Grease

It was a pleasure to return to Maesteg Town Hall for the BYT production of Grease The Musical. I am sure that the show itself needs no introduction following the phenomenal success of the film in the late seventies starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John.

The musical follows the relationship at Rydell High of Danny and Sandy, holiday sweethearts who end up attending the same school but with different stories” Summer Loving”

Bridgend , as with many youth productions, had a double cast so my report can only mention the team I saw in the Saturday matinee.

Pedro had assembled a very talented group of young actors who definitely set the theatre alight with their enthusiasm and quality performance.

The band under the careful direction of Matt Hampson were great and added to a well produced performance,

The ensemble looked the part of teenage students and all the vocals and movement of all group numbers was very well done.

There is a large cast in this musical so it would be difficult to review every performance but I don't think there was a weak link anywhere. The cameo roles were played perfectly and fully supported the main characters.

The Pink ladies in the performance I saw were played by Lucie Giles ( Jan ) Evie Thomas ( Marty ) Alyssa Robertson ( Rizzo ) and Ruby Richards ( Frenchy ) and each one of the girls were totally believable in their roles. Everyone of them gave outstanding performances in their musical numbers.

The TBirds were played by James Stevens ( Kinickie ) Ben Brian ( Doody ) Felix Wren-Owens (Roger ) Jacob Mathewson ( Sonny ) again there were excellent portrayals of all these characters by the boys.

The role of Sandy was taken by Ava Robinson and from her opening duet she played the character perfectly. Ava had a lovely presence on stage with good vocals and a strong acting performance.

Finally Danny was played by Toby Lewis, I have had the pleasure of watching this young man perform previously and have always been impressed with him. This time was definitely no exception, another excellent performance from Toby.

The show was fast paced and exciting from the start with a number of memorable moments. I loved all the musical numbers and could really mention everyone of them as standout moments.

The choreography with splits, high kicks and energy was to be highly commended especially during “ Grease lightning” and “ we go together”  however I could have added any of the other duets or group numbers to these two as all were performed exceedingly well.

Congratulations once again Bridgend Youth on another high quality production and I look forward to joining you again in the future

 

The views in this report are solely of the author.

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