Step back in time, this version
of Grease is more real life grit than the saccharin polish of the 1978 movie
and is all the better for it.
Director Nikolai Foster has gone
back to the original stage production and reset Rydale High. Using Warren Casey and Jim Jacobs’ initial story,
this production delves into the struggles of adolescence in the atomic age of working
class America. The ‘everything is sunny’ West Coast feeling of the movie is
replaced by a more threatened feeling of life under the mushroom cloud, darker,
deeper and in doing so, gives a reboot to one of the most popular, and by
default, well-known musicals of the 20th century.
For fans of the film, for which I
would guess 99% of the audience are, this is not just a stage version of the
Travolta/Newton-John movie; there will be surprises in the way the scenes knit
together, the timeline of events is quite different, as too are the dynamics of
the ensemble. The choreography is high
octane and dirty and there is a distinct sense of teenage angst and sexual tension
which is missing in the sanitised movie.
In revisiting the original, director
Foster has resurrected some of the songs lost to the movie and added some new
ones specifically for this production. Sure,
the big hitters are there – Summer Nights, Sandy, The One That I Want, Teen
Angel but added to these are new (old) hits including Tattoo Song, How
Big I’m Gonna Be and Mooning.
Stand out performance is Rizzo’s heartbreaking There Are Worse Things
I Could Do which Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky delivers with tragic passion.
For the cast, comparisons will
always be made on the Danny/Sandy dynamic; Dan Patridge and Martha Kirby try
hard but are just a little short of a believable chemistry that suggests they would
really hook up. The aforementioned
McCaulsky is a great Rizzo, vulnerable and afraid but covered in a veneer of faux
brashness. Eloise Davies is a wonderful
Frenchy; cute, kooky and still holding onto the ideals that everything is going
to be okay. Of course, the loudest cheer
of the night (from the ladies in the audience at least) is reserved for the
appearance of Teen Angel, Peter Andre, looking as smooth and charismatic as he
did in his pop days.
The show ends with the much
expected ‘mega-mix’ giving the audience the opportunity to get up and dance and
leaving all with a lovely set of ear worms for the journey home.
Had this been a straight remake
of the movie, it would be a solid 3 star production, but the return to the
original, the brilliant choreography and the excellent direction lift this up
to a 5 star Must See.
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