
Phil Hopkins
Group Travel Editor & Theatre Correspondent
7:00 AM 31st July 2024
arts
Grease - Not Really The One That I Want
![The cast of GREASE UK & Ireland Tour. Credit Marc Brenner]()
The cast of GREASE UK & Ireland Tour. Credit Marc Brenner
Five years on from when I last expressed doubts about
Grease The Musical, little has changed and, despite being packaged as a ‘thrilling new version’ from Nikolai Foster and Arlene Phillips, I am still waiting to be left in a state of euphoria!
The libretto remains overblown and, until this is trimmed down and made to flow with greater panache then, for me, this musical will continue to be a pastiche of the award-winning film that, ironically, the stage version spawned, but which went on to achieve greater fame and fortune thanks, largely, to Mr Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.
![Hope Dawe (centre) & cast in GREASE UK & Ireland Tour. Credit Marc Brenner]()
Hope Dawe (centre) & cast in GREASE UK & Ireland Tour. Credit Marc Brenner
Which, I’m sure is a hugely unpopular thing to say since everyone loves
Grease The Musical: supposedly. Except me of course! The music is fantastic and the performers, if a little cartoonesque in their characterisations, give it their all but, somehow, the show blunders from one ‘lump’ of unconnected dialogue to the next, until it is rescued by a convenient hit: Grease is the Word, Summer Nights, We Go together, You’re The One That I Want……and many more.
The music is its saviour along with the energy of its wonderful performers.
Me and My Girl became one of Britain's most successful musicals in 1937, surpassing its original success when it was revived 50 years later; that’s when Stephen Fry and Mike Ockrent were called in to ‘re-write’ the 1930's lib despite its original success.
Maybe the Grease boys need to give him or one of his mates a call! A re-write is needed because the Grease book does not flow.
And, as I said previously, although the stage version was born first, it now lives in the shadow of the iconic movie and it’s a hard one to shake off.
The T-Birds are The Burger Palace Boys – there are a raft of other differences between the movie and the stage version - and, at times, it feels as if everyone is desperately trying to dish up Travolta and Newton-John knowing that they can never pull it off.
This was a young, vibrant cast with Marley Fenton as Danny Zuko and Hope Dawe as Sandy Dumbrowski – both with a great set of pipes.
![Hope Dawe in GREASE UK & Ireland Tour. Credit Marc Brenner]()
Hope Dawe in GREASE UK & Ireland Tour. Credit Marc Brenner
But, as always, they weren’t alone. Rebecca Stenhouse as mouthy Betty Rizzo was the perfect leader of the Pink Ladies, ably supported by Frenchy (Alicia Belgarde) and other swings who stepped up to the plate.
Yes,
Grease The Musical was once the biggest thing in the world but, these days, juke box musicals are banged out faster than fries at a 247 McDonald’s, meaning this 70’s musical is open to much more scrutiny than it once was and, frankly, it does not always hold up well.
And when a member of the audience broke for the interval bemoaning the fact that she had not been able to ‘get up and dance’ I almost lost the will to live.
![The cast of GREASE UK & Ireland Tour. Credit Marc Brenner]()
The cast of GREASE UK & Ireland Tour. Credit Marc Brenner
However, Act One did close on a high with the full company number We Go Together, which was great, and Act II opened with the cast number Grease. That too was top notch – as was the earlier Greased Lightening - which gave me hope……then it all dipped again; the car headlights were out!
Still not the one that I want I’m afraid. Roll on Aladdin, the Alhambra needs a bit of magic back on stage.
Grease The Musical
Alhambra, Bradford
Until Saturday 3rd August