Brock Musical Theatre’s take on the all-time classic Grease was bold, fun and blew the audience away.
As the doors opened and I strolled inside to find my seat with a glossy program in hand, I quickly found myself immersed in the world of Rydell High School.
While the Robertson Theatre is a relatively small space, the set design for Brock Musical Theatre’s production of Grease was still quite impressive, especially with the limited budget sizes BUSU clubs are typically alloted. Prioritizing dynamic movement and interesting levels, the set consisted of raised metal platforms and rudimentary scaffolding, the latter of which created a catwalk above the set’s main level. A few rubber tires accented the corners of the stage and a banner featuring images of period-popular stars such as James Dean and Marilyn Monroe hung overhead. Although the set was simple, it was incredibly effective. Although a rather small touch, the pre-show playlist, which featured 1950s hits, expertly rounded out the theatre’s atmosphere and showcased the creative team’s commitment to audience immersion.
As the lights went dark and the overture began to play, we were introduced to an older woman played by Lucy Burnett. Referred to as “Greaser Lady” in the program, Burnett took centre stage to reminisce, flipping through the 1959 edition of the Rydell High School yearbook. As the overture ended and the stage flooded with the rest of the cast taking their places to sing “Alma Mater,” the show took shape and sprung to life.
Throughout the first act, the audience was introduced to the host of characters that occupied Northwest Chicago’s Rydell High at the tail end of the 1950s.
The Pink Ladies — Rizzo (Anna Varga), Frenchie (Abbey Rivers), Marty (Kashvi Sharma) and Jan (Moria Vaughan-Lee) — lit up the space with their bright back-and-forth banter and hilarious one-liners. Vaughan-Lee’s portrayal of Jan was especially electric as she balanced expert vocals and perfect comedic timing.
The Greaser Guys — Kenickie (Cam Playter), Sonny (Tejay Morley), Roger (Sidd Goyal) and Doody (Natali Tobar) — were also standouts. Playter’s Kenickie was bold, and the characters of Sonny and Roger skillfully walked the fine line between unbelievably ridiculous and perfectly goofy. The gender-bent portrayal of Doody by Tobar shone the brightest, her jokes and gags always managing to pull a full-bellied laugh from the audience.
The comradery that existed between the two gangs throughout the whole show was arguably the highlight of the production. It was easy to believe that a deep friendship existed between both groups and that this had been the case for many years, highlighting the strong connection shared between the cast members.
Still, the relationship between Emily Moore’s Sandy Dumbrowski and Landon Drexler’s Danny Zuko was truly the heart of the show.
Moore’s portrayal of the girl next door Sandy Dumbrowski was beyond strong. While it can be difficult to believably play quiet innocence in a musical theatre production where everything must be exaggerated, Moore did a great job of playing Sandy’s sweet personality, yet her demeanor wasn’t so small that she was lost in the crowd.
Drexler’s portrayal of bad boy Danny Zuko was dynamic and new. It was clear that Drexler made a conscious choice to shift from the way Danny’s character is often played. He made him a hopeless goofball rather than a major jerk, leaning into the character’s awkwardness and cringing at himself in a way that made his portrayal of Danny feel incredibly human.
While the cast occasionally struggled to find the balance between accentuating the show’s unique humour and being so goofy that the characters began to feel unbelievable, there was no doubt that they worked hard to bring this production to life.
The dance numbers, choreographed by Emma Clarke, were clean and well-rehearsed, showcasing the amount of work the cast and dance captain Moira Vaughan-Lee put into learning Clarke’s hard-hitting choreography. The show’s choral sections were also fine-tuned and the cast’s expert ability to harmonize was well showcased. The show’s musical director, Bailey Williams, and vocal captain, Sidd Goyal, clearly prepared the cast well.
Other elements of the show such as sound and light design were good, although they sometimes left more to be desired. The set transitions felt clunky at times with many of them occurring while the stage lights were still on, which took the audience out of their state of suspended disbelief. Furthermore, there were a few instances when an actor began to speak or sing before their microphone had been turned on, temporarily breaking the immersion. While these issues likely came as a result of the cast and crew not being allowed ample time to rehearse in the theatre space before the production opened, these technical problems should have been less of a problem by the midway point of the show’s run.
Still, with a relatively small budget, Brock Musical Theatre did an excellent job with their production of Grease and should be commended for their ability to make such magic with the resources they had. The cast and crew’s commitment to both the production of the show and the creation of its characters made the aforementioned complaints seem rather small at the end of the night.