The year 1959 may have been the last cry of normal adolescence: the year before the ‘60s, John Kennedy’s election, the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, the freedom rides, the sexual revolution, the pill, miniskirts, the Beatles, the drug revolution and the endless war in Vietnam. Nostalgia for what, in retrospect, we envision to have been the golden age of youth seems to be an undying phenomenon.
Skilled playwrights and huge audiences have been attracted to this period ever since. Such blockbusters of adolescence as West Side Story, set in New York City in 1957, and Hairspray, set in Baltimore in 1962, are of this era. By no coincidence 1959 is when the musical comedy Grease transpires in a high school in a tough working-class Italian district of Chicago.
Over the decades, the specifics of Grease have been eroded by innumerable performances in regional theaters all over the country. Watching it today, it is difficult to know that these young boys and girls were meant to be Chicago Italian tough guys and dolls. They could be students at any high school, in Albuquerque or even Moriarty.
When the Albuquerque Little Theater ’s current production of Grease burst upon the Duke City stage with gleeful songs, acrobatic dancing and fresh-faced actors, the nearly sold-out audience was filled with those who can recall that period of their own youth, those years of relative peace and stability and those earth-shaking emotions of love and longing. “This is the life of illusion,” a character in Grease sings. That the play still touches the aging audience was evident in the raucous enthusiasm of their applause throughout the performance.
Even those lines that are clearly dated resonate. When a girl is urged to smoke for the first time, what she is offered is tobacco, not pot, and she is encouraged with the words, “It ain’t gonna kill you.” The audience’s laughter made it clear they got the intended irony.
ALT, which is celebrating its 85th season, has done a fine job of reviving the play. The cast of some two dozen sings and dances the famous songs with contagious verve. The story is that stalwart of comedy—girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets boy—but Grease is not about plot and character so much as music that continues after all these years to light up our souls. In the old-fashioned way that has gone pretty much out of style, all action stops when the singers and dancers take center stage.
But what singing and dancing! One of the highlights is the song “Greased Lightning” when Kelvin Krupiak, a remarkable 24-year-old performing for the first time in a musical, jumps on a car that has been rolled onto the stage and along with several members of his gang does an Elvis imitation.
The other highlight, near the end of the second act, is “You’re the One that I Want.” It is a moving duet sung by Krupiak and Jessica Quindlen, who have finally come together after being separated by all the perils of loving lost. Quindlen, who throughout the play has been lonely, gentle and prudish, suddenly emerges as a femme fatale, and she pulls off the radical transformation with panache. “I get chills and I’m losing control,” the couple sing to each other.
Director Henry Avery has done a terrific job of assembling an ensemble cast of diverse ages and talents to perform the play by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. In a complex musical comedy like this with numerous sets and costume changes, a lot of credit needs to go to the often-overlooked production staff, including choreographers Edye Allen and Erin Allen, music director Shelly Andes, technical director Vic Browder, production manager Ryan James Cook, costume designer Joe Moncada and stage manager Nick Tapia.
Grease continues at ALT, 224 San Pasquale SW in Albuquerque’s Old Town, Fridays through Sundays until Nov. 2 with a special Thursday performance Oct. 23. For tickets and information call 242-4750 or go to albuquerquelittletheatre.org.
Responses to ““Greese” at the Albuquerque Little Theater”