"Grease The Musical"

Nottingham Royal Concert Hall.

I may not have had a pink bomber jacket to don, but I automatically raided my pink attire and systematically made my way to the Royal Concert Hall as fast as greased lightning to watch one of my favourite electrifying, fun and frothy musicals that transported me back to my teenage years, "Grease". Now, when I say that, I mean that I was a teenager when the film was released, not that I was at school in the late 1950's!

After all these years, this musical is still amazingly good fun and everyone knows the complete soundtrack in full. “Summer Nights”, “You’re The One That I Want”, “Sandy”, “Hopelessly Devoted To You”, "Greased Lightning", “Grease”, “Beauty School Drop Out” and my favourite “There Are Worse Things I Could Do”. First performed in 1971, five years before the film version starring John Travolta as Danny Zuko and Olivia Newton-John as Sandy Dumbrowski, it's lost none of its' frothiness.

We all know what to expect from "Grease" so I don't really need to tell the story of the musical. What I can tell you is that this production encapsulate the whole feel of the era, 1959, and of the "belonging" to the separate gangs, The "T Birds", the leather jacketed "lads" gang, "The Burger Palace Boys" and the "Pink Ladies", the all more refined collection of ladies who have sleep over parties and discuss the teen idols of the day and make up.

This production isn't the same as the film version, so if all that you've seen is the film, there's a few changes in the running order of the plot and some of the music. Some of the plot line has been omitted, but that will be because scenes like the car race is impossible to replicate on stage unless you use videography, but that section looks good on screen, but not essential to the plot of the musical.

Marley Fenton plays Danny and is a lot more streetwise and "laddish" than the image presented by Travolta; there's an edge about Zuko that Marley captures well. In Marley's performance, I didn't see Travolta playing Danny Zuko, I saw Marley playing Zuko, and that I feel is an important factor when playing such a well known character. He does a brilliant version of "Sandy" as well.

Hope Dawe plays Sandy Dee. Going with the original musical version of Sandy is a preference for me as she is less of a blonde "airhead" type character and has more about her, although I love Olivia Newton-John's portrayal in the film. Hope presents Sandy as a character who fits in well with The Pink Ladies, eventually, but shows her own personality. Vocal wise, this lady has a stunning and powerful voice.

Rebecca Stenhouse is Betty Rizzo. Rizzo is one spunky lady who is in charge of what she does. The whole "girl power" image that Stockard Channing created in the film is here, brought to the stage by Rebecca. My favourite song from this musical has always been "There Are Worse Things I Could Do", but I felt the arrangement was just a little too aggressive. Yes, it brought out the fragility and the scared emotions of Rizzo, but seemed a little on the shouty side, which may have been the mix of the song, who knows. Still, a very powerful performance from Rebecca.

Ben Nicholas is Kenickie. When the film was being made, John Travolta wanted to sing "Greased Lightning" even though the car belonged to Kenickie, so it's right that the musical goes back to the original version which allows Ben to belt out the brilliant "Greased Lightning". Kenickie here is a powerful character, definitely not second to Zuko, and this is true to how the original 1950's gang members used to behave. 

Doody is played by Kieran Lynch. This character is one of the younger members of Zuko's crew, and boyfriend to Frenchy. Kieran brings out the fun, and slightly ditsy, some may say naive character, which is what makes Frenchy and Doody such a well matched pair.

Alicia Belgarde plays Frenchy. Oh, I love this character because she is such a simplistic person. She wants to be a beautician but fails at that, confirmation coming from Teen Angel in the dream sequence, surrounded by plenty of pink clad ensemble angels. A lovely fun role for Alicia to get her teeth into.

Lewis Day plays Roger, or "Rump" as he is nicknamed. Why does he have this nickname? Because he is the best "mooner" in school. Don't know what a "mooner" is? Look it up or come and see "Grease". The song "Mooning" has a lovely falsetto part which Lewis hits perfectly.

Sario Solomon is Sonny. You may remember Sario from taking part in "Let It Shine" on the BBC when they were looking for a band to play The Band in a new musical featuring the music of Take That. He got through and appeared at the Theatre Royal in that show. After bulking up his theatrical CV, he is back in Nottingham in this role. Sario was a guest on my radio show when "The Band" was formed and he was an incredibly polite young man, I don't think theatre fame will have changed him. 

