Grey Garrett is proud of how Making Merry with Grey Garrett is shaping up.
“The format is still a bit loose,” says Garrett, a well-known performer and actress around town. “I’m borrowing some things from old television holiday specials because I want it to feel like you’re at home.”
The show, which takes place on December 3 as part of the Legends on Grace Nightcaps & Stories series at Dominion Energy Center’s Rhythm Hall, will showcase different styles of music, from modern holiday favorites to the classics.
“I’m really proud of the flow of the show,” says Garrett. “I am definitely planning on having some heavy hitters.”
From Chesterfield to New York and Back
Garrett’s family moved to Chesterfield when she was almost two years old, then to Amelia and finally Mechanicsville where she graduated from Atlee High School.
She caught the acting bug at a young age. “When I was in elementary school, my parents were going through a divorce. My mom came home with flyers for a million different things that I could explore after school,” she says.
She found a pamphlet for Theater Unlimited in Powhatan and saw the advertisement for a production of Snow White. “I loved Disney,” Garrett says. “I went to Theater Unlimited and then got involved in SPARC.”
After graduating from Atlee, she moved to New York and went to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. After completing the conservatory, she worked as an extra on soap operas and then as a singer on cruise ships before studying for two years at Columbia and taking private lessons.
“I was mostly doing television then. They would put me in bit parts. I worked for five years in the show Rescue Me. I was a stand-in for leading roles,” she says.
Garrett returned to Virginia after being diagnosed with skin cancer and going through three operations in the span of seven years.
“When I was twenty-six or twenty-seven, I had the big one,” she says. “My doctors were amazing. They had to take a chunk of my nose. They recreated it from my ears. I thought I was done with acting.”
Garrett got involved with voice-overs after her last operation, but finally decided to audition for local theater. The rest is history.
“I’ve been working non-stop,” says Garrett who won an Artsy Award for her work in Mamma Mia at Virginia Rep and has also appeared in movies and television since returning to Richmond.
Heralding the Holidays
In preparing for her show, Garrett wanted to focus on the holidays and the fundamentals of the season.
“It has a nice message,” she says. “It’s about togetherness, love, acceptance, and forgiveness. We all know what it feels like to have that holiday warmth in our hearts.”
The show will have songs that people know and quite a few that they haven’t heard of, she adds.
“I did a lot of research preparing for the show. I wanted it to have a different, exciting take on the holidays,” she says.
Don’t be surprised if some of Garrett’s theatre friends stop by to spread some holiday cheer. “I hope the journey I take people on provides them with a new perspective that will electrify parts of their hearts and minds,” she says.
