. It was the biggest challenge. I was so well supported by the wonderful, wonderful women that I covered who are all still my great friends to this day. Videos help, swing tracks help, I got to tag in every now and then in rehearsals. Carrie-Anne [Ingrouille], the choreographer, would be like “Okay Grace, tag in and play Catherine of Aragon for ‘Don’t Lose Ur Head’ for example, so every now and then I’d get to cover. It’s a very different beast now, SIX, because it’s this amazing commercial show and when we were in the original cast and it was still finding its feet, I had to create my own structure. I do, personally, think that swinging and covering is that anyway, I think it’s not really something you can tell someone how to do it, it’s something you have to learn for yourself and what works for you so, I’d just really set aside time and go home after rehearsals and learn ‘Ex-Wives’ as six different people with my toothbrush in my hand as a microphone. I just set that time aside and got it done. Going on helps a lot, I kept learning as I did it. It just feels like chaos!
Theoretically, if the call ever came again, would you return to SIX? Would you consider doing SIX again in any capacity?
I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t want any experience to compare to the time I had with SIX. I think my career goals now are to continue getting jobs that challenge me and remain as versatile as I possibly can, so I don’t think I’d make a return, but I will forever support it.
You mentioned the ladies you got to work with, which leads me on nicely to talk a bit about SVN. The group’s gone from strength to strength since it was formed, you released ‘Triggered’ last month which was a hit. What was creating the song like, and what would you say is your favourite SVN track that you’ve made so far?
Firstly, thank you. That’s very kind. I’m not really as much a part of the writing scene, I just can’t do it, I wish I could. Jaye’J [Jarnéia Richard-Noel], Nat [Natalie Paris], Aimie [Atkinson], Millie [O’Connell], Lexi [Alexia McIntosh], they all have such writer’s brains and I just don’t, and I think it’s actually for the best. You know that phrase “too many cooks” kind of thing? It’s a real thing so it’s probably for the best. With ‘Triggered’, we wanted to go with a different vibe that still was very much us, kind of like 90s R‘n’B girl band vibe was the next step that we wanted to do, and with nice, stacked harmonies and a message behind it. Always with an underlying message of empowerment is what we always want to create. I think my favourite song is one called ‘Girls’ that Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss [creators of SIX] wrote for us. We performed it at our gig a couple of years ago at the O2 Academy in Islington, but we haven’t yet released it. We’re still waiting for the right time to release it but it’s such a great song and there’s a rap in it that has all our names in it. I think that’s my favourite, but my favourite that’s already been released has to be ‘Stars’. It was our first original, it means a lot to us and it’s just a banger, even if I do say so myself. It’s got some choreo and I just love it, I still listen to it now.
You’re one of the busiest actresses that I’ve ever seen. Within just over a year, you’ve been in Cinderella, you were in the transfer of The Great British Bake Off Musical, you’ve just finished in the 13 going on 30 workshop, and then of course, now you’re here doing White Christmas, what’s it like playing so many vastly different characters in such a short space of time? You’ve got a lot of actors and actresses who spend a year, two years, in a role, and here you are doing four in a year! How do you do that?
Firstly, again, thank you. That’s very very sweet. I think something that I’ve always said is that I’ve never ever wanted to be boxed into a certain thing. I think everyone I knew around me was a bit shocked when I got SIX, because when I was at GSA [Guildford School of Acting] I always wanted to do legit musicals and pick legit theatre like the Les Mis kind of thing, and so when I got SIX I was like “oh my gosh, I’ve got to learn how to sing pop”! And then I did & Juliet and Be More Chill, and things that were really challenging me I found a huge love for, but the want to do those older school Cinderellas, White Christmases kind of vibes was always very present. I realised that was going to be my brand, and I always wanted to do different things. It’s all still a bit baffling to me and I wouldn’t change it for the world, it’s tricky for sure, jumping into different styles with not much notice. I finished 13 going on 30, which is a different world to White Christmas on Saturday and then started White Christmas on Monday, like “okay, I’m in the 1950s giving it legit now, I need to get rid of 2023 American high school bully”. But I love it and I think I just like to get invested in things that are different from myself and different to anything I’ve done, and I’m really really grateful to be doing White Christmas because I would say it’s like nothing I’ve done yet. I guess it’s a similar world to Cinderella but it’s still very far away from princess land, fantasy world. It’s very real and quite mature, she’s a classy girl! I’m excited about it all.
Do you have any tips for anyone who might be looking to get into the industry? I know you went to GSA and went through the drama school route, but do you have any tips for that route or for people who maybe haven’t gone to acting school or got a degree?
Yeah, I think you really have to enjoy putting yourself out there. I think working on learning how to enjoy that first, and then going for it, is very important, like just being as approachable and a front-footed person will always be helpful to you in this industry. So I’d recommend getting some material together, talking to people, don’t be afraid to email someone in the theatre industry, learn from people and just take as much knowledge as you can. And definitely for people who don’t end up going down the drama school route, I think it’s so important that you have material of yourself performing that you can be like “this is me, this is who I am, this is what I offer” to help you get an agent or help you get an audition with a casting director or whatever. Just put yourself out there and don’t be afraid to do so.
After you’ve done White Christmas, you’ve announced that you’re going to be going alongside Jacob Fowler in the Before After premiere from February to March. Just between us two, do you have anything lined up afterwards that you might want to share with Forge Press?
I don’t actually, I’m trying to just be present and enjoy all the things I’m doing. I’d love to do a solo concert again, so stay tuned for that! But I think I’m trying to be present whilst I’m away from London, but I know the minute I’m back in London and January hits and the audition circuit comes around, it’s going to be back to it. Who knows what’s around the corner, it’s very exciting!
Grace Mouat will be starring as Betty in White Christmas, playing at The Crucible from December 9th to January 13th
