GREASE is the Word at Lyceum Theater!
Lyceum Theater's latest home-grown, high-octane GREASE is a saucy after-summer sundae of a '50s fantasy, directed with pizzazz by Susan K. Berkompas, who makes it mildly naughty but still family friendly, with fizzy non-stop choreography by the team of Susan K. Berkompas and Hannah Simmons.
It was 1971. And Warren Casey and Jim Jacobs' GREASE was one of those phenomenal little “engines that could”- type musical hits that come out of New York once every blue moon.
Named for an early United States youth subculture known as greasers (c'mon, you've heard of them. Remember "Lords of Flatbush?" "Rebel Without a Cause?" “The Outsiders?”), the musical is set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School, and follows a group of working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of peer pressure, politics, personal core values, and love. The score also accurately parodies early 1950s rock and roll, slightly salted in disco.
GREASE finally burst open October 17th on the campus of Vanguard University, and the show is funny, witty and imaginatively romantic with a life all its own. It uses the Eisenhower era — the characters, costumes, gestures and particularly, the music — to create a time and place that have less to do with any real 50's culture than with a kind of show business that is both timeless and old-fashioned, both sentimental and wise.
Set amid the Day-Glo color schemes of Jim Huffman’s sight-gag sets, with almost surrealist cartoon costumes by Lia Hansen and music by a seven-piece band that mixes Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey's parodistic songs with authentic 1950's standards, this high-spirited good-natured paean to adolescent randiness is indeed expressly aimed at a young audience that teethed on irony and trans-generational styles wrenched from the past, while transposing the definitive, gritty, urban greaser setting of northeastern USA to suburban California.
When it hit New York, its 3,388-performance run was the longest in Broadway history through its 1980 closing. It went on to become a West End hit, a hugely successful film (staying true to the musical’s rudimentary story line, not only in spectacle but orchestrations), and saw popular Broadway revivals in 1994 and 2007. The musical numbers slip in and out of reality mostly with hugely comic effect.
The musical’s crowd-pleasing score, which is one of the best things about the production, has never before sounded so marvelously here, creating hordes of attendees with stuck song syndrome. The highlights of the show include the upbeat rock number, "We Go Together," and the rueful "Summer Nights," both sung by Leilani Munck and Matthew Barge, but the hit of the show is no doubt the breathless big number, "You're the One That, I Want," written by John Farrar and beautifully choreographed by Ms. Simmons & Director Berkompas. So beautiful that audiences are swept into an irresistible, rhythmic tidal wave with its intentionally insipid music, their feet frenetically keeping time in a Pavlovian way, while roaring like groupies at a Michael Jackson concert.
The premium greased lightning in this GREASE comes from an exuberant, vocally superior ensemble cast led by a very funny and demure Leilani Munck as nice girl Sandy Dumbrowski, the show’s ingénue, along with an ace performance by Matthew Barge as gang-leading "Burger Palace Boy" Danny Zuko. It seems Danny has quite a different take on the whirlwind summer romance with Sandy than she did, and when they both come back to school in the fall, sparks fly again.
Kendra Barnhart is also brilliant as Betty Rizzo, the tough, cynical, hard-edged bad girl who makes you cry. We laugh at her "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" hi-jinks, but Ms. Barnhart brings honest guts, heart, and poignancy to a superb "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" that exposes a much heartier exploration of her character.
Comparitively, The Pink Ladies in this cast take top honors, especially Rylee Schmidt’s endearingly gregarious Jan and Arabella Chrastina’s toothy and tickly turn as high school and beauty school drop-out Frenchy, while Julia Flores’ Marty has the vocal chops to own the lead on "Freddy, My Love."
Mr. Barge and Ms. Munck are of course the Frankie and Annette of the piece, but Frankie never showed the comic chops that Mr. Barge does on "Alone at the Drive-in Movie." And Ms. Munck's rich, soulful voice is undeniably one to be reckoned with, perhaps best showcased here with "Hopelessly Devoted to You," an interpolated song from the film which has been given clever staging. Dylan Cranford also brings much charisma to the role of Rizzo's heartthrob Kenickie in his supernumber, "Greased Lightnin,'" and also scores big in the dynamite ensemble numbers "Summer Nights" and "You're the One That I Want."
