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Grease
by Young Star Musical Theatre
 The summer nights are coming to a close in Prescott,
Arizona, and Young Star Musical Theatre is sending them off with a ramma lamma
lamma, ka dinga da dinga dong. Otherwise known as the musical Grease,
the musical parody of the Fifties that became a monster movie hit. The stage
versions are now beginning to incorporate the hit songs added to the movie,
mingling the movie script with the stage script. And in the student edition of Grease,
the storyline is further modified, leaving any semblance to a story a challenge
to find if you’re trying. So it’s probably best to just sit back and enjoy the
great music and amusing characters and scenes. And with any show by Director Shmaine
Posey, there’s bound to be a lot of creatively amusing scenes.
Due to several major last-minute changes, Billy Reed
went from the role of Eugene/Teen Angel to the lead role of Danny. Obviously
he’s a remarkably quick study, and delivered a good performance as the goofy
but cool leader of the gang. Charlotte Shipley is co-lead Sandy, the
good girl new to the school who dated Danny over the summer and is excited to
unexpectedly meet him at her new school – until Danny sort of brushes her off
by acting extra-cool around his friends. Charlotte has a look and sound nicely
reminiscent of Olivia Newton-John as she sings Hopelessly Devoted and
the stage song It’s Raining on Prom Night. The two characters also lead
a couple of the most popular numbers, although in this case You’re the One
That I Want had to be cut, leaving a bit of a letdown at the end. But Summer
Nights went on and was a big hit.
 The stage version gives a lot more time to the friends of
Danny and Sandy, which include Mallory Morganelli as the jaded Rizzo who
is so jaded that she treats the romantic and peppy Summer Nights
choreography with amusing boredom and half-hearted efforts to raise her hands
in the air. Later she sings a good rendition of There Are Worse Things I
Could Do (although, in the highly edited student edition, it doesn’t seem
like she’s done anything so terribly wrong that would lead to the song). Nolan
Sturdevant as Roger and Breanne De Menna as Jan have great chemistry
and body language in their hilariously over-the-top performance as Roger
describes his Mooning skills and dreams, and Jan expresses her desire to
be his mooning muse. Kelsey Diefendorf is great as the pink-haired Beauty
School Dropout who is alternately angry and dreamy over her guardian Teen
Angel (a good cameo by emergency fill-in Isaac Cilano who works the
crowd). Frenchy later adlibs well when all the cast changes led to a missing
actor, with Frenchy swearing that she thought she just saw him on stage. When
fellow cast member says she must have imagined it, Frenchy laments that her
pink dye must be going to her brain.
Other highlights include Audrey Roberts who is
a riot as totally out-of-control cheerleader Patty Simcox, at one point
mindlessly twirling her baton and running circles around Danny and Sandy, at
another point trying to get a dance with Danny by alternately leaning her head
against his back and staring angrily at Rizzo. Mychal Semprun does a
good job as school nerd Eugene who likes to smell Rizzo’s hair. Tom Shipley,
Sandy’s real-life father, is a sunglasses-wearing Mr. Cool as disc jockey Vince
Fontaine. Kenickie (Jacob Clark) and the guys steal the show with Greased
Lightnin’ performed to Shmaine Posey’s totally fun choreography that
includes the guys throwing off their leather jackets and doing jumping jacks,
push-ups, and wax-on/wax-off maneuvers from The Karate Kid. And the
whole cast shines in the big Hand-Jive contest. And it’s quite a theatre
group that can take the confusion caused by so many critical changes just
before the opening and still put on a great show, often just making light of
any hiccups, and with great success!
Performs September 26-29, 2007
Photos by Scott Reed.
Rob Hopper
National Youth Theatre
~ Cast ~
 Danny: Billy Reed
Sonny/Teen Angel: Isaac Cilano
Kenickie: Jacob Clark
Jan: Breanne De Menna
Frenchy: Kelsey Diefendorf
Ms. Lynch: Colleen Jonovich
Marty: Kayla Kite
Rizzo: Mallory Morganelli
Patty Simcox: Audrey Roberts
Doody/Eugene: Mychal Semprun
Vince Fontaine: Tom Shipley
Sandy: Charlotte Shipley
Cha-Cha: Vanessa Smith
Marty: Nicole St. Germain
Roger: Nolan Sturdevant
Greaser:
Mason Burchfield
Michael Ciraulo
Matt Clark
Richard Walter
Radio Singer:
Danielle Kean
Kyley Kean
Niki Rice
Ensemble:
Jesie Adams
Katie Brandt
Krista Evers
Marney Henze
Carly Jonovich
Maddie Kloss
Kaileigh Koons
Rachel Logan
Rebekah Lutz
Lina Pham
Ashley Place
Lizzy Place
Kaitlyn Ramsey
Brittany Reed
Keri Skjei
Nicky Thompson
Director: Shmaine Posey
Musical Director: Debbie Place
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