Sonny is a wonderful comedy role for an actor and Sario looks to be enjoying every second playing Sonny. It's a fun performance with plenty of energy. Sonny is quite an animated character, forever chasing skirt, and Sario's animated antics and facial acting resembles a puppy, excited at everything that is around him. Wonderful accent and some nifty moves as well.

Jan, the compulsive eater, is played by Emerald B. I have a feeling that this side of Jan's character is played down a bit, from what I can remember from other productions, a decision I expect taken by the Director, not only to shave seconds off of the running time, but also I can imagine it would not be a good trait in today's very politically correct world. That said it also diminishes character on stage for this role in 2024 as the eating cravings is what makes this character.

India Chadwick is Marty, the "beauty" of "The Pink Ladies", looking more mature than the rest of the ladies, that is until she opens her mouth. A nice cheeky performance from India.

Jayd'n Tyrone plays the nerdy Eugene. This is another character that has diminished, and again this is just my opinion, in the 2024 stage version. This again could be because throughout the years of "Grease", Eugene is the character that gets picked on for being "nerdy"; something that in today's social environment is frowned upon and will be classed as bullying. Grease's equivalent of "Mr Cellophane".

Phoebe Roberts is Patty Simcox, the athletic and attractive cheerleader who also, and quite naturally, has an eye for all of the jocks, including Danny, even though she knows that Danny has eyes for Sandy.

Dominique Planter is Miss Lynch, the teacher.

Doubling up as Vince Fontaine and Teen Angel is Joe Gash. It is very difficult to smoothly replicate the 1950's speed talk dee-jays as they made a career out of talking that fast. I have always been an admirer of U.S. DJs of this era. The Weird Beard, Johnny Holliday, Joey Niagra and Hunter Hancock; radio presenters who talked as fast as the rock n roll music they played, and that took skill to never be lost for words and rhyme what they were announcing. Joe couldn't quite get to that standard, but then again, I don't think I've seen any actor emulate that skill in a musical like this, but Joe was fun, not only to listen to but watch as well. In the days when radio presenters were as big a star as the performers they played on vinyl, Mr Gash created that "star" DJ image wonderfully.

Teen Angel was also fun to watch. The big song here is of course "Beauty School Dropout", which had a musical arrangement that didn't click with me at all. This song is one of the simplest songs, musically in the musical, which is why they often have "guest performers" performing this song in cameo roles. This arrangement didn't sound right at the start but I mellowed to it by the end, especially with Joe's perfect falsetto ending.

Cha Cha, Kenickie's blind date for the prom, is played by Deena Kapadia. She is the best cha-cha dancer with the worst reputation!

Johnny Casino is played by Adam Davidson. Another energetic singer who performs at prom night, providing the music, with his band, for the dance competition. Adam has a voice that suits this style of music well, and he has a fair set of pipes on him.

An energetic and fresh-faced ensemble added more meat to this rich stew.

Directed by Nikolai Foster, of Leicester Curve. This is not the first time that I have seen "Grease" directed by Nikolai, he did it a few years ago as well. Nikolai has managed to keep the production fresh by changing a few things, which anyone who has seen the show on previous occasions will notice the changes. It's tight and fast moving, at times the dialogue seemed like there was a race on, and with the strong American accents, the words did seem to tumble into each other a bit, but on the whole this show is a massive hit, and just as fun as every other production I've seen, and I've seen quite a few "Grease" productions over the last twenty or so years.

Choreographed by Dame Arlene Phillips this show is rammed with some of the most energetic choreography I've seen in a long time. All of the dance moves you'd expect to see from this era is in there. It is full on and this cast made it look like a walk in the park; I don't think I saw one of them break sweat all the way through, but you can guarantee that pounds are shed every night on stage.

Charles Ingles is the MD for the show, and what I liked about the sound of him and his band is that it was in no way overpowering, but pitched at just the right level. The classic "Grease" songs that we all know and love sounded great as did the newer songs like "Tattoo Song" and "How Big I'm Gonna Be". There's also a new song called "Grease", which is completely different to "Grease Is The Word". These instantly create a fresh sound to the show.

When you see a musical like "Grease" as many times as I have, you can't help but notice changes, some magic, some less magic, but what makes this musical so very magical is the story, the strength of the acting and that brilliant soundtrack. You will not be disappointed at all and you'll leave the theatre singing away to several of the big hit songs, and they'll stay with you for long after you've got home. It'll be "the word" on every theatre goers lips this week.

It's the one that you want to see on a warm Nottingham Summer night.

"Grease The Musical" is at the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall until Saturday 31 August.