Grease High School Musical The Critique Report Example

Grease is a 1971 musical that attempts to recreate the 1950s take on teenage love, friendship, teenage rebellion, and sexual awakening. Last November 8, 2012, Irvine Valley College presented its own version of the musical, ensuring that the scenes and language were appropriate for all levels of viewers. Irvine Valley College's Grease effectively reached out to varied audiences and with the help of colorful costumes and minimum stage design, lighting and special effects, acting, and vocal prowess of the student actors, the play transcended back to a time when drive-ins, gang wars, leather jackets, poodle skirts, cashmere sweaters, and rolled-up shirts were the "in" thing.
The story revolves around Danny, Sandy, and the rest of the Pink Ladies and the T-Birds – how love developed between the two protagonists, their relationships with their friends, how they handled peer pressure, dealing with heartbreak, and sensitive topics during the 1950s such as the scare of teenage pregnancy, smoking, and alcohol, among others.
Acting-wise, the lead stars that portrayed Danny and Sandy sang well, but lacked the edginess and depth expected from their characters especially during their solo scenes. Danny was effective during his "cutesy" moments as he was successful in eliciting giggles from the audience, but in general, he was not as rough and sexy as the role calls for. Sandy, on the other hand, was okay in some scenes, but like Danny, lacked the emotional depth when she sang "Hopelessly Devoted to You" – which was supposedly about her first heartbreak moment and her longing for Danny. Noteworthy actors are the ones who portrayed Frenchie, Kenickie, and Betty Rizzo, who was hauntingly beautiful and showed depth and raw emotions when she sang "There Are Worse Things I Could Do", which was quite the opposite of her rough manner in the presence of her peers. The dialogs and the high-pitched voices of the Pink Ladies were interesting as well since they changed their regular speaking voices to make them sound more innocent and girly.
The stage design was not as elaborate as what you would expect from the musical, but the colorful clothes and trendy outfits of the Pink Ladies that were typical of the 50s era well compensated for the shortcoming. In addition, with the great dance moves in Grease, you will not take notice about the simple stage design anymore. The lighting and special effects were great especially during the "Grease Lightning" scenes where Kenickie's simple, old car suddenly transformed into a colorful and trendy one. Using minimal make up also made the actors look more human, and with the use of wigs to recapture the 1950s look, focus was all on the actors and not on what was lacking on the stage design.
As an ensemble, the cast members supported each other in order to come up with believable performances and engaging group interaction. In most scenes where the cast sang and danced, such as "We Go Together", "Summer Nights", and "Greased Lightning", you can see how electrifying the performances were and how much they enjoyed the scenes.
Considering how the audience erupted in thunderous applause, the favorite scenes were "Summer Nights", "Grease Lightning", and "We Go Together". A great revelation, though, is the Betty Rizzo performance on the pregnancy scare scene where the actor broke out into a song – it was breathtaking and she had the audience mesmerized by her performance. You can actually feel her pain, frustration, fear, arrogance, and anger. As such, after the song, everybody just stood up and gave the performer a standing ovation.
Overall, considering and putting everything together in one piece, the musical was a resounding success – well thought out, good casting, and strong vocals. Definitely worth watching!