Like any good trip down the Grease memory lane, this production is fun, energetic, colourful and while the song order is different, overall it never strays too far from the famous film version that so many remember so well. Even as the Radio WAXX pre show music drifts through the auditorium, to ease us into the 50s, when hairstyles and rock’n’roll were the only things that mattered in a teenager’s world, my mind wanders back.

From the opening scene – the first day back at Rydell High – all our favourite characters, which many have grown up with, are instantly recognisable.

With her charismatic stance, Genna Galloway as Rizzo demands our full attention whenever she struts on stage.

Roger (Darren Vercuiel) and Jan (Cherise Roberts) are very likable nerds, but its David Schlachter as Eugene, who takes top honours as the coolest geek.

Bronwyn Reddy makes an enthusiastic, elastic Patty and Sharon Spiegel-Wagner, as Frenchie, is in fine singing voice, and just adorable to watch, as is cute Doody (Matt Counihan), although he is completely upstaged in his solo. In fact, his back up singer-dancers in ‘Those Magic Changes’, confirm that this is the campest production of Grease you’ll ever see!

Angelina Jolie look-a-like Kirsten Murphy portrays the drop dead gorgeous yet slightly dim hussy Marty, to a tee. Kenickie, played by Charles Bouguenon, is a stand out. From his electric ‘Greased Lightnin’ to his sexy swagger and eye catching form on the dance floor, he is every bit a leading man. 

Jason Capewell enjoys bringing Vince Fontaine to life, as a fading, nearly ‘has-been’ middle-aged man, reliving his glory days at the High School Hop.

Bethany Dickson’s sweet Sandy is suitably nice and Jonathon Roxmouth as Danny uses an infectious goofy laugh and his obvious talents as a comic actor, to endear himself to the audience. While both are excellent singers, with impressive vocal craft, even taking into account that Grease is by nature, larger than life in tone and delivery, it is still difficult to see any embellished (let alone believable) chemistry and emotional connection between them, as they angst about their teenage love.

However, neither David Gilmore’s direction nor Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey’s script are about subtleties or subtext. The spelling out of emotions and forced feelings, along with the corny lines and cheesy set ups, are totally intentional. All are in keeping with a musical crafted to take us lightly from one hit song to the next, on a fun-loving ride.

While occasionally this makes for an oddly disjointed journey, every time the T-Birds appear this talented group of men clearly portray their loyal bond and solidarity as cool yet hapless larrikins, and milk every opportunity for buffoonery. The Pink Ladies by contrast, never quite succeed in communicating the same degree of schoolyard camaraderie.

Musical Director Charl-Johan Lingenfelder’s thumping 7-piece band is drum-heavy, occasionally low on finesse but always high on raw energy and volume. At times they appear to be having so much fun, they are a tad loose. On saying that, it’s about drive and energy, and the band delivers plenty of both. 

Musical Staging / Choreographer Arlene Phillips and associate choreographer Stori James capture and utilise every bit of that drive and energy. In particular, the company’s moves on the bleachers in ‘We Go Together’, are brilliant. 

While the main cast members are a mix of seasoned professionals and new faces from diverse backgrounds, overall the company are at their absolute best where it really matters: singing the big, fat, well known songs that generations have come to love and adore. At full voice, their vocal wave in ‘Grease Is The Word’, ‘Summer Nights’, ‘We Go Together’ and ‘You’re The One That I Want’ and ‘Finale’ (the compulsory medley), is thrilling.

Other numbers are not so exciting: band and company seem out of step in ‘Shakin At The High School Hop’ and the following duet, ‘It’s Raining On Prom Night’ suffers from an imbalance in the audio mix between melody and harmony.

After Lingenfelder’s slightly pedestrian pace in ‘Born To Hand Jive’ (which also features some odd and distracting guitar FX), Bethany Dickson’s wonderful vocal and stand out moment, singing ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’, pulls the music and magic of nostalgic memories, back on track. Roxmouth’s ‘Sandy’ is equally evocative, even though the tempo seems a little rushed.

The all important music is in fine hands, as audio design by Bobby Aitken is full of noteworthy details, such as clever cross fades from full PA volume, to a wireless (prop) radio on stage. Also, his decision to give hand held RF microphones to soloists in the upbeat rock songs, rather than rely on the weaker gain of headset mics, is highly effective. It gives the audience a far more present, tangible lead vocal.

Mark Henderson’s lighting rig is massive, and while there are some old-school touches like the Grease logo in a sea of festoons, the overall look and feel is modern and bright, with extra trussing to house the huge number of moving lights that sweep the stage. Set design by Terry Parsons is similar: While full of bright primary colours, it has a contemporary, almost industrial feel to it.

Costume designer Andreane Neofitou ensures individuals are suitably attired in his or her own stand out bold and colourful 50s threads, or uniform T-Bird blacks. By contrast, her fantasy frocks in ‘Beauty School Drop Out’ are rightfully garish.

