Review: Grease - the School Edition, staged by Prior Park

Six months of dedication turned an incredible bunch of school kids into punks for the production of the musical Grease which opened at the John Mackintosh Hall last week.

The air was electric with excitement as entire families of pupils turned up, some in era-correct costume to cheer their heroes as they brought to life the legendary musical with book, music and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, adapted for schools. I have been to some of their past productions and enjoyed them thoroughly, however, was I prepared to be knocked out completely by this one? Read on and have your suspicions confirmed.

A cast of nearly fifty pupils took on the celebrated musical and, with their talent and commitment to their roles, made their teachers proud - especially Sarah Alborn, the drama teacher who directed the production.

She took the challenge on their behalf and made them believe that they could take on the iconic characters, including the singing, dancing and acting with attitude, everything that nailed their roles and, in turn, made us believe that we were witnesses to some really special entertainment.

This was a fine bunch of students, the Class of 2026, who have worked hard for six months to give credit to their performances and their school, making it a memorable first night, with hardly a hiccup, and a joy that spilled over the stage into the audience as we tried to remember the great songs and cool dance moves of the seventies film.

Headmaster Mr Martyn could barely contain his emotion at the end when he praised them and asked us to show appreciation for them. So what made it so special as a school play?

For starters, the dazzling costumes, the actors - and their accents, which had to be kept up all the time – and the choreography which kept faithful to the film as we remembered it.

Then there was the iconic songs, whether by the chorus or the leads, this was tuneful singing and dancing at the same time. No mean feat, as finding their own space among nearly fifty other dancers could not have been easy to master.

Transmission was essential to make us believe that we were watching the movie with which John Travolta and Olivia Newton John stole our hearts all those years ago.

Charlotte Brownhill as Sandy, Sam Foster as Danny, Luna Lee as Rizzo and Gemma Martinez Corrales as Frenchy all deserve special mention as principals, but all of the cast were good.

The beautiful souvenir programme mentions them all and provides seventeen snapshots of them too. Were there special moments for me? Many and I can’t detail all of them.

I have to mention (only eleven) the musical numbers like Summer Nights, Freddie My Love, Look at me I’m Sandra Dee, Greased Lightnin’ and the tongue twisting We Go Together, High School Bop, Hopelessly devoted to You, Beauty school Dropout, Goodbye Sandra Dee, Sandy, You’re the one that I Want, and the tongue-twisting We Go Together.

It’s hard to call out favourites among those but the audience did it all the time.

When it ended, the curtain calls were happy reunions with the characters who had given their all throughout the Rydell High School musical set in 1959 and the long applause never faltered for a moment.

It was a joyous experience and the headmaster expressed how truly proud he was of everyone involved - and so he should - because ‘Grease’ was a challenge to be met and to be conquered and Prior Park did it, once again proving that you can be what you believe in, as long as you put in the work.

They made it look easy and kept us smiling and foot-tapping for nearly two hours.

Well done all, ‘Grease’ was certainly the word throughout last week and that will be their next benchmark production to strive for.