Very few, if any, of the singers and dancers who cavorted on the Fox Theatre stage last night had even been born when "Grease" opened in New York 38 years ago come Valentine's Day, and none of them experienced a place like the mythical Rydell, itself loosely based on a Chicago high school in the late 1950s.
But they provided an enjoyable evening of a show that continues to be good entertainment through many tweaks and many years.
A yarn of adolescent dreams, anxiety, lust and a variety of other emotions, the current production has been trimmed a little here and there; the set has been simplified; "Greased Lightning," the car, is spiffier; Sandy Dumbrowski is thick as a brick, like all her predecessors; the boys are as lumpish, crude and unattractive as they ever were; and the idea of ever attending classes is unmentionable. Among the additions is the casting of one-time American Idol Taylor Hicks as Teen Angel, who gets more squeals than anyone with grey hair usually gets and who arrives on stage inside an ice cream cone — cake, not waffle.
Ace Young is strong as Danny Zuko, our less-than-reliable hero. He shows fine command of the role, a pain in the you-know-what, as we expect, and a solid singer, especially in the friendly "Summer Nights." Laura Ashley Zakrin, as Sandy, tended to screech when she should have been mellow in some songs, and Laura D'Andre was a very good Betty Rizzo, especially in the torch song, "There Are Worse Things I Could Do," and the aptly nasty, "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee," sung by Adrienne Barbeau and Rosie O'Donnell in earlier productions.
Poor Sandra. I'm sure she never knew where her career would put her.
Elizabeth Marshall directed and choreographed, and the dancing was splendid. And
Dominic Fortuna, as Vince Fontaine, was excellent in the hand jive number, and when he did a little pre-show warmup, he found an audience member from Sauget, which may become a laugh-drawing part of his routine, at least for the local run.
"Grease," at the Fox Theatre through Jan. 24
–Joe
Comments
2 responses
Adrienne Barbeau and Rosie O’Donnell both played Rizzo, not Sandy…
Fixed! Thanks…that’s what happens when you write in the middle of the night.