Review: Grease the Musical at Wales Millennium Centre
Last night my theatre buddy and I headed to Wales Millennium Centre to catch Grease the Musical. I adore the movie, so I was keen to see this fresh take on the coming of age musical…
Review: Grease the Musical at Wales Millennium Centre
The stage was set and we were ready for the show, with a lovely buzz in the theatre to boot! As the story unfolded, my initial thought was, something doesn’t feel quite right…
It was only as the performance continued that I started to realise how disjointed it felt. A lot of the songs and parts of the original story have been chopped and changed around, and it just felt odd. I also couldn’t get my head around moving the end song (We Go Together) to the middle of the production, it felt so wrong and left me feeling quite disappointed during the interval.
I also thought the lack of glitz and glam during Greased Lightning was a real shame. Having seen this on stage in years gone by, I was surprised they didn’t glam up the car during the most pumping song of the show.
On the plus side, the costumes and set were really well thought out, interesting and colourful. There was an abundance of textures and layers to both, and I couldn’t get enough of Rizzo’s leopard print, that’s for sure!
There were a few stand-out parts of the production, but my favourite was probably the performance of Mooning by Jan (Natalie Woods) and Roger (Ryan Anderson) . Their chemistry on stage was fantastic, and this performance stood out a mile for me! Rizzo (Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky) also gave her all during the ‘There Are Worse Things I Could Do’ scene, leaving the audience in awe.
As for Danny (Dan Partridge), I never quite click with the stage versions, but that’s just me. He gave it his all, though! Sandy (Martha Kirby) was a little more tough in this performance, but I kinda find Olivia Newton John’s version a little annoying, so I didn’t mind this so much. She was really good, and I could totally see her in West Side Story as Maria. However, it did feel a bit odd seeing her at odds with him in one scene and then dating him the next. As with the opening of most of the songs, sometimes things changed or began without any real warm up for the audience.
Overall it’s a fun show, but it feels like a mash-up of the movie, and not in a good way. If you’re a die-hard fan of the movie then you might not love this, but you’ll still have a boogie in your seat and leave with a smile on your face.
