Grease - Tour / Dominion Theatre

I saw it tonight, enjoyed it on the whole, good cast though found Andre a bit too cringey for my liking. No singing along from the audience, but one woman took it upon herself to yell at the top of her lungs "OH MY GOD, JASON I LOVE YOU!" during Beauty School Dropout

I sat in the front row too and no, you don't misremember. I think the Bat stage set extended over the orchestra pit (especially in the middle of the stage where it was slightly V-shaped) and was also considerably higher.

Just been to see this tonight. Can’t believe this thread is so quiet, nothing for nearly 3 months for a current show!

I have huge fondness for Grease. I’ve been involved in amateur productions twice, once on stage and once in the band, so I thought I knew all the original songs and differences from the film, but there were still a few surprises. I was happy to hear Freddy My Love, Mooning and Those Magic Changes. There were some fantastic vocal performances most notably Jocasta Almgill and Olivia Moore. Eloise Davies (Frenchy) also really stood out for her overall performance and comedy and Paul French (Kenickie) is captivating too.

However apart from that it was all just ok really which was a bit of a downer. It seemed to me like the production was drowning in the huge cavern that is the Dominion. Characters were having conversations from 10-15 metres apart as if they were standing next to each other, just to fill the space. It was difficult at times to follow who was speaking from where. The set didn’t make much sense either (why was there a gym horse everywhere, including the street and Jan’s house?) and it was odd to see such a basic clunky set getting pushed around by the cast, this is the West End and there was nothing automated or on tracks at all, just all seemed very cheap. I know it was a touring production bought into town but they could have upgraded the set a bit to settle in for six months surely.

I also struggle to see what is “gritty” or “updated” about it at all, which is what I’d read in some reviews? Apart from some colour blind casting, and Sandy was slightly less simpering but still a pretty one dimensional character overall who changes herself to get a man (who has literally just told her he won’t change for her!). No reference was made to the fact 3 of the Pink Ladies were black, in Chicago in 1959, one of the most segregated cities in the USA. Surely that was worth the odd comment to set things in context.

Anyway, it wasn’t an unpleasant evening, hearing some great songs sung well is always nice. The cast as a whole was fab actually, my criticisms are all for the direction and design. 3* from me.

Right i have a single Grease ticket for Sat 15th Oct front row of the stalls in A central fab seat.Evening show 7.30. Can no longer go as out the country. Want what i paid for it £87. Dont know if this is the right place as couldn’t put it in announcements for some reason.. You’ll be sat with my two friends obv who are lovely…

Thanks Kelly x

She was filming the whole of the first act according to someone on tiktok who was sat a couple of rows behind her and filmed her being escorted out

Does Peter Andre have a fan club or Facebook group or something - you could try there?

Ticket sold

Lol 😂 😂😂

Sat this on Thursday evening and couldn't resist going again for the muckup matinee today.

Thursday was high energy and crazy enough, especially with Peter Andre having a good time. Today was off the charts. If only the performances and audience had been like this the entire run (although both shows had noise and disruption from the back of the Stalls).

The sound was better than usual today too, although I'm not sure the sound and lighting ideas had the best idea whose microphone to turn on or what part of the stage to light for a lot of the time. There was a lot more hugging, kissing and bottom pinching than usual as well (not sure if it was all part of an extra sub plot about Sonny being gay).

Corinna Powlesland as Miss Lynch really made the most of her opportunity to change things around, with lots of extra dialogue and deciding that the dance trophies had been made by Pearce Barron.

Noah Harrison, as Roger, took the opportunity to show the audience a little more of himself than usual during "Mooning".

Lots of disco dancing in the background during "There Are Worse Things I Can Do" (sang perfectly as always by Jocasta Almgill.

One of the Burger Palace workers quit and stormed out during the final scene. The boys also wore fancy shirts under their leather jackets.

When Danny revealed his tattoo, all the BPBs revealed they had one too.

Dan Partridge threw his paper plane into the side of the stage rather than the audience (well, that may just be his aim).

Doody and Sonny had a comedic slapstick style fight that went on for longer than it could have done.

I'm sure there were a load of random sounds at the start of We Go Together.

Then, the big one, which must have had a lot of work put into it. The school hall was rethemed for the Halloween Hand Jive contest, complete with new banners, new round signs and lots of pumpkins. That one was impressive and perfectly timed too!

Bound to be lots I missed or forgotten. All fantastic fun.

Shame this is closing as it's a feelgood show that's really grown on me. I wouldn't be shocked if it came back for anther season, like Dirty Dancing.

Brilliant. It wasn't there on Thursday night (or my memory is very bad), but I'm pleased they made more than one night of use out of all the work.

I do think this was a fabulous production of a show where the messaging (a woman changes to get her man) hasn't aged perfectly. The same could be said about so many classic musicals.

Even better, Peter Andre didn't pick me out of the audience to sing (he went for the people in the boxes for both shows).

I did hear some people complaining on the way out that they didn't like the "changes from the film". Of course, this is because they assumed the film came first.

Overall, this is quite a crowd pleaser and this version has been touring off-and-on for a while now. I hope and suspect it isn't done yet.

Just watching the end of the Lord Mayors Show, and they seem to be doing some kind of warning not to see Grease! Definitely convinced me to steer clear 😳

Yes; that can round off the campaign of normalising a genocidal, morally barren low life. The whole thing makes me feel ill.