Review: 'Grease' Tour at the Canon Theatre

The musical Grease stated out in Chicago in 1971 as a fun little play with incidental songs about teen life in the late 1950’s. By the time it got to Broadway in 1972 it had gained a full score and lost some of its satiric edge to become little more than a cartoon valentine to a previous generation.

Then in 1978 it became a movie – one of the most popular musical films of all time. In translating the stage show to the big screen a number of changes were made and several new songs were added. The biggest change, however, was in the performance style: This Grease was no longer a satire, but rather a sincerely played story of young lovers who must decide whether or not to forgo their romance just to remain “cool.”

No matter how hard people try, the stage show just never plays with that same sincerity. The 2007 Broadway revival tried to interpolate four of the hit songs added to the score for the movie (in two cases completely replacing existing songs.) This attempt to satisfy fans of the movie is only partially successful because we are still stuck with the original script which basically strings a bunch of insults and one-liners into a rambling book that never makes you care for its main characters.

 Now a post-Broadway tour brings the show to Toronto and on the plus side the cast infuses the weak material with plenty of energy. The choreography is executed with panache, but once the show stops singing and dancing we’re back to paper thin characters going through the motions.

There are some good voices showcased here including Josh Franklin and Lauren Ashley Zarkin as Danny and Sandy, but the two have zero chemistry on stage. You never believe they care for each other so why should we care if they get together or not.

Laura D’Andre has a moment to shine with Rizzo’s plaintive ballad “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” but the song comes too late to generate much empathy.

As for the interpolations, Sandy’s solo “Hopelessly Devote to You” (by John Farrar) works about the best. “Grease” (by Barry Gibb) offers a livelier opening number than the “Alma Matter” and “Alma Matter Parody” it replaces, but the song is more 70’s disco than 50’s Rock’n’Roll. The drive-in scene now ends with “Sandy” (by Louis St. Louis and Scott Simon) replacing the much funnier “Alone at a Drive in Movie.” Finally the very 70’s styled “You’re the One That I Want” substitutes for the original’s “All Choked Up.”

The rest of the score (by Jim Jacobs and the late Warren Casey) remain including the two best songs “Summer nights” and “Greased Lightnin’” though the lyrics in the latter have been considerably laundered.   In fact the whole script has been censored to remove all the strong language. Now when Danny apologizes to Sandy in teh final scene she responds with “The hell with it” instead of useing of the F-word  to provoke shocked laughter since it is so out-of-character. All this tampering has watered down the edge that the original Grease had, without replacing it with anything of substance.

As for Taylor Hicks performance as Teen Angel, it does seem a waste to parachute in a “star” for one scene and song that is lost in the middle of Act Two. To be fair, he returns at the curtain call to perform a track from his new CD – which he is happily autographing in the lobby after the performance. What this has to do with Grease is anyone’s guess, but really this production bears little resemblance to the original Broadway show or the movie, and seems unlikely to satisfy fans of either.

 

Grease plays at the Canon theatre through Sunday April 18. For tickets go to www.mirvish.com or call (416) 872-1212.

 

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