Grease
by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey
Samuel French, Inc.
What is it about Grease that has captured the hearts and musical souls of two generations?
Criticisms
of the musical come easily. Its mood of gang pressure, easy sex, drinking
as liberating, and "cool" as number one priority is hardly one
anybody on stage would wish to promote. And why the climax of the play
comes with Sandy giving in to peer pressure, abandoning her moral standards,
and joining the gang by donning excessive make-up and skintight clothing,
I will never know!
But there is something about Grease that makes you forget that it is a dumb play. That "something" is that Grease is just plain fun!
Just try to stop your feet from tapping and your body from swaying while "We Go Together" is playing. Try to deny there is at least a little bit of Rizzo or Danny deep inside of you trying to get out. Doesn't Sandy's "Raining On Prom Night" bring back all too many memories of love a little bit too distant to hold? Admit it, wouldn't you just love to be on stage dancing, flirting, stealing hubcaps, copping a feel, turning some poor sucker into Jell-O at the mere sight of you?
Grease was originally written at the height of the Vietnam War, a time of intense seriousness in music and culture. Grease broke the trend and, looking nostalgically to the past, found an excuse to laugh and sing and dance. Life may be hard and scary… but that's no reason not to be filled with the joy of life!
That's a message worth repeating, perhaps in these troubled times as much as ever before.
So sit back, suspend moral judgment, and enjoy one of theatre's most forbidden pleasures - Grease!
[from the "Director's Notes" in the program]
Production Dates
Nechako Valley Secondary School,
Vanderhoof, B.C. Canada
| Sonny... Vince Fontaine... Cha-Cha... Chorus... Doody... Chorus... Teen Angel... Sandy... Roger... Patty... Marty... Miss Lynch... Kenickie... Rizzo... Chorus... Danny... Johnny Casino... Frenchy... Jan... Eugene... Producers... Director... |
Gaelan Beatty Tom Bulmer Laurel Crum Mark Durupt James Ford Chantelle Gouliquer Jeannie Green Karen Kerr Allan Pagdin Valerie Pagdin Stacey Shields Carol Silberberger Bryan Simon Lisa Striegler Iannone Richard van Erp Kevin Wallace Bryan Wallace Sam Work Shelly Work Richard Wruth Sylvia Byron & Margaret Hall Doug Goodwin |
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