The less palatable stuff has always been there of course (have you ever really listened to the lyrics to "Greased Lightning"?!) but feels more foregrounded here than usual.
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There are even shades of West Side Story in the gang scenes: the T-Birds of the movie and the last revival were randy but essentially harmless, but the Burger Palace Boys here have a troubling, potentially violent edge, especially with regard to their jawdroppingly unreconstructed attitudes to the opposite sex. The leather jacketed T-Birds gang are back to their original name of the Burger Palace Boys, and are in constant trouble with the Police, Rydell High is no longer in sunny California but in a rather less prosperous inner city, and there's a very real sense that the shiny carefree exuberance of high school is about to be extinguished forever as these working class youngsters head out into a tough and uncertain adult world.įoster's fast-moving production makes a convincing case for the grittier elements of Jacobs and Casey's script, and doesn't shy away from tackling the now-problematic sexual politics head on. They may also be in for a bit of a surprise.įirst seen at Leicester Curve in 2019, this Grease keeps the neon but surrounds it with somewhat darker hues, both visually and spiritually, returning Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey's blockbuster to it's Chicagoan roots. Anybody who caught it then and returns for this new iteration (which still has the redoubtable Dame Arlene Phillips on board as choreographer, delivering some career-best work here) is in for a triple hit of nostalgia: for 1950s America as espoused by the 1972 Broadway musical, for the 1978 movie with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, and for that neon-edged, primary-coloured revival that triumphed at this same venue in 1993.
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It's nearly 30 years since the previous stage version of Grease that enjoyed several revivals, tours and spawned a reality TV casting show, first set up shop at the Dominion. Director Nikolai Foster may not deliver a volte-face on the scale of what Daniel Fish has achieved with that R&H classic, but this "new" Grease is still a fascinating repointing of a work that so many people know, or think they know, like the back of their hands. The wholesome American Dream is taking a bit of a battering on London musical stages at present: hot on the heels of the Young Vic's seismic reinvention of Oklahoma! comes this entertaining but surprisingly hard-hitting new take on one of the most beloved musicals of all time.
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