John Frost for Crossroads Live Australia. Her Majesty’s Theatre. 3 Oct 2024
The original production of this ‘50s themed rock & roll musical in Chicago in 1971 was apparently quite raunchy and vulgar. Grease was nominated for a great number of Tony awards for its Broadway productions - but never a winner. Yet, it is often reprised because nostalgia is a lot of fun and the songs are catchy. Grease Is The Word is an anthem of being authentic. It was written by Barry Gibb for the hugely successful movie of 1978. Teenagers love it. “Was there really bullying back then? Even without mobile phones?” And their parents love it. “That Danny Zuko is still so cool.”
Director Luke Joslin has created an all-Australian supercharged production of such intensity your ears and eyes and everything in between might explode. James Browne’s costumes are cartoonishly chromatic, and his wigs look like they were sculptured by strong winds. Trudy Dalgleish’s lighting plot is a practice run for the opening ceremonies of the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane. Michael Waters’s sound design is equally sensorily assaulting.
Madeleine Mackenzie’s hyperkenetic choreography mixes genres with gusto and competed with the Rydell bleachers for perpetual motion. It is often difficult to know where to look. I didn’t notice if Jay Laga’aia’s Vince Fontaine was sufficiently lascivious. Greased Lightnin’ was fueled with a bevy of what looked like helmeted go-cart drivers. The drawback is that intimacy suffers. Freddy My Love loses its sweetness smothered by a Victoria Secret parade. Paulini’s Teen Angel is accompanied by a whole host of angels. What ought to be a reflective lecture from one’s higher self turns into a Southern Baptist Revival meeting. However, Mackenzie Dunn’s overly dour Rizzo belts out There Are Worse Things I Could Do in one of the show’s few intimacies.
Musical director Kohan Van Sambeeck’s score was more oversaxed on some songs than even Rizzo, but the new arrangements augmented good old rock and roll wonderfully.
Director Joslin continues the film invention of having Sandy hail from Australia. In between Summer Nights and You’re The One That I Want is the love story. Fabian Andrés’ and Annelise Hall’s Danny and Sandy pirouette in and out of each other’s hearts until the dominatrix scene of You’re The One That I Want. They make these scenes and songs ooze with longing and lust respectively.
Did all the pyrotechnics that Joslin loads into his Grease make it better? The standing ovation on opening night and the curtain call cum dance party seemed to say so. The technical firepower available to directors nowadays can overpower the intimacy and authenticity of the teenage angst so replete in Grease’s book and lyrics. Importantly, Grease is the words.
P.S. The late, great Adelaide theatre empressario, Matt Byrne, was once on the radio giving away tickets to his local production of Grease, and an older woman on the phone screamed in broken English, “Greece! Greece! I’ve won tickets to Greece!” When the phone was passed to a younger voice, she said, “Wow, this is amazing. When do we go?” and Matt said next week. The daughter said they couldn’t possibly go; could we go in two months? And Matt said “No, the production would be over by then”. And then it dawned on everybody what was going on.
David Grybowski
When: 28 Sep to 26 Oct
Where: Her Majesty’s Theatre
Bookings: ticketek.com.au