Other notable performances are Robert Reed, who strikes low-comedy gold as Roger, the mooning champ, and his "Mooning" duet with Ms. Schmidt’s Jan is also a real treat. Nadia McGill sizzles and earns guffaws as a rival high school hand-jive dancer Cha Cha; Faith Horne brings delightful flashes of naughtiness to the otherwise prim teacher Miss Lynch; Michael Oliva Hernandez’ Sonny is a wonderful wise acre; Isaac Yescas brings on the talent early as dorky Doody on "Those Magic Changes" and later in the second act dueting with Mr. Reed on "Rock 'n' Roll Party Queen."
And on top of this, Koy Hackworth is the perfect Teen Angel soloist for "Beauty School Dropout," and burns up the stage as the Brylcreem-slick Dick Clarkish DJ, Vince Fontaine. Three cheers also for Christina Rose as rah-rah cheerleader Patty, and an amazing Nathan Kibbe who makes nerd nirvana out of the role of class book-worm Eugene.
Finally, costumes and hairstyles are important elements of any audience's enjoyment of GREASE, and costume wiz Lia Hansen along with a battalion of costume/hair/make-up artists do not disappoint. They include Anabelle Collins, Chase Pebelier, Bethany Thomas, Jackie Farr, Ruth Gray, Michal Oliva Hernandez, Faith Horne, Shekinah Rainwater & Inez Yrlas — all helping to exceed expectations and end results in a show that’s definitely both eye-popping and big-smile-producing.
THE AMERICAN COAST THEATER COMPANY & VANGUARD THEATRE DEPARTMENT AT VANGUARD UNIVERSITY PRESENTS GREASE, DIRECTED BY SUSAN K. BERKOMPAS (B.F.A./M.F.A.). Director Berkompas has served as Theatre Department Chair for twenty-seven years at VU. A member of SDC, SAG, and AFTRA, she is also the recipient of the KCACTF Excellence in Education and Gold Medallion Awards and is an alumnus of Directors Lab West. She has directed over one hundred shows, such as “Othello,” “The Boys Next Door,” “Metamorphoses,” and a host of others. And as an actor, her credits include “Hamlet,” “The Lion in Winter,” “A Streetcar Named Desire,” and many others.
CAST: Leilani Munck as Sandy, Matthew Barge as Danny, Dylan Cranford as Kenicke, Isaac Yescas as Doody, Robert Reed as Roger, Michael Oliva Hernandez as Sonny, Kendra Barnhart as Rizzo, Arabella Chrastina as Frenchy, Julia Flores as Marty, Rylee Schmidt as Jan, Christina Rose as Patty, Nadia McGill as Cha Cha, Nathan Kibbe as Eugene, Koy Hackworth as Vince Fontaine, Elijah Munck as Johnny Casino Teen Angel, Faith Horne as Miss Lynch, Alexander Bodziak, Isaiah Feaver, Taylor Estrada, and Saige Turney.
BAND: Steven Amundson (piano); Rick Heckman (synth); David Page (drums); Traverse Such (guitar); Eby Viveros (bass); Debbie Minnichelli (tenor sax); and Bob Allen (trumpet).
CREATIVE TEAM: Musically Directed by Steven Amundson; Choreographed by Hannah Simmons & Susan K. Berkompas; Technical Direction and Set Designed by Jim Huffman; Costumes by Lia Hansen; Lighting Designed by Garrett Spady; Nathan Gall (Master Electrician/Sound Technician); Shekinah Rainwater (Audio/Visual technician/drive-in movie actress); Richard Soto (Fight Choreographer); Props Curated by Sarah Snow; Video Projections curated by Jim Huffman, Alex Norman, and Amanda Fagan; Christina Rose (Dance Captain); Jenna Bolar (Stage Manager); Production Manager (Madison Melendes); Anabelle Collins & Shekinah Rainwater (Assistant Stage Managers); Costume/Makeup/Hair Crew: Anabelle Collins, Chase Pebelier, Bethany Thomas; Costume Construction Crew: Jackie Farr, Ruth Gray, Michal Oliva Hernandez, Faith Horne, Shekinah Rainwater & Inez Yrlas; Set Construction Crew: Alex Bodziak, Jenna Bolar, Dylan Cranford, Nathen Gall, Robert Reed, Sarah Snow & Hannah Udvarhelyi.
GREASE will perform at LYCEUM THEATER in Costa Mesa Oct 17th – Nov 3rd. Approximately two hours, plus one 15-minute intermission. Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm; Saturday matinees at 2 pm. Tickets available online at https://vanguardtickets.com.
Chris Daniels
Arts & Entertainment Reviewer
The Show Report
Photo Credits: Vanguard University
