Adelaide Festival Theatre. 7 Aug 2014
With over 300 performances under its belt, the 2014 Australian touring production of Grease is incredibly sharp. Straying from the original 1971 version this production uses the 2007 revival score and includes songs from the 1993 revival such as ‘Grease’, ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’ and ‘Sandy’.
This production really showcases some great Australian Talent, as well as a few well-known names and faces for good measure.
Every aspect of the show is as sharp as a tack. The lighting, sound, choreography and voices of the cast are virtually faultless.
Gretel Scarlett plays Sandy with a very ocker Australian accent, she is a perfect Sandy with strong vibrato; her voice soars on the lyric. As her love interest Danny, Rob Mills certainly looks the part and avoids copying other famous portrayals of the well-known character. Mills is refreshingly less caricature and more character. He is well balanced by his over-the-top T-Bird posse, particularly Sonny played by Sam Ludeman who is wonderfully larger than life.
Other standouts in the cast include Eli Cooper as Eugene, Antoniette Iesue as Patty, Duane McGregor as Roger and Karla Tonkich as Marty. However, the ensemble has great unity and the standouts don’t standout by much; all of the performers are exceptional.
The casting of John Paul Young for the role of Johnny Casino and Bert Newton as Vince Fontaine was curious. Perhaps the aim was to bring in audiences, but in both cases they seemed miscast. Fontaine famously sleazes over the girls at the high school dance and even the hugely toned-down performance by 76 year old Newton felt awkward. He also struggled to maintain his accent throughout.
John Paul Young’s cameo as Johnny Casino was well sung, but fell short of the fast paced, high energy expectations of ‘Hand Jive’. Casino is usually one of the greasers and a student at Rydell High, so again the age difference didn’t seem right.
Todd McKenney’s Teen Angel was quite the opposite. McKenney was hilarious, managing to slip in a reference to The Boy from OZ and even being heckled by the audience. Like a pro, he played up the moment and the audience were in stitches.
The show is great fun and well worth a look for Grease tragics and regular theatre goers alike. Time flies and the show is over before you know it, a sure sign it’s a winner.
Paul Rodda
When: 3 to 31 Aug
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
