The first person I’ve chosen for Understudy of the Week is the amazing Collette Guitart – who I have seen twice in Six: The Musical in the west end where she is currently the Dance Captain and understudies all the queens.
I first saw Collette when I went to see Six for the first time in September 2019 where she was on for Catherine Parr. Until then the two ‘beheaded’ queens were my favourites and ones I was most excited for but after coming out of the show all I could message my friends about was Collette Parr, she blew me away. Then when I saw it again with my friend Jess (go visit her amazing post about it here! https://toreadistodream.home.blog/2020/02/09/six-16-01-2020/) I was so happy to see that I was going to get the chance to see her perform again this time as Catherine of Aragon, where she was just as amazing! Although I did love Collette’s Aragon, I think Collette’s Parr will always have a special place in my heart.
Collette has such amazing vocals that would make anyone fall in love with her voice which is the perfect mix of rasp and softness which has always been one of my favourite vocal types so I always love when I get to hear it within musical theatre. Alongside a fantastic voice, Collette also demonstrates her incredible dancing skills. There’s always someone you get drawn to in big dance numbers and for me that is Collette; she moves so effortlessly and is just a joy to watch.
Collette often posts videos of her dancing on Instagram which I love to watch because you can tell how much she’s passionate about it. She often posts videos of her doing little singing covers on there as well, which most of the time is acapella where you can tell that her voice is amazing.
Collette studied at Bodywork Company which is a Performing Arts company that offers professional dance and musical theatre courses. Collette has since then performed in the Royal Variety show (London Palladium) on ITV and adverts on TV such as Chevrolet.
Her theatre credits include; Bat out of Hell where she played Lunarrow in the Ensemble (Dominion Theatre), Swing in Wonderland (UK Tour), Ensemble/Cover ‘Fate’ in 27: The Rise of a Falling Star (Cockpit Theatre) and Swing in Rip It Up (Garrick Theatre).
One of the things that I love about Collette is that she is really active within the fanbase, she’s always liked anything I’ve tagged her in and I always see her liking other things within Instagram/Twitter, it’s probably nothing to her but it means a lot to the fanbase so thank you Collette!!
Collette is currently a Dance Captain and Understudy in Six: The Musical at The Arts Theatre in London, but when the UK Tour Queens didn’t have enough cast to cover them Collette got on a train to Manchester and was on her way to perform on the tour for a few days!
A role I’d like to see her play is Santine in Moulin Rouge!
Collette is an amazing triple threat with a heart of gold and it’s for that reason that she is my Understudy of the Week!