By Celia Harvey
With the recent, tragic passing of icon and philanthropist Dame Olivia Newton-John, her most famous film, Grease, is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Olivia’s enduring influence was front of mind for International House (IH), who presented their production—directed by Farhan Islam—of the musical Grease at the Union Theatre in the new Arts and Cultural Building. The pre-show announcement affectionately and reverently dedicated the performance to Dame Olivia Newton-John’s memory.
Grease has the sort of plot that one is incredulous to see in the 21st century. New girl and ingenue Sandy Dumbrowski spends much of her onstage time crying over her summer fling Danny Zuko’s coldness towards her—all because he wants to impress his friends who spend most of their own time onstage sexually harassing women—until, with the help of her peer-pressuring friends she decides to turn herself into Danny’s fantasy woman, leather pants and all. The performers at IH didn’t shy away from the misogynistic implications of the show, instead giving exaggerated and playful interpretations. If there is any way to make such a controversial show enjoyable without sanitising it, going the whole hog and exaggerating it to a non-naturalistic and parodic level proved an effective strategy for IH.
The two leads offered strong performances. Melissa Sanders held nothing back in her adorkable portrayal of Sandy Dumbrowski, showing off her exceptional vocal talent and using physical comedy to remarkable effect. Brennan Eng was an excellent Danny Zuko with admirable acting, dancing and vocal skills. He imbued the character with a cool poise that provided an interesting contrast to the rest of the rambunctious T-Birds. Sanders and Eng complemented each other beautifully with great chemistry throughout the show, this was especially evident during ‘Summer Nights’, which was a musical highlight of the performance.
Two other main highlights of the show were ‘Greased Lightning’ and ‘Born to Hand Jive’. In ‘Greased Lightning’, the T-Birds (led brilliantly by Liam Kell’s boisterous Kenickie) were fantastic,and the actors clearly had a lot of fun with it. The choreography was electric and the cardboard car was flawlessly executed. The cast in ‘Born to Hand Jive’ nailed their choreography, which was impressively intricate for a student production. Cha Cha (played by Abbey Oshlack) was such a particularly good dancer that it did, in fact, feel fair for her to win the hand jive contest.
Many of the other supporting cast also offered strong performances. Flynn Kellenbach, who portrayed Doody, had marvellous comedic timing, a lovely voice and made the audience laugh not simply from the lines he delivered, but also with many of his actions in the background of scenes. Elizabeth Harper as Betty Rizzo shined in ‘There Are Worse Things I Could Do’, superbly showing vulnerable hidden depths beneath her tough exterior. Emilie Kuan portrayed Frenchy with moxie and comedic timing. Nathan Chen had terrific physical comedy as Roger; the chemistry between Chen and Rimone Luo (Jan) was great, and they were especially hilarious together in ‘Mooning’. Carter Liu tackled the dual role of Teen Angel/Johnny Casino with calm, kind authority in the former and great panache and Elvis-esque swagger in the latter. Kieran Kell perfectly inhabited the role of the nerdy Eugene, transforming what could have been a forgettable or obnoxious character into an audience favourite.
During the first few scenes, the combination of the bright white lighting, floor and backdrop with the pared back set created a surreal and somewhat disconcerting hospital-like effect, which was at odds with the setting of the musical itself. Some colour in the backdrop could have toned down this stark atmosphere. However, this was improved later in the show as the backdrop and lights were used in a more cohesive manner. The use of backdrop and lighting (designed by Buena Araral) in ‘Greased Lightning’ and ‘Born to Hand Jive’ were particularly well done, with the lights changing in time to the music and a spotlight (operated by Oscar Lennon) used to humorous effect.
The band (conducted by Tim Naylor) played well throughout. Their pre-show renditions of eighties hits like ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ may have been anachronistic but they were still well received by the audience. The sound mixing was generally smooth, but there were a few issues with improperly connected and popping microphones, making some lines hard to hear.
Aishu Javel’s costuming was thoughtful and expressive: each character was given a distinctive look that fit their personality, flourished with movement, fit the time period and, most importantly, looked great on stage. The T-Birds in particular were brilliant. The contrast between Ingenue Sandy and the rebellious Pink Ladies was established beautifully, as was Sandy’s transformation. Johnny Casino’s red suit was magnificent and the well crafted angel wings made the Beauty School Dropout number all the more hilarious.
‘Greased Lightning’ and ‘Born to Hand Jive’ easily had the best choreography (Cynthia Chen). In other numbers, the ensemble was placed somewhat awkwardly, often simply standing in a line. The production would have benefitted from more visual variety in its staging and choreography. The cast proved themselves capable of performing more complicated choreography, and it would have been nice to see them get the chance to show off more of their skills. In other numbers, though, the ensemble seemed unsure of their blocking, shuffling and looking down to check if they were standing in the right place.
The most touching part of the show was seeing a massive part of IH’s community banding together to support their peers, laughing and clapping along to every song. The Grease Instagram page lists itself as “the best production since covid” and it’s clear that for student and theatre communities, isolation still hangs heavy. Grease was the second production to perform in the new Union Theatre and the sense of excitement for the future, both for IH and for theatre in general, was palpable. It was lovely to see that there are so many students ready and enthusiastic to partake in and support it.
International House’s Grease ran August 18th to 20th in the new Union Theatre.
Celia Harvey (she/her) is an Arts student based in Naarm/Melbourne majoring in English and Theatre Studies.
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