Sitting amongst an audience dotted with ‘Pink Lady’ jackets of Grease The Musical fanatics, I had somewhat concrete expectations of the familiar teen love story about to unfold on stage. Yet, as the performance began at Birmingham’s Alexandra Theatre, I realised that this adaptation offered more than the classic tale I was anticipating.

The cast effortlessly commanded the stage, guiding the plot through energetic musical numbers

Led by Danny (Dan Partridge) and Sandy (Ellie Kingdon), the cast effortlessly commanded the stage, guiding the plot between energetic musical numbers to tell the story of a summer romance that becomes strained with the onset of the school year. Surprisingly, the elaborate dance routines were reminiscent of Stomp. The use of body movement and props such as upturned bins and drum sticks to the merit of additional sound effects added a memorable twist to the usual soundtrack. 

However, the two main characters were pipped to the post by Rizzo (Tendai Rinomhota) and Kenickie (Paul French), who, in my opinion, were the outstanding figures of the performance. Both punctuated the musical with comedy, yet also delivered the moments of the show with the most dramatic tension. From appearing stern to brazen sassiness, they displayed the most dramatic range with their respective characters. 

Credit must be given to Ben Cracknell’s lighting design and Douglas O’Connell’s production design which immensely enhanced the show. Opening with a projection over the stage to depict Danny and Sandy together at the beach, set the precedent for the productions innovative use of stage lighting to split the stage. Particularly, the rendition of ‘Summer Nights’ in Act One cleverly used two spotlights to alternately dim and highlight the T-Birds and Pink Ladies, directing the audience’s attention.

Rizzo (Tendai Rinomhota) and Kenickie (Paul French)… were the outstanding figures of the performance

However, the use of lighting hit its peak during Kingdon’s performance of ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’. She began in darkness, elevated at the top right corner of the stage, watching her fellow cast members dance. In the next moment she dramatically took centre stage alone, surrounded only by smoke and a single spotlight in a crescendo of unrivalled vocals, resulting in a truly emotive performance. Perhaps unfortunately for Kingdon, this was somewhat comedically undercut by audience members joining in with their own rendition of the song, producing waves of laughter when they continued to sing whilst Kingdon paused between lyrics – just one example of enthusiastic audience participation. 

A celebrity appearance from Peter Andre as Teen Angel and Vince Fontaine largely pleased the audience. For the majority of the performance, he was situated in a large neon-lit circle on the back wall of the stage, appearing to be in control of playing the record for each musical number. Act Two saw his defining moment, in which he extravagantly performed ‘Beauty School Dropout’ to Frenchie (Mariana Neofitou). Along with (admittedly unexpected) superb live vocals, Andre danced his way through the song and up a large flight of stairs in a rather flamboyant manner, gaining cheers and laughs from the audience whilst dressed in a white and baby pink suit.

Grease was a feel-good spectacle that was about as over the top as a musical should be

Overall, the highlight of the show was undoubtedly the interactive Grease medley after the conclusion of the plot. Giving the audience their own moment in the spotlight, the cast, led by Andre, encouraged everyone to get up on their feet and join in with a few minutes of song and dance. Despite being a definite feature intended especially for long-standing fans of the musical, I could not see a single person not joining in with the condensed rendition of the most famous tracks from the show. 

In short, Grease was a feel-good spectacle that was about as over the top as a musical should be, and thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. To quote Rizzo ‘there are worse things I could do’. 

 

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