Grease

Based around American high schoolers, ‘Grease’ tells the story of Sandy Dumbrowski, the new girl in town, and Danny Zuko, the schools coolest greaser, having a summer time romance, but when they get back to school, everything has changed – for a while. The Norbury’s Sandy and Danny looked every bit the part, fulfilled their characters well and both no doubt have a great future ahead.

So too should the debut directors of Sam Jeffrey and Vicky Lake, who molded a great evening’s entertainment, ably supported by choreographer Cat Reeves, whose snappy dances were enjoyed by the whole cast from the front row to the back row – so we did too.

The staging was great, the cast were very well dressed and the set was simple but very effective and I was so pleased that the orchestra ‘covered’ the time necessary to change the set, when required. Other quicker changes were effected smoothly and quietly and despite a cast of over 45, all were perfectly quiet off stage when they needed to be.

The principal characterisations were instantly recognisable and all supported well throughout. For any company in any venue large or small, getting the sound balance right is a challenge and relaying too much on mics can be a danger. No such problem for Jan (Emily Jeffrey) whose every word was clear and in character.   Whilst Patty (Ella Sutton) sparkled, vocally, Rizzo (Ffion Brighton), Kenickie (Jack Gandy), Roger (Adam Rowberry), Johnny Casino (Sam Jeffrey) and Vince Fontaine (Liam Alexandru) rose to the occasion in their respective numbers, all ably supported by Frenchy (Lizzie Jones) and Marty (Grace Duggan).

Without exception, the enthusiasm from the entire cast was full on and infectious and provided a performance to be very proud of. Thank you for the invitation to share a great evening’s entertainment from Norbury Youth Theare.

Bruce Wyatt

(NODA Rep District 10, on behalf of Andy Brown)

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