Grease - The Musical

Grease is a classic, in fact I would go as far as to say it is a cult classic, so expectations are always high. Those
Summer Nights arrived at The Regency Hall with Footlights performing on stage for the first time since Covid and
only my second visit to the company. It is very clear that the cast had a ball rehearsing and performing this musical. If
I were to pick up on anything, I did feel at times the energy fell short of expectation but in the heat (and it was
boiling in there), it can and does happen.

The staging of this production was simplistic but very effective with the band on rostra above the cast making way
for storage under the stage. That’s perfect when you have limited wing space and a car to store so this worked well.
The effort the set construction team have put in is faultless, great job. Lighting and Sound was good, but the balance
between cast and band wasn’t quite right in places with some instrumentation lost entirely. Lighting was great but
looking at the volume of lighting being available, the designs could have been used more effectively. However,
designing a lighting plot in a day or two is not easy so for what there was, it worked for the show.

Onto the cast – iconic is probably the word I would use for these characters. They are so well known in the theatre
industry and who didn’t want to play Danny or Sandy growing up. The T-Birds, led well by Jordan Dickin were well
cast and all had great vocals. Jordan had that air of sweet arrogance needed for Danny and his vocals were on point.
Supporting Jordan were Tom Jones (Kenickie), Tom Griffiths (Sonny), Sam Gilpin (Doody) and Cai Brown (Roger). All
the guys threw everything into their performances, and I especially liked Sam Gilpin’ version of Those Magic Changes
and Cai’s version of Mooning. Very clean and really well performed.

Sandy. played by Dana Blythe - really well cast. I believed her performance, her character and loved her vocals. Rizzo
for me stood out on the night and one bit of advice I would give anyone playing any character is to not lose that
character when on stage at any point, even if you have no lines. She does this well and was totally convincing with
her acting and strong vocals. Hannah Hawkins (Frenchie), Sophie Earlwood (Marty) and Tegan Styles (Jan) completed
a well-cast gang of Pink Ladies.

Supporting our principals were Joules McLaughlin as Patty Simcox who gave a very good comedy performance,
James Marjoram as Eugene, Fergie Beynon as Miss Lynch, Steffan Santiago as Johnny Casino, Vince Brinton Hayward
as Vince Fontaine, Beth Rowe as Cha Cha and a really lovely cameo by Kev Summers as Teen Angel. Very well done to
you all. The ensemble was very enthusiastic when on stage and complimented a strong cast. Well done as well to
Tegan Styles for whipping the cast into shape with the Choreography and MD Angharad for the strong vocals, both
with soloists and as an ensemble.

Thank you Footlights for the warm welcome, on a warm evening in beautiful Saundersfoot.

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