Grease

The musical “Grease” has music and lyrics written by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey with additional songs by John Farrar. First performed in 1971 the show is set in the American   fictional “Rydell High School” in the year 1959 and is named after the 1950s working class youth subculture known as Greasers. Directed by the talented Betty Hall “Maghull Musical Theatre Company” gave us an enjoyable very good colourful, production of this very lively musical. The cast all worked together and appeared to be enjoying themselves immensely producing some nice quirky characters and some good performances, which included Gavin Hodson as Danny Zuko and Emily Meadow as Sandy Dumbrowski who both sang and acted very well together making a nice romantic strong central couple. Danny and Sandy are supported by two groups of friends called the T-Birds (the boys) and the Pink Ladies (the girls). These important roles were played very well by Les Longley as Kenickie, Lee Ashall as Sonny, Peter Brennan as Doody. Alex McKillop as Roger, Alexandra Ashall as Marty, Alice Burns as Frenchy and Natalie Metcalfe as Jan. They created very different amusing characters, and performed both their individual solo numbers and group songs excellently. The role of no nonsense Betty Rizzo was played admirably by Jess D’Silva who has an exceptional lovely singing voice, which is very enjoyable to listen to and was very well received by the audience.  Other worthy performances were given by Gemma Harris as Patty Simcox, Matthew Christiansen as Eugene Florczyk, Eric Fletcher as Vince Fontaine, Caroline Hall as Cha-Cha with Claudia Molyneux as Miss Lynch.There was a very good performance from Matt Casson in the dual roles of Johnny Casino and Teen Angel his rendition of the song “Beauty School Dropout” was sung excellently and was also well received. American accents were spot on and diction was very good meaning there was clarity of words which made it easy to follow the story, although I felt the pace of the show may have been little slow at times, however this did not affect the audience’s enjoyment of the show. The enthusiastic chorus played a very important role and along with the principle cast, whom they supported very well, contributed to the success of this entertaining production

Choreography was a team effort from Alexandra Ashall, Sarah Fletcher, Betty Hall, Claudia Molyneux and Suzanne Morris, it was just right for the production and the era and on the whole it was executed well by the cast however some of the company did appear a little lost on a few occasions during the big production numbers.

Musical Direction was by David Wheeler (Rehearsal Accompanist) and Orchestra leader Matt Pallant, the Orchestra played very well giving support to the cast and I am happy to say that the standard of singing was very good in this show.

The set, sound and lighting were excellent, and costumes were very colourful and just right for the era, enhancing the atmosphere and I am sure helping the cast with their characterisations, well done to all the backstage crew.

I must congratulate Director Betty Hall and all the production team for a very good entertaining production. Thank you for inviting me I hope to see you again for your next production.
 

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