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Grease 2024 - Greasepaint and Stage Lights - Theatre Radio Show

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Grease 2024

Grease
Milton Keynes Theatre
(Review Complete)

"Not exactly Greased Lightning”!

I attended the performance of Grease at the Milton Keynes Theatre last night (6th August) and while I tried to enjoy the show overall, there were too many issues that prevented me from giving it a higher rating than 3 stars. The cast put on a solid performance and the energy on stage was infectious. Most of the classic songs were included and a highlight and had the audience singing along, but there were some missing and some odd ones added.

I found some of the performances to be a bit lacking in depth and emotion. The chemistry between some of the lead characters especially Danny (Marley Fenton) and Sandy(Hope Dawe) felt forced at times, which took away from the authenticity of the story. Additionally, for a person who wears hearing aids and for the first time ever as a reviewer I was placed in the upper circle and off centre which made it difficult for me to hear and to see all the action. I felt the acoustics wasn’t great in places and with a lot of the cast having similar high pitched accents that were too accentuated; It was hard to see who was actually talking or singing on stage. But that was also the conclusion of my +1 who also struggled with the sound, but has perfect hearing.

The creative team seem to feel that it was OK to skip scenes from the film and add a few extra songs that also did not feature in the film. There was no "it's raining on prom night?" for example. There was just a spoken reference to it. It just didn’t flow in parts . As a youngster Grease was a popular film and gathered a great following. I appreciate adaptations have to be done for the stage, But the original film came from a stage show. This adaptation just didn’t flow, so why change a working formula?

Sandy (Hope Dawe) was good but not striking enough. Unfortunately she wasn’t that believable. Her singing was unfortunately nasally with some of her notes being held on for a bit too long. Danny (Marley) Should be a larger than life character. For me he lacked charisma and was no Travolta or Garcia! In fact he was often upstage by kenickie (Adam Davidson) who I initially thought was Danny. Adam played a very good convincing part. Other characters that stood out were Rizo (Rebecca Stenhouse) who was very good! Vince Fontane and the Teen Angel (Joe Gash), I Couldn't make out a word of what was being said and he was pitchy as the Teen Angel. Sadly Frenchy (Alicia Belgarde) really didn’t play up to what is an iconic part. Frenchy's story didn't really come across at all. I would have felt more content as an audience member if the actors playing Danny and Kenickie swapped. But that is just more thoughts.

There were lots of features missing in the show. The car race, the fun fair. It was all just dis-jointed. New songs added to the detriment of old songs being cut, The policeman character was totally confusing. And I had no idea why he was in a scene. Also the car was a little of letdown. I was waiting for the car to come out all painted up. But no it was not to be. In fact it was said to have been scrapped and a new one on its way by Kenickie.

The choreography was very good except the hand moves for greased Lightning were totally different. Considering there were a lot of the audience dressed up as pink ladies and T Birds (Known as Burger Boys in this production), they looked a little confused when Grease lightning was performed.  
 
Overall, while the main characters gave decent performances, I felt that there was room for improvement in terms of chemistry and character development. I would have liked to see a bit more depth and emotion from both Sandy and Danny to truly bring their characters to life.

Finally for me the last scene was a big disappointment. The big scene in the movie and previous stage versions was so rushed, There was no cigarette part, limited interaction between the main characters. You’re the one that I want’ was limited and seemed to be a last minute under rehearsed feature. It really was anti-climax. Sandy seemed to just stroll on. Danny’s reaction was limp. Even the  T birds, sorry the Burger Boys! (Why change this)? This new encarnation just didn’t work for me. If the original worked so well all these years, why change it? That’s what the audience came for after all.

This  production was somewhere near the original show production or film. But not what I was expecting. To me the plot was different. I lost Danny and Sandy on the large Milton Keynes stage as their characters didn't stand out. I did not believe there was any chemistry between them, The dialogue was lost a lot of the time probably as the young cast talked too quickly with over the top American accents. I felt Danny and Chacha really shouldn’t have one the dance competition as their performance didn't stand out.

What did stand out though was the band they were excellent led by Charles Ingles. Enjoyed them a lot. Sometimes they were a pleasant distraction from the weak performances on the stage.

Overall a not so such a great Production (Colin Ingram – Producer). Too many changes and songs excluded and some non-relevant added. No car transformation, lack of relationship between Sandy and Danny. Dance move changes in Greased Lightning. And limp finale. But the theatre was almost full and all were on their feet for the mega-mix at the end. So they can’t all be wrong. But I was listening to mixed comments as I left the theatre. Well done. And good luck with the rest of the tour.

Reviewer: Mark Bilsby

We are Gifted tickets so that in return we may give an honest review. All comments are those of the reviewer and theirs alone.
Greasepaint and Stage Lights

Email: musicals@btinternet.com
website: www.greasepaintandstagelights.co.uk
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