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A central problem with “Grease’’ is that whenever the music stops, the show stands revealed in all its plotlessness. (Joan Marcus) |
Stage Review
‘Grease’ isn’t getting any fresher
Show is 40 years old, and it shows
It has now been four decades since the premiere of “Grease’’ and more than three decades since the release of the movie version starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.
In other words, this musical built on nostalgia for a bygone era has itself become an artifact of a bygone era. (Notwithstanding a 2007 Broadway revival whose leading roles were cast in thoroughly 21st-century fashion: via a reality show on NBC.)
So how does “Grease’’ hold up? To judge by the national touring production that has arrived at the Citi Wang Theatre for a run that ends Sunday, it’s now a pretty creaky and flimsy vehicle, running low on gas, though still capable of revving up to high speeds now and again.
With its depiction of adolescent turmoil and melodrama punctuated by song and dance, the production also serves as a reminder that “Glee’’ and “High School Musical’’ have an awful lot of “Grease’’ in their creative engines. OK, the automotive metaphors end here.
A central problem with “Grease’’ is that whenever the music stops, the show stands revealed in all its plotlessness. This flaw is further exacerbated by dialogue that is so dumb it makes your teeth hurt.
Perhaps to paper over that shortcoming, a few local references are dropped into the production at the Wang: a reference is made to “the Combat Zone’’ (someone should tell them the Zone has been cleaned up); a shout-out is given to Bernie & Phyl’s; and one character cleverly interpolates a reference to a certain city north of Boston called “Rev-eah.’’
The cast is mostly capable, although (as was also the case with the 1978 movie) none of them is remotely plausible as a high-schooler, not that “Grease’’ exactly has verisimilitude on its mind.
What it does have on its mind is to simultaneously channel, celebrate, and send up the 1950s. So there are plenty of pom-poms, poodle skirts, and immovable hair onstage at the Wang.
Scenes unfold at a hamburger joint, in a locker room, at a drive-in, in a rec room where a phonograph blasts out dance tunes, and in a teenage girl’s bedroom that is a riot of pink. The characters speak in the vernacular of an oldies station and make lots of rebellious gestures that come across as more quaint than dangerous.
In the key role of Danny, the not-as-bad-as-he-thinks-he-is member of the T-Birds, Matt Nolan proves to be a decent singer and a more-than-decent dancer in big numbers like “You’re the One That I Want,’’ but he does not project the necessary charisma. Nor is there much chemistry between him and Alyssa Herrera, who plays Sandy with a certain winsomeness but falls short of captivating. She doesn’t quite nail her big second-act number, “Hopelessly Devoted to You.’’
Sandy is the new girl whose arrival begins to stir the pot at Rydell High School in 1959. She tries to fit in with the Pink Ladies, led by the sullen Betty Rizzo, nicely played by Lauren Elaine Taylor with a chip on her shoulder and a sneer on her lips. (Taylor’s performance of “There Are Worse Things I Could Do’’ in the second act may be the evening’s high point).
In “Summer Nights,’’ Sandy and Danny offer contrasting accounts of their summer fling to the Pink Ladies and the T-Birds, respectively (she remembers tender romance; he fabricates tales of sex on the beach). Once they meet again at Rydell High, Danny’s desire to appear cool to the T-Birds impels him to act like a lout. As “Grease’’ follows the wayward path to true love of Danny and Sandy, another storyline lurches in its wake, involving the turbulent relationship between Rizzo and her boyfriend, Kenickie (Patrick Cragin). Rizzo briefly believes she is pregnant, a plot strand that is no sooner raised than it is resolved.
Dominic Fortuna exudes showmanship as disc jockey Vince Fontaine of WAXX radio. (Attired in a striped black-and-violet jacket over a ruffled shirt, Fortuna does an amusing warm-up act in character before “Grease’’ begins. “You’re on your honeymoon?’’ he asked one couple in the Wang audience. “What the hell are you doing here?’’).
Fortuna doubles as Teen Angel in “Beauty School Dropout,’’ a dreamlike number during which the Pink Ladies swan about while wearing helmetlike hair dryers on their heads like teenage Valkyries. It’s a fun and fresh moment. Too bad there aren’t more of those moments in “Grease.’’
Don Aucoin can be reached at aucoin@globe.com. 
© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.
