With a cast and band of more than 130 students, setting the play in traverse, and trying to get as many performers in to the space for as long as possible the Drama and Music departments at my place were being pretty ambitious. We also then asked for 70+ skirts to be made, with as many 1950s hairdos, and many pots of hair grease for good measure we were being ambitious. And this is why after a run of four nights there are lots of exhausted children sleeping off their week in Kuala Lumpur. Oh, and there were four whole cast song and dance numbers for good measure too.
And well done to the musicians, singers, dancers and actors who worked so hard to make the show a memorable experience for all involved and the 800+ ticket holders. I felt really proud to have been jointly responsible, with my counterpart from the Music department, for pulling this great fun extravaganza together. After the audience left for the final show last night there were loads of joyful and tearful performers both jubilant at a job well done and distraught at a well-done job finished. It is hard for people who are not closely involved in school shows to realise the impact of such experiences on kids. Too often people get far too hung up on the things that don’t really matter that much in schools and miss the joy that so many students give themselves and their audience when performing really good theatre.
Grease is not Shakespeare but, thanks to a series of happy accidents the writers and composers of Grease have created a winning formula that kids across the world have loved and continue to love performing. Six exaggerated versions of typical teenage girls engage in banter and flirtations with six equally exaggerated teenage boys, the results of which can all be played for laughs and stifled sniffles while the audience think “I know someone just like that.”
While I was very pleased with overall look, sound and feeling of the show I am always left reflecting on the tiny details. I always think that if those moments work then everything else will. Well done to Rizzo and Marty who carried their bitchy argument on all the way through the show so that it made sense when Marty set about spreading the gossip about Rizzo being “PG.” Well done to Doody, who after successfully securing a date with Frenchy, had to walk the entire length of the hall to his exit, fixing his hair, flexing his muscles and kicking his heels together in his new-found confidence. Well done to the “Drive in Theatre” actors who over-acted their socks off to make delightful hammy acting contrasts with Danny and Sandy, perched on a borrowed Vespa version of Greased Lightning. Well done to one of the beauty school drop out beauticians who skipped off dreamily pushing Frenchy’s swivel chair, moments before Frenchy “blows it.” And well done, particularly, to those students who came along to the auditions simply because they fancied the idea of singing and dancing in the show because they thought it would be fun. I was very surprised with some of the people who arrived, but so pleased that they stayed the course and had a great time in the process. The kind of experience that the cast have had, and the joy and pride that their teachers have gained through watching them rehearse, transform themselves and perform can’t be quantified, but it can certainly be remembered by many for a very long time indeed.
Well done all those people who have been involved in the show.