For 16 years the Summer Youth Project at The White Rock Theatre, Hastings have produced shows that have been tailored to fit the cast of 9 to 19 year olds, but surely none has fitted them so well as their current production of the most popular musical of all time, Grease.
Unlike the iconic film version, in this performance the girl and car obsessed teenage boys, and the boy and beauty obsessed teenage girls, are actually played by the young people that they are supposed to be and, as a result, Ben Watson and Kirstie Wilde are directing a show that has an authenticity often missing from other productions.
Nathan McDonald as Danny and Edie O’Brien as Sandy work really well together and Tom Golby (Kenickie), Harry Seymour (Doody), Benjamin Hitchcock (Roger) and Jacob Murphy (Sonny) are a fantastic team as the T Birds, with their friendship off the stage transferring very well to the characters on stage.
The Pink Ladies are lead by Elleana Brookes-Doolan, who give a tremendously heart-wrenching performance as Rizzo, and, if anything, they display and even stronger sense of friendship than the boys, which makes them very believable as a bunch of high school friends all desperate to be “grown up”.
Marty (Maisie Edwards) is a little more classy and not really as “easy” as we have seen before, Frenchy (Madeleine Chambers) is more vulnerable and not as outgoing as she could be and Faith Simon isn’t so crazy as food obsessed Jan, and, because they all work so hard, the consequence is that their characters appear “real” rather than the stereotypes in the film.
There is a sizeable orchestra, under the direction of Lesley Van Egmond, housed over to the side of the auditorium, who create a powerful sound which includes some great brass and thumping percussion to accompany the tremendous score of recognisable songs including Summer Nights, Greased Lightning, You’re The One That I Want, Hopelessly Devoted to You, Grease and many more.
There are some moments of pure theatrical magic, particularly when the full, 100 strong, cast take to the stage in the massive dance numbers for Born to Hand Jive and We Go Together and, topping off her brilliant performance, Rizzo’s showstopping rendition of There are Worse Things I Could Do.
It is very easy to forget that this is a summer project production, that has had just nine days of rehearsals, because Suzanne Lowe’s choreography is supremely slick, Wendy Hamed’s costumes are perfect and the whole production has a really authentic “High School” feel to it, with the central core of lead characters surrounded by a massively enthusiastic and talented company.
***** Five Stars