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REVIEW
✭✭✭✭☆ 4/5
THE FIRST NEW PRODUCTION IN 25 YEARS OF 

GREASE
TO TOUR THE UK AND IRELAND IN 2019
STARRING 
PETER ANDRE AS TEEN ANGEL
Cliffs Pavilion, Southend on Sea
23-27 July 2019
Grease the Musical has thankfully been given a new lease of life in this latest version, which revisits the original  1971 stage production. The 1971 production was the forerunner to the now iconic Grease movie starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John which exploded into our cinemas in 1978 and gave us a musical summer to remember with hits such as You're the One That I Want, Hopelessly Devoted to You and Summer Nights rocketing to the top of the charts.  The film was a huge hit but came under a little cynical criticism when it was revealed that the 'high school' cast were perhaps a tad older than the high school pupils they portrayed.  Olivia Newton John was 28 years old and Stockard Channing was 33!  In fact, most of the leading cast were in their twenties.  The film also gave the production a rose tinted view of what the show was really about; kids coping with adolescence, bullying and heightened sexual awareness and became even more rose-tinted with the addition of a somewhat saccharin soundtrack.

Director, Nikolai Foster, has been granted permission by the Grease rights holders to use the original script and has gone full thrust in driving this musical back to its roots, injecting just enough gas to keep to the truth of the original and allowing Arlene Phillips to shift the gears up in the choreography department. 

I'll be honest, I wasn't a big fan of previous productions, I couldn't quite put my finger on it but perhaps now I know why.  This production has realistic characters, who look and sound like they are 1950s teens, displaying all the angst and energy you would expect from high school teens of that era.  This also includes the type of language they would have used and anyone bringing smaller kids to the show may want to bear this in mind.

Dan Partridge and Martha Kirby take on the pivotal roles of Danny and Sandy and while Dan has fully embraced his inner John Travolta, with some almost identical mannerisms and a voice to match, Martha has given Sandy a whole heap of feistiness that we never quite saw until the end in the movie.  This Sandy is having none of Danny's nonsense from the get go and so, it does make it a little less shocking when she rocks up in the tight black pants at the end to show Danny just what she's made of. She also has a belter of a voice which really gets shown off during the Hopelessly Devoted to You number.

In what seems like a cast of thousands, there are some lovely characters brought to life from all the supporting cast. Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky's Rizzo is all sass and bravado and does a wonderful rendition of There Are Worse Things I Could Do.  Louis Gaunt does an excellent job playing Kenickie and nails the Greased Lightening number - hats off to the tech team for this one too! Eloise Davies reminded me so much of Sheridan Smith in her role as Frenchy, the beauty school drop-out with bright pink hair and I loved Darren Bennett's DJ, Vince Fontaine; not least when he gets to really ham it up during the dance contest scene providing some genuine laugh out loud moments and almost stealing the show. 

The show stealing, of course, is left to Peter Andre, all white-suited and be-winged as the Teen Angel who comes down with his angels to give Frenchy some advice in Beauty School Dropout  much to the delight of a predominantly female heavy audience providing squeals and rapturous applause at just the sight of the successful nineties Mysterious Girl singer and reality star. It's a good gig for Andre, one song and he's off and then a bit of a song and dance at the end but hey, he has one job and he does it darn well.  

Don't expect this version to be an exact play back of the film.  The story gets jingled around a bit with songs in places you don't expect them but this doesn't in any way detract from the storyline.  The T-Birds are now the Burger Palace Boys, which doesn't have quite the same appeal, I feel, but fortunately none of the attitude has changed.  There are also a few new songs that have been revisited in this 2019 version.  Songs that were originally used as background tracks in the film are now sung by other members of the cast such as Freddy My Love; and I loved Roger (Ryan Anderson) and Jan (Natalie Woods) in the Mooning number and Those Magic Changes - one of my personal favourites - sung by Doody (Jordan Abey).

I loved the energy from this production and it's always good to watch a cast who can really act and sing and are completely invested in their roles. The set has been cleverly designed to switch quickly between scenes and I liked that Vince Fontaine got his own DJ booth.  If I have one niggle, it would be that in big scenes, when all the cast are on stage, the background chat was a little distracting and took away the focus from the main action.  

Grease the Musical returns with all of its original grit revealing a more truthful version of what this show is all about but without getting too serious.  The audience certainly didn't waste any time in jumping up and joining in with the Grease medley at the end of the show, myself included and there was certainly no shortage of sales going on at the merch stall - I almost bought myself a 'Tell Me About Stud' vest top but you can have too much of a good thing, right?

Don't miss this great new version of Grease the Musical on all this week with 2 shows on Friday and Saturday!


REVIEW:  KIM TOBIN




Peter Andre will only appear on Thursday evening and the 2 Friday performances at the Cliffs Pavilion, Southend
FOR TICKETS www.southendtheatres.org.uk
Louis Gaunt
Martha Kirby & Dan Partridge
Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky
Picture
This new production of GREASE is produced by Colin Ingram for InTheatre Productions, Donovan Mannato, William Sinclair, Ricardo Marques, Hunter Arnold and Curve.

Website: greasethemusicalontour.com 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/greaseUKTour
Twitter: @greaseuktour ​​
2019 TOUR SCHEDULE          
23 – 27 July               Cliffs Pavilion, Southend    01702 351135 www.thecliffspavilion.co.uk            
PETER ANDRE WILL PERFORM IN SOUTHEND ON 24, 25 & 26 JULY
30 July – 3 August   Sunderland Empire   0844 871 3022 www.atgtickets.com/venues/sunderland  
13 – 24 August          Birmingham Hippodrome   0844 338 5000 www.birminghamhippodrome.com        
27 – 31 August          King's Theatre, Glasgow  0844 871 7648 www.atgtickets.com/venues/glasgow     
3 – 14 September     Curve, Leicester  0116 242 3595 www.curveonline.co.uk                
17 – 28 September   Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin  0844 847 2455  www.bordgaisenergytheatre.ie            
1 – 5 October             New Theatre, Oxford  0844 871 3020 www.atgtickets.com/oxford             
8 – 12 October           Churchill Theatre, Bromley   020 3285 6000   churchilltheatre.co.uk        
15 – 19 October         Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff    029 2063 6464    www.wmc.org.uk  ​

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