I have been spending my time on this musical, you may have heard of it, Grease? As much as I hate the musical (what with it's horrendous morals etc etc) it turns out, it became the best musical I have ever done but that's hardly a testament to the content of the script, but to the lovely cast I performed alongside.
Which segues into the reason for this blog (and also because I just have no time for gushing my emotions all over the floor anymore):
My old musical society did a production of Grease which luckily co-incided with the closure of our Grease. Thus, a large portion of us "greasers" attended the musical. And so begins my retelling of **** presents Grease!
First off, I feel my attire needs to be addressed, I wore amazingly mustard coloured pants. In a cruel twist of fate, though, I spilled barbecue sauce all over them but that's not for here....
Secondly, I should point out that this post is by no means intending to critique the show in a constructive way, which is why I have omitted the name of the society. Basically, It's just going to be fodder that boosts the collective esteem of my fellow castmates. Cool? Ok, Go!
Upon entering the foyer of the theatre, being welcomed with the familiar sites of child labour (kids high on red bull sell programs), overly excited and repressed teens and hobbly old bitties, we were to discover the first blow which is what separates a university society to a proper, functioning musical society that operates as a business. There were cardboard cut-outs of the major characters in the show! Wait, cardboard cut outs makes it sounds like something cheap, something I would have in my bedroom.. They were life size extravaganzas displaying full body portraits of the characters we were about to witness on stage. They were so life-like that I continuously had to double take to confirm it was a cardboard cut-out or an eerily still standing man.
We enter the theatre, and there it is, the second blow, they have a set! They have a bench/lunch table/whatever it was, it served the purpose of being a simple yet valuable prop. They also had bleachers! weeping! The third impressive thing was the projector screen. The things that were projected on the screen throughout the show, however, varied from cute and effective, to downright silly but more of that as it unfolds. Then, the show begins.....
Rydell Alma Mater: 6 figures enter the stage; Eugene, Patty, Ms Lynch and three old students. I did whisper to Stevie, who was sitting next to me, "nice use of the old people of the society", but at the same time baffled as to how the students aged so gracefully as Eugene and Patty seemed to have been quite the advocates for the botox, as they were as young as budding ears of corn. I should also take this opportunity to point out that Patty was about 3 years old.. and Eugene was just taking his first steps. So young!
The rest of the cast sings the Parody of the aforementioned song and as the ensemble assemble on the stage I'm trying to figure who's who. I make mental casting assumptions in my head and then they speak and erryfing is thrown asunder! Kenickie is played by a rotund, potentially balding gent who had the cold, dead eyes of Johnson. Roger is some sort of "hey" guy. I don't really have anything to say about Roger except that he had the sweaty face of someone who is chasing the dragon. Sonny was far too attractive to be Sonny. It just made no sense that a guy like that would play the "forever alone" card because if he even so much as looked at me in a sidewards glance, I would take that as a pass and be all over him like a rash. Doody: My first thoughts were, he's my favourite baby gay... they were also my closing thoughts... although the initial thought was clouded with judgement and amusement involving thoughts such as: 'this is not going to work'. whereas the closing thought was: "I don't have much money and I promised I would never go for anyone younger than me again, but can I please be your sugar daddy!?" Seriously, baby gaybe! I love it sick! Danny Zuko was tall, unassuming and plain in the face, who had an impressive falsetto and seemed to get easily fired up by his posse's taunts, or by Sandy's accusations of him not liking her.
I'm getting ahead of myself, I forgot to talk about the Pink Ladies. Marty was played well although she had a tendency to oversing and over dance. Not that I always have a problem with that, I was sixteen once and was all too often cast in roles where I would have to fight to be seen by anyone. Cool, I get it, but you've got this lead role now, you can probs tone it down a little. Jan was initially exciting to me, I enjoyed her energy but frowned upon the unoriginality of being costumed movie identical. I still did enjoy that she seemed to deliver the energy but then she continued to play this hunch-y weird faced freak and I began to think; "how would the cool girls be friends with this bitch, she is legitimately off the planet and out of her mind". Frenchy was cute but I internally moaned as she entered the stage and I noticed the speech impediment. Rizzo was good. She was good at being a bitch, at throwing shade and at hating on Sandy but when it came to being sensitive and displaying vulnerability I was not weeping! And then the woman of the hour; Sandy Dumbrowski. I just don't even know why she was cast? her voice was the biggest average although she did looking particularly banging when she became Sexy Sandy so is that why?
The first act played out much like you would expect it to; where scene 2 followed scene 1 and then after that was scene 3 and so on and so forth....
The bedroom scene with the Pink Ladies was super cute. It was probably one of the faves, for me. It was proof how simplicity can play a big part! Greased Lighting was a major lolzfest, I feel that every male in the county may have been called on stage to be part of it... It was overcrowded and there were so many tricks! but considering that about 75% were weening of their mothers' tits, the sexy factor was lost, I'm afraid to say. The final scene of Act 1 was always a favourite of mine, mostly due to the fact that Eugene delivers his one line while carrying his entire bodyweight worth of leaves on stage with him... Well, that's how it happens in my head but apparently not for the director of this show.. Sandy and the 'Gene carry bags which suggest they just went and bought some cutesie stationery from Typo. Unamused. and then they all said they go together and the entire ensemble enters the stage in a flurry of premature choreography. Woo! Intermission! Drink lots of wine!
