Oh what a night (or a week of nights) in The Holroyd Community Theatre this week as the cast of Grease took to the stage and blew audiences away with their exuberant show. In a musical made famous by the 1978 film version starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John, this American high school drama was the perfect choice to showcase the plethora of acting, singing and dancing talent who usually reside in the senior school boarding houses but were now transported to Rydell High. With a cast of over 40 students from Lower Fifth to Upper Sixth Grease was truly an ensemble show and producer and director, Michael Jenkins, choreographer Grace Young and Musical Director, Eleanor Diack worked production magic to create ensemble numbers bursting with energy and movement, but in which every cast member’s individual character’s personality was on show. The exuberance was tangible and at times, as an audience, we struggled to stay put in our seats as ‘Let’s Do the Hand Jive’ and ‘We Go Together’ filled the theatre with energy and joy.
As with any High School, distinct friendship groups form and at Rydell High, the T Birds and the Pink Ladies, are the coolest kids on the block. Gorgeous in their fabulous authentic costumes, Marty, Frenchy and Jan played by Eliza, Kate and Lizzie, perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the era and joined by Mia as Sandy encapsulated the hopes and dreams of the teenage girls. A pink wigged Kate, caught perfectly the vulnerability of Frenchy whose beauty school dreams briefly realised were so quickly dashed. Izzy’s stunning rendition of Beauty School Drop Out, was the perfect soundtrack for Frenchy’s pain. Betty Rizzo, played by Beatrice L, beautifully portrayed the secret fragility of this apparently too cool for school young woman. Whilst Gaia as Patty, was a wonderful contrast with her enthusiastic excitement for all things school.
As the T Birds Danny, Kenickie, Sonny, Roger and Doody, the perfectly cast Isabella, Romilly, Holly, Jenna and Libby were a revelation. From the moment they arrived on stage, all signs of the girls beneath the wigs vanished as they sauntered and bantered and jested with each other as the most convincing high school boys. As nerdy Eugene, Lauren was an hilarious foil for the T Birds. The Greased Lightening number, with Romilly looking totally at home astride the bonnet of the fully realised red car was a scene stealing moment!
In a production of so many outstanding performances, everyone deserves a plaudit and special mentions must go too to Sophie as a wonderful ChaCha, Taylor and Beatrice K as Vince and Johnny Casino, and MacKenzie as Miss Lynch. But front and centre of the plot of ‘Grease’ are Danny and Sandy and as the romantic leads, Isabella and Mia were quite simply outstanding. As Danny, Isabella nailed the arrogance and bravado of a teenage boy who beneath the surface is ready to shed the high school, cool kid swagger to win the girl he had lost his heart to the previous summer. Mia was equally beguiling as Sandy, a girl who knows her own mind and is determined to remain true to the girl she was when she and Danny first met on the beach. Even in her final transformation, Mia’s Sandy felt true to herself – a compromise not a sell out to meet her sweetheart halfway. Mia’s ‘Hopelessly Devoted’ and Isabella’s ‘Alone in the Drive In’ transported the older members of the audience back to those teenage years and the sweet pain of young love was distilled in the moment.
Writing of the show as an ensemble, it’s important to also pay tribute to the backstage crew who worked speedy wonders with the impressive set, transporting the audience from the bleachers of the baseball field, to an American teen bedroom in the blink of the eye, to say nothing of navigating a car around the Holroyd! All in all, it was a stunning night of theatre, so I will leave the last word to Dr James Hindson, who was in the audience on Thursday night:
“An amazing evening at Grease. Michael Jenkins and the team have kept up the super high Moreton standard of acting, singing, choreography, costumes and sets – everything that makes for an amazing evening of musical theatre! Worthy of the West End and a great example of Moreton Magic at work!”
