By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
“Grease” opens with a Rydell High School reunion.
We’re introduced to the valedictorian, and the yearbook editor, and then the greasers and their girls burst in turning the “Alma Mater’ on its head.
That introduction sets up the show in which adult actors get to tap into their inner teenagers, and belt out songs that are now on the playlist for senior citizen fitness classes.
It’s a time warped frolic sure to entertain present day audiences.
The Perrysburg Musical Theatre’s production of “Grease” by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey is on stage at the Beck Theatre, 140 E. Indiana Ave., Perrysburg, Friday, Jan. 31, and Saturday, Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 2 at 2 p.m. Click for tickets. Dillon Sickels directs with choreographer Julie O’Connell and music director Charles Ligus.
It’s the first day of school, and we meet the guys, the T-Birds, Danny (Brian Dario), Kenickie (Jared Droesch), Roger (Matt Boggs), Doody (Nick Yates), and Sonny (Braden Conrad), and their female equivalents the Pink Ladies Frenchy (Emma Kadilak), Marty Sami Spencer) and newcomer Sandy (Yasmeen Perrin), Jan (Alex Gee) and Rizzo (played at the Tuesday dress by Katie Gankosky subbing for ailing cast member Mara Connor).
The guys are on the high school’s stoop delaying the beginning of school as long as possible. The girls are already at a table in the cafeteria planing for the drama sure to follow. But their conversations revolve around the same topic — teen summer love.
Both Sandy and Danny share their tale of a beach romance that seems over until they discover both are now attending Rydell High. Seems Sandy was rejected by the Catholic school because her patent leather shoes would reflect what’s under her dress.
It’s a neat little detail about the clashing mores of the time. The show is full of slight, comic details like Danny running is hand through his hair well oiled hair to make it easier to slip off his class ring.
Sandy is thrilled to see that Danny goes to her school. But Danny is cold toward her. He’s given her an impression that he’s not the greaser he is as if the hair wouldn’t give him away.
Though a parochial school reject, Sandy is more straitlaced than the Pink Ladies. She’s more a Sandra Dee type. She even hangs out with Patty (Abby Kohler), the afore-mentioned yearbook editor and cheerleader.
Yes, in this world the cheerleader and jocks, who rule in most other musicals set in high school, are looked down upon, at least by those on a margins. Of course, the smart guy the valedictorian Eugene (Shelvin Burns) is considered the worst.
And in this world it’s cheered when Danny, after a brief time, leaves the track team because the coach told him to cut his hair. And where the solid, grounded Sandy decides to emulate the Pink Ladies to find happiness.
All this plays out against a soundtrack redolent of early rock ’n’roll from “Summer Nights” to “You’re the One.”
In “Those Magic Changes,” Doody, a novice guitarist, shows the power of the simple chord progression that underpins so many rock songs.
PMT regular Chuck Kiskaddon gets the plum feature spot as disc jockey Johnny Casino, in this production an old guy who gets to spin the records in the background of these teens’ lives. When he serves as master of ceremonies at the prom, he becomes a bridge between. the kids and authority figure. He’s also kind of a creep.
Other community theater regulars shine in featured spots. It’s great to see Jennifer Braun put as much energy in the background as she has in her lead roles. Her rendition of “It’s Raining on Prom Night” captures the spirit of the 1950s pop ballad as we watch Sandy live out the lyrics across the stage.
And Jordan Benavente, who has also starred in other shows, comes on as the campy Teen Angel. Frenchy is considering her future and she longs for the kind of advice served up in pop culture. The Teen Angel with a chorus of comically clad beauty shop customers shows up to give her that counsel in soaring tones. Go back to high school, he advises. Not what she wants to hear.
Everyone, star, chorus, or featured player, seems to be having a great time.
Special note should be made of Gankosky’s fill-in at the dress. She was not the swing for this role, so she had not prepared at all before getting asked 20 minutes before curtain to play it.
Script in hand, she did just what was required, never letting the energy flag, pushing the plot through, and even singing two big numbers, the mocking “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee” and the defiant “There Are Worse Things I Could Do.”
Just goes to show that you never know what to expect when you arrive at the theater. The audience for “Grease” can expect to be entertained by a cast reveling in the teenage antics.