However – and there is no easy way to say this – given the chunky size of this production’s Danny, his tight stovepipe jeans and even tighter tiny white running shorts need to be addressed. Staying true to the cut of the day is one thing, but when the leading man’s costumes are so distracting to the audience that they boarder on laughable and repellent, you have a problem.

My specific niggles aside, Grease absolutely unleashes a fun, colourful musical ride, through the eyes of our most loved and adored characters from Rydell High. Like an episode of Glee, it guarantees good times.  
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GREASE The Musical provides a vivid but brief chronicle of the last year of high school for a couple of dozen mostly working class kids in small town America, circa 1959.

In twenty disco-inflected rockabilly songs spread over two acts, we travel from the first day of school to a glorious post-graduation celebration replete with joyous jiving and some spectacular swing aerials which leave some of the other dance segments way in the shade. Along the way, we vicariously share the ostensible teens’ encounters in the school hallways, gymnasium, track and baseball bleachers, at a slumber party, in a garage, at the Burger Palace, the drive-in, and the prom.

Though each of the characters is larger than life and the happenings of the moment are somewhat exaggerated, we get little insight into their lives. But we quickly understand that friends are all important, close personal relationships are longed for, and what comes after high school really doesn’t exist for them. The moment is everything.

The Ryder High greasers dress in black jeans, t-shirts and leather jackets with T-Birds emblazoned on their backs. Danny (an Elvis lookalike) is their leader, and the others are bad-boy Kenickie and sidekicks Roger, Doody, and Sonny.

They are a hapless bunch, beset by inflated ideas of their own importance and cravings for rampant sex – their often lewd body language will surely result in detention more often than any kind of bodily pleasure. But Kenickie has a run-down Corvette which he intends to do up as a babe magnet, and Roger has aspirations to becoming a crooner, and they each have a fledgling ‘significant other’ relationship to dream about.

The boys’ counterparts are The Pink Ladies – cool and mature Betty Rizzo, sophisticated Marty, airhead Frenchy, bubbly Jan, and the naive newbie in town they have taken pity on, good girl Sandy Dumbrowski. They’re a worldly bunch, with fashionable full circle skirts and zingy prom dresses, carefully coiffed hair and tidy makeup.

Marty has male friends in the armed services, Frenchy is destined to drop out and go to beauty school, Jan has the sweetest voice, and Sandy has a secret boyfriend she met at the beach over summer. Despite craving gossip about others, they keep their own secrets close, wary of disclosing anything which could be used to ruin their reputations.

The action is driven along by a seven piece band whose sure pace and rich full sound is delivered by bass and lead guitars, saxophone and horns, keyboard and drum kit under the baton of the band leader. They are dressed in bright pink shirts and seated above the stage in the back wall, hidden behind a black curtain for much of the show, but on display in the opening and the finale.

The twenty songs which carry the story are confidently delivered by the cast, both in solo and ensemble formats. Sandy (Bethany Dickson) has a sure clear voice, both in singing and speaking, and she is well able to inflect her words with the requisite emotion. Danny (Jonathan Roxmouth) is a master of facial expression and gestural timing, but his singing is less confident and at times his voice was too quiet, though the big anthems were delivered competently.

The best singing by far, though, is the blazing soul and shout-out delivered by Ms Lynch/Teen Angel (Thembeka Mnguni) which is rapturously applauded.

Full ensemble dancing extends and enlarges the impact of the singing in the big numbers like Grease is the Word, Summer Nights, We Go Together, Born to Hand Jive, You’re the One that I Want, and in the finale where every available space is filled by spectacular dancing. The floor space is extended to use any flat surface afforded by sets ranging from four tier stadium benches, the three level Burger Palace, two level garage, and the stage itself. Floor patterns are artfully arranged, and make good use of parallel formations, crisscrossing grids, rolling rows, diagonals, clusters and islands to create spaces for variants on social dances from the 50s through 80s.

The dancing is well delivered – a mix of jive and swing, hand-jive, hustle, some freestyling, with modern jive box step variations effectively employed in ensemble patterns. Non-ensemble dancing is in disappointingly short supply, though, apart from the steamy Latin styled duet at the prom by Danny and someone else’s blind date Cha Cha (Michelle Le Trobe) and the aforementioned fantastic swing aerials (Louisa Talbot and Malan Le Roux).

Stand out dance scenes are the transformation of the Corvette into Greased Lightning, with eleven black clad-men dancing in, on and round the car, Beauty School Dropout, with eleven young ladies dressed in variations of frothy flimsy white, led in serpentine lines by the ultimate Teen Angel across a floor obscured by dry ice puffs, and of course the all-out finale with twenty-two dancers going for broke before branching out into the final bows. 
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Summer nights at Rydell High seem a long way from the drizzly misery of an Auckland winter but Grease is all about shaking off humdrum cares and tapping into that deep nostalgia for an uncomplicated world where rock’n’roll rules and teenage romance fills the air.

The South African-sourced production delivers the goods, bringing a hint of regional flavour to the show’s all-American ambience. [More]  
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