Grease

This was the debut production by BAODS’ new group for 14 to 26 year olds, Northern Lights Theatre Company, and I understand that they achieved full houses throughout the run.

It is unlikely that many of the cast of twenty two were at the top end of the age range and some of the ensemble had not been on stage previously.  Coupled with the fact that four of the team only took over their parts a month before the production opened, this therefore made the show a creditable effort by the company, who must be judged as a youth/young adult group rather than a junior society.

There were some standout performances, notably by Jamie Mckellar who played Danny.  He had a nice personality and kept his character throughout with his performance of “Sandy” being very good and expressive.  Jade Inman, who came late to the role of Marty, also impressed with her rendition of “Freddy, My Love” and I liked the characterisation and facial expressions of Claire Tidy as Patty.

The part of Sandy was performed by Kerri Arundel and she handled it well but “Hopelessly Devoted to You”, in my view a love song, was a bit hard and her character could have been a bit lighter.  Likewise Sophie Brown as Rizzo, who had some lovely arm and hand movements, was a bit heavy with "There Are Worse Things I Could Do".  Why is it that some performers are allowed to shout nowadays when the numbers don’t call for it?

The band gave a good, solid sound and I liked the innovation of housing them in a room away from the stage but there were some timing issues with a few of the numbers.  The inability of some cast members to hit the right notes might also have had something to do with the technical set up because surely their skills were better than they were able to show us.

I thought the set was excellent, often the case with productions at Spotlight, with a very good car which doubled as the ice cream parlour.  Costumes were bright and cheerful and pretty much in keeping with the era of the show and the lighting was also effective.

The audience enjoyed the performance, which is important.  I could have been alone in wanting just a bit more from the production.

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