Ryan Sandrew is Danny, the head of the Greasers whose ultra-cool persona at school becomes a liability when Sandy (Kelsey Knox), the nice girl he dated over the summer, ends up at Rydell High. Ryan certainly has the personality for Danny and hams it up well in Alone at the Drive-In Movie (while his friends come crawling across the stage toward him as the backup chorus). Kelsey shines in the All Choked Up duet finale (replaced by You’re the One That I Want in the film) when she sheds her goody-girl image to send Danny and all the other guys reeling.

Unlike the movie, the stage version is more episodic in nature, giving most of the guys and gals more of a chance to shine. Which is good for this cast, because they have so many actors to show off. Zoe Katz is a hoot as the ditzy Frenchy, and it comes as no surprise when she accidentally dyes her hair pink. This leads her to wish for “one of those guardian angel things” (she waves her arms like flapping angel wings) to come help her. Enter malt shop-ish angel Estevan Montemayor giving Frenchy sage advice on going back to high school – advice that is promptly ignored as Zoe tosses away a mini diploma, then instantly regrets it as her angel and his assistants immediately begin heading away despite Zoe’s amusingly apologetic body language. Tiffany Gaines is a hit as she leads the ladies in a ballad to Freddy her love while flaunting her kimono from Fred during a number filled with great singing and sauciness from Tiffany and her Pink Ladies. Torrey Mercer is charming as the always-eating Jan who wishes she could have been there when Roger (Matt Herman) was mooning people. After they both process that wish on a suddenly still seesaw, they resume seesawing while crooning about Mooning.

Giving the show its far more serious side is Cindy Mersten with as powerful a portrayal of Rizzo as you’re going to see. You can always feel the hurt, unhappiness, and anger simmering under her sarcastic exterior. It boils over when she makes fun of Sandy in Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee as she bitterly comes on to all the Greasers, causing them to turn away in awkward embarrassment. In the end, afraid she is pregnant and ashamed to be standing in front of the person she’s been antagonizing out of a vague jealousy, Rizzo breaks down with an emotional There Are Worse Things I Could Do as she finally lets her hurt show.

And then there are all the sex-obsessed adolescent Greasers. Wyatt Gastil leads them all in some Greased Lightning action, raving about his new clunker of a car for which “the chicks will scream,” with Wyatt then demonstrating exactly what sound those chicks will make. Doody (Izzy Pollak) leads the company in Those Magic Changes, and later gets caught licking pages of some magazine...

Other standouts include Staley Carter as hilarious cheerleader Patty Simcox, Connor Murphy as the nerd Eugene with whom Patty keeps getting stuck with, Carmen Dutton as the less-than-ladylike Cha Cha, the highly expressionable Caitlin Curl as both the prudish Miss Lynch of the 1950s and as the elderly Miss Lynch at the class reunion, Andrew Abrams as the charismatic Vince Fontaine, and Spencer Meredith does a nice job as Johnny Casino leading the band at the high school dance.

Performed March 14 - 22, 2008.

Rob Hopper
National Youth Theatre

Ensemble: