New Service for TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com readers...roll mouse over, click on highlighted links in stories to review items from Amazon

Grease’ at Stages St. Louis has energy, fun... Returns us to ‘Happy Days’

By Daniel Hines
Publisher
America’s Seniors at www.TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com

If anyone has ever wanted to use a time machine to go back to the Happy Days of the 1950s, they have their chance to see what it was all about with the lively, high energy—and just plain fun—of Grease now playing at Stages St. Louis.

As one who was there when the real thing was taking place—DA haircuts, Rock & Roll, James Dean, handing out my class ring after two or three dates, drive-in movies and heart-wrenching (at least for a week) breakups with a cheerleader or prom queen—I can vouch that Stages has captured the mood of the era.

The primary reason for the success of the show is the fun that the cast is having throughout.  These guys really seem to be enjoying themselves, and it carries into the audience with some dancing back to their seats at intermission.

Add to this the stage set which ebb with the eerie colored light changes that were a trademark of the old Seeburg jukeboxes.  Suddenly, we realize that it is a magical jukebox that is really a time machine. 

Mark Halpin (scenic designer) and Matthew McCarthy (lighting designer) should have taken bows with the cast during the curtain call since they were so instrumental with their outstanding design, a characteristic of Stages St. Louis that always seems to transform the small, intimate stage into something memorable.

The casting is strong throughout, and while the music and plot are somewhat sappy—remember this is early puberty 1950s—there are many truly outstanding performances.

Keldon Lavar Price is hilariously funny as a James Brown-looking ‘guardian angel’ consoling beauty school dropout Frenchy, played by Jenna Coker, who is a scene stealer throughout.  Interestingly, Price gives the number a ‘50s flavor, delivering the song and mannerisms that actually rely on racial stereotypes of the period, something that is unusual to see in our Politically Correct era.  The same is true of the really vulgar—but funny—Cha Cha DiGregorio, Kenickie’s   blind date for the prom.  She scratches her butt, picks her nose, buries young men in her enormous bust—and makes us laugh.