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Music and Concert Review:
Grease at the Teatro |
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Before watching the actual show, I had been bombarded with an array of opinions from family, friends and the media themselves…so, to be honest, I really had no idea what to expect of the show! Personally, I have been lucky enough to see the play “Grease” in London at one of their West End Theatres – granted I was quite young – maybe 14 or 15 at the time, but I can remember it vividly and I can honestly say that it was one of the most incredible live performances I have ever seen in my life. |
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Firstly, The Teatro at Monte Casino is an incredible venue. The staff are welcoming and professional and the overall ambience of the Teatro is an incredible venue in itself, multi-diverse, professional and accommodation for close on 2000 people on a nightly basis which is an amazing achievement as it can still maintain its quality of service and elegant appearance.
Moving along swiftly, to give you some kind of perception of the kind of opinions I had going into the show – and this is strictly from a media perspective – I heard incredibly bad press about how the humour of the show was aimed at a much more mature audience than the original “Grease” movie was orientated towards! What is even more interesting than this is the fact that the show itself had no PG rating – now I know that sounds like a rather trivial issue to argue, but the fact remains that humour portrayed with sexual undertones is truly not suitable for kids younger than 13-14 (at least) – now I’m not saying that the entire show was caked in sexual undertones, but there was an obscene amount of sexual gesturing and suggestive hip-flexing from the male actors more than anyone else on stage – I don’t care who you are or what kind of up-bringing you have had as a child, but anyone with a molecule for a brain will know that that kind of suggestive gesturing is not suitable for girls younger than 13-14 – sorry, but that is my subjective opinion on the matter!
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"Danny and Sandy"...cute...
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What I can choose to do here now is complain about how I found the lights too bright during some of the transitional scenes in the performance, or how I think the main male character, “Danny Zuko”, was completely outshone but his leading lady, “Sandy Olsson” who truly stole the show…! I’m a huge “Grease” movie fan and there is nothing sweeter than hearing Olivia-Newton John sing “Hopelessly devoted to you”…it gives me goosebumps just hearing it play in my head and Bethany Dickson who plays the character of “Sandy” was just incredible, her entire range was spot on (obviously it’ll never be as good as the “Neutron-Bomb”), but it was as about as close as I have ever heard it! She put on a stunning performance! “Danny Zuko” played by Jonathan Rouxmouth was as I said earlier, less impactful than that of his leading lady, but made up for his lack of singing ability with a putting a humorous spin on the character and really milking the character for what it was worth! Look, I’m not saying he was bad…he just fell a few yards short of Bethany in his singing ability – that’s all I’m saying!
Overall and stepping away from being too critical about things, the show was entertaining – I laughed – felt goosebumps – was embarrassed for one or two characters and became pretty nostalgic from time to time…I mean…what more could you want or need from a live performance? I certainly can’t thing of anything…
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To give the cast and all the performers their just dues, here is a congratulations to the following member and cast of “Grease” who performed at The Teatro, Monte Casino…here is the full GREASE South Africa 2010 Cast List:
"Grease"...Grease is the word...!
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Jonathan Roxmouth - Danny
Dane Paarman - Kenickie
Darren Vercuiel - Roger
Matt Counihan - Doody
Charles Bouguenon - Sonny
David Schlachter - Eugene
Anton Luitingh - Vince
Bethany Dickson - Sandy
Genna Galloway - Rizzo
Cherise Roberts - Jan
Sharon Spiegel - Frenchy
Kirsten Murphy - Marty
Bronwen Reddy - Patty
Thembeka Mnguni - Ms Lynch/Teen Ang
Michelle Le Trobe - Cha Cha
Ensemble
Cat Lane, Tamryn Pelser, Melisande October, Jenna Robinson, Jerome Julies, Jaco van Rensburg, Zac Hendricks
Swing
Duane Alexander, Malan Le Roux, Louisa Talbot
Date: 17 APRIL 2010 – 13 JUNE 2010
Venue: The Teatro at Montecasino
Genre: Musical
Suitability: Family (Parental Guidance Advised)
Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes including interval
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Writer, David Alves 
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