Grease

Grease is the iconic musical that everybody knows at least one song from, amateur societies very rarely take on the
musical, but SPADS did, and they did a wonderful job!
It was obvious that Annabel Clarke wanted to make sure that the iconic moments were there as this will always be the
audience’s expectations, but she also wanted to put her own twist on it, which she did.
Tom Nichol made sure the band were as faultless as always. Ylana Schafer- Thomson was the vocal coach, and she
did a good job, all harmonies could be heard, and it was obvious that a lot of work had gone into the vocals.
I did not envy the job of Chelsea Clarke as the choreographer; Grease has some well-known dance moves and the
audience will expect them, so she can be forgiven and even applauded for keeping numbers like “You’re the one that I
want” fairly like the movie as that is what the audience expects. However, when Chelsea could she was innovative
and creative “Grease Lightening” was visually stunning, congratulations yet again Chelsea.

The Iconic leads Danny Zuko and Sandy Dombrowski were played by Lewis Clarke and Chloe Weingarten. Both had
the qualities needed for the role, Lewis had the cool John Travolta qualities that made Danny the character it is. He
also showed Danny’s softer side. Chloe made Sandy have the innocence needed for this role as the direct opposite to
Rizzo. There were times when Chole’s first wig was slightly too forward on her face and this meant the expression on
her eyes were not always as noticeable, however, the emotion when she was singing made up for this.

The other boys in the T-Birds were made up of Kenickie (Jordan Clarke), Roger (Josh Clarke), Doody (Ed Smith) and
Sonny Latierri (Noah Clarke). All made the most of their moments. I loved Josh’s singing in Blue Moon, a great song
with a very difficult high note perfectly hit! Doody’s number is not one in the film but was written for the musical, one of
my favourite additions and it was a very good number for the energetic Ed Smith, super facial expression throughout.
Jordan gave Kenickie an edge that work well with Rizzo, Grease lightening was a great number.

Ylana Schafer-Thomson (Jan), Siobhan Keppler (Marty), Jordan King (Betty Rizzo) and Carly Bays (Frenchy) made
the rest the Pink Ladies. Each lady had a great characterisation for their character, and I think they worked as a group
well. Jordan gave Rizzo that hard quality needed but by the end she made sure that the audience saw the caring side
of Rizzo. Jan was another ball of energy with wonderful expressions, well done Ylana. Carly really had the Frenchy
persona, she also mad e the most of Beauty school dropout without saying a word. I really liked Siobhan’s portrayal of
Marty; she also had a lovely voice.

Teen angel was played by Tommy Bowne, flamboyant and glittery, sang well, it was shame, his shoes did not match
the wonderful sparkly and glittery suit. Michael Parry was a smooth and slimy Vince Fontaine.
Havey Downes made the most of his moments as the geeky Eugene and Emily Hunter really did try to steal the
limelight as Patty Simcox, she was very good!

The set was great; I really liked the rostra at the back with the sign on and the car was great. During the interval I felt
that there were too many blackouts, the changes that were being made did not need to be done in a full blackout, but
then in act two everything flowed so much better, set was being set during numbers, it did not matter I saw the crew it
made the act flow much better.

This is an incredibly hard musical to put on for various reasons, but SPADS did a marvellous job I left smiling, and I
apologise to the people around as I could not help but sing along, congratulations for a wonderful production.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.