Grease

Lots of new talent for this “greatest musical of all time” — new Director/choreographer, new MD, lots of new faces in the cast of nearly 50.  And goodness me, did they work hard.  I attended the early Friday performance (2 shows Wednesday, Friday and Saturday) and was breathless with the energy they exhibited.  I was also delighted to learn that the Gallery had to be opened for some of these performances — does this herald a return to favour for amateur shows, as it was thirty years ago?  Vicki Robertson (Sandy) portrayed the quiet, unsophisticated girl (at first, like Sandra Dee) to perfection, in complete contrast to Katy Thomson (Rizzo), the most vociferous of the “Pink Ladies” clique Sandy is pressured to join.  The others were Megan Donnachie, Heather Quinn and Melanie Morrison (Marty, Frenchy and Jan), and all tried to lead Sandy astray, with smoking and drinking.  The boys’ attitudes were no better, with sex or cars being uppermost in their minds, and the potential for wild exaggeration so great that Gary Bennett (Danny) went OTT and boasted about the new girl he’d met during the summer, suggesting things that hadn’t happened.  His gang, Mark Long, Kevin Scullion and Michael Reilly (Kenickie, Sonny and Doody) portrayed well the brashness of youth, but Doody got the definite sympathy vote from the audience with his inability to complete his wish to ask the girls out, and thus gain approval of his peers.  The ‘seniors’ in the cast, the dreaded Miss Lynch (Patricia Welch) and the smooth Vince Fontaine (Robert Taylor) lent some gravitas and seniority.  Cameo performances from vamp Cha-Cha (Donna Douglas), Teen Angel (Connor Going) and Johnny Casino (Alex Baylis) showed extra skills.
Overall, the slick choreography was well executed from this cast of 17 named principals and 32 in the chorus of college students, the songs well presented from the back-of-stage small orchestra and chorus (augmented by audience members not knowing that the Thursday performance was officially the “singalonga” one) giving an exciting, not easily forgotten performance — so successful that the Pantheon Club plans to repeat it next year.  Great show, great cast.
 

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