Grease

The musical Grease retains its eternal popularity with this run, albeit short, but in a huge auditorium, completely sold out. This was a big, bright, and colourful production that had its audience clapping along.

Featuring a mammoth cast of over 70 performers, large band, and a huge production team, this was a show with lots of contributors and a great deal of community interest.

Sounding great under the guidance of Musical Director Vanitha Hart, who led a ten-piece band, and Vocal Director Kristie Corbishley, the sound was big, and kept the audience tapping their feet. The well-chosen costumes of the principal characters (Linda Lowry, Kim Parker, and Pat Francis) took us back to the fifties, while the multi-level set design (Bronwyn White and Karen Francis) served multiple locales well. The “Greased Lighting" car was a wonderful prop, while properties were particularly clever.

The leading couple, Danny and Sandy, were played by real-life couple Bailey Bridgeman Peters and Asha Perry, and perhaps unsurprisingly had lovely chemistry to add to their strong vocals and fun characterisations.

The T’Birds had lovely camaraderie and lots of personality with fun portrayals from Braden Geuer (Kenicke), Aramis Martino (Roger), Jioji Nawana (Doody) and Hunter Perry (Sonny).

The Pink Ladies are a vibrant quartet, and I felt particularly strong. Tara Lynette Elliot is a petite actress delivering a big performance and huge energy as Rizzo, Jocelyn Scatturo was a sassy and sweet Marty, Teaghan Lowry a fun and likeable Jan, with Rhiannon Francis’ Frenchie charming and sympathetic.

In smaller roles Tori Brown brought a lot of presence to Patty, Matthias Over was clearly revelling in nerdy Eugene, Jordan Gallop demanded attention as Cha Cha and Scott Hansen was very different in his two roles - Vince Fontaine and Teen Angel. Bronwyn White, by day a high school Principal, was in her element as Miss Lynch, nicely accompanied by Amy Honor Elliot as her silent assistant. Paul Hayward sang with aplomb in his short stage time as Johnny Casino.

The large ensemble cast execute the choreography of Caitlin Wainwright and Rhiannon Francis with enthusiasm, and the sheer numbers make scenes like “Beauty School Dropout” very impressive, but at times the number of people on stage can make it difficult to find who is speaking. 

An unexpected highlight was the screening of the B Grade movie during the drive-in scene. Directed by Aidan Thompson and Karen Francis, it featured the talents of Dylan Randall, Alex White and Meg Willis in glorious black and white.

The audience clearly were having a ball and this feel-good show left the capacity crowd smiling. Well done to all involved.

Kimberley Shaw