Grease | Musical Theatre Students, Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University

A massive cast of consummate performers from the Musical Theatre program at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University (The Con) tore down QPAC's Lyric theatre with a passionate, charming and energetic production of beloved musical Grease. The theatre was packed and the audience was buzzing, both from the excitement at seeing their loved ones dance and sing up a storm and the nostalgia of seeing the live version of the movie and megamix that we all knew so well.

Or so we thought, because while the stage version of Grease is still the story of teen rebels and lost love, it isn't quite the version that we'd been raised on and the nostalgia of what I remembered didn’t match the reality of the story of Grease.

But I'll come back to that later. First, let me rave about this stellar cast.

Image: Darren Thomas

Approximately 70 performers sang and danced their hearts out as a part of the production. To accommodate the massive cohort of students, The Con had two main casts performing through the run and we saw the Rama Lama Cast in action on the opening night. Sean Johnston played Danny with an effortless cool. His first note gave me goose bumps and he sang the house down for the whole night. Lucinda Wilson's Sandy was the perfect vulnerable ingenue and she gave one of the best renditions of 'Hopelessly Devoted to You' I've ever heard.

They were ably backed by the rest of the Principal Cast and there was not a weak member among them. Standouts included Halon Innocent's Doody, full of charming innocence, Amelia Burton's naive and hopeful Frenchy and Daniel Erbacher's kinetic Kenickie. Props also need to be given to the comedic turns from Lauren McMeiken as Patty, Rohan Treanor as Eugene and Beau Wharton as Miss Lynch. The Principal Cast as a whole was uniformly strong and I'm sure we'll be seeing all of them in the musical touring circuit in the near future.

Image: Darren Thomas

In the promotion of the show, much was made about the gender-blind casting that was incorporated in the run. Universally all were great and I hope that there are more opportunities for this in the future. It is a small step towards inclusion though, as simply swapping the genders of roles doesn't touch on or centre the reality and the nuances of the lives of non-binary and gender queer characters. On top of this, in a time when Hamilton is celebrated for giving opportunities to performers of colour, the lack of diversity in the cast was hard to miss. I hope that The Con looks into this both in casting of future productions and in their broader student recruitment strategies.

The scale of the production is immense, one of the biggest I've ever seen at QPAC. The cast of almost 70 performers were used to great effect throughout and they were perfectly accompanied by seven piece band. The moments when the entire cast filled the stage on the massive scaffolding set and broke into the high energy choreography from Dan Venz are a highlight. Kudos to the director Alister Smith and the Principal Cast for ensuring that the main characters don't get lost in these moments. Standout songs were 'Grease is the Word', 'Born to Hand Jive' and one of the many songs that didn't make it to the movie, 'Those Magic Changes'. The latter included a great use of many in the ensemble in a gloriously camp locker room ballet.

Image: Darren Thomas

Which brings me back to the differences between the stage musical and the movie.

The building blocks of the movie are all there, as were the songs that we all know so well, but the stage production has numerous small changes that are both superior to and less than the movie version for me. The best change is that each of the principal cast members gets a chance to shine, with solos and songs of their own, which they all take to with a gusto. One of the strongest additions being 'Those Magic Changes'.

The worst is that Danny comes across as even more of a douchebag and a posterboy for toxic masculinity than he does in the movie. He also has fewer scenes with Sandy, most of which he treats her like a grade-A fuckboy, and I was constantly left wondering what Sandy would see in him. So while the two lead actors give it their all, Sandy's pining for Mr Too-Cool-For-School and desire to completely change herself to win him over, particularly after she has to fight him off at the drive-in, takes away all of her power and agency and left me with a bad taste in my mouth. 

Nostalgia's a funny thing. I haven't seen Grease in years, but I can sing most of the tunes from the movie at the drop of a hat. I was generally excited to see it, but watching it again, particularly in the wake of #metoo, it felt at best dated and at worst incredibly problematic. 

Image: Darren Thomas

In the accompanying show notes, the Director argues that Grease is a celebration of social protest and that the transformations of Sandy and Danny are an allegory for throwing off the conservative values of yester-year. I would argue that it reinforces them.

Throughout the musical, I found myself regularly cringing as the majority of the T-birds egg each other one to harass the Pink Ladies and various other female characters at any chance they get. I also found myself searching for lines of dialogue between the Pink Ladies that would pass the Bechdel Test. Rizzo sank deep into the mean girl trope. Sandy had to change herself completely to get Danny's attention. Danny's small attempts at change are barely noted and overshadowed by Sandy's. The hopes and dreams of the Pink Ladies centre around the T-birds. I could go on.

This is not to take away from the stellar performances that we got from the entire 70 member cast and the band. They were all in, performed the house down and they charmed our pants off. It just felt like a disservice to them that this was the musical they got to perform this year. A musical that has arguably overstayed its welcome and is ready for a complete retooling or to be put out to pasture. There are so many other great musicals out there that could incorporate a large cast like this one that I wish The Con would have chosen from to showcase their students. I look forward to seeing them shine in a less problematic production in the future.