“Why Grease? Because it’s Grease!” quips Denver Anthony Nicholas. There is no better way to start this conversation.
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Premiered in Broadway in 1972, Grease tells the story of an American working class youth subculture, and follows teenagers of 1950s Chicago as they duel between the personal and political. It quickly rooted itself into popular culture when the play was adapted in 1978 into a movie starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John in the lead. The songs, to this day, are an alluring reminder of the time.
Some 20-odd years ago, Chennai saw its first-ever musical production of Grease, which opened to packed audiences — Denver debuted as a choreographer then, for the play produced by StageFright Productions. Ever since, he has been wanting to resurrect the production as a director. This time as Grease: The Musical by Poochus Productions.
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“We grew up with that music!” says Denver adding, “Ten years back, I had found the play script and fell in love with Grease all over again. When I decided to direct, I wanted to go with the play script because of how the characters are written. The movie focussed on John Travolta and Olivia Newton- John’s characters but in the play, each character is important.”
The cast of ‘Grease’
Fifty-two years since its premiere, iconic songs like ‘Greased Lightning’, ‘Summer Nights’, ‘You Are The One That I Want’ and ‘Sandy’ are still earworms. “Somehow, ‘Greased Lightning’ always ends up being the crowd and cast favourite,” Denver says, adding that everyone comes for the songs and not so much for the story. The 38-member strong ensemble — vocally coached by Amrita Fredrick — has a six-member choir and a four-piece band, apart from cameos and interludes from actors, dancers and recognisable faces from Chennai’s theatre fraternity: Yohan Chacko, Sandeep John, Sangita Santosham and Shan Katari to name a few.
However iconic, Grease narrates a story deeply rooted in the place and time it’s set in: 1950s Chicago. So, the language and ideologies that the characters share may not be in resonance to a cast that falls largely between the ages of 18 and 35. “We have had very long discussions and debates about this during rehearsals. I also learned a lot from them. It’s important to set the context for such works for art,” adds Denver.
Today, everyone is keen to perform, says Denver. “We are also in a space where most of the theatre happening in Chennai is 10 and 15-minutes long. There are hardly any full-length plays being performed. So the cast is very enthusiastic about a full-length musical where they can sing, dance and act all they want. And Grease is simply, a lot of fun,” says Denver.
Grease: The Musical will be staged on August 17, 7pm at The Music Academy, Main Hall. Tickets can be purchased from allevents.in