Grease Review!

Mark and I went to watch a Saturday Matinee of Harvest Theatre's Grease at QPAC last week. (some form of a birthday celebration for him)

For those of you who aren't aware, Harvest Theatre is a production group that produced last year's Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat. They'll also be putting on Jesus Christ Superstar in about a couple of month's time (however I really dislike that musical and shall not be wasting any money on that)

Last year's production of Joseph was splendid, which was why I really had my hopes up for Grease. Unfortunately, it was quite a letdown and I felt that my $50 ticket was not quite worth that value. Here were the up and downsides:

1) The lead's vocals were a little weak, with him seemingly being more interested in his supposedly 'sexy' gait rather than his actully singing voice. His female co-star Sandy was pretty good though

2) The sets were brilliant, and the lighting was so so. Music was quite all right, nothing fantastic but nothing ear-shattering

3) The biggest letdown was the sound system. I seriously felt that the soundman was either (a) hungover, (b) half asleep, or (c) a 15 year old. Mics weren't turned on and off on time, the balance of voices was really really off, with the balance shifted too much to the treble and the backup singers and music often covered up the lead vocals, resulting in songs sounding literally lyric-less. I've read another review that mentioned the same problem and reckon that it wasn't only for the one we watched. (I think the soundman was really really bad)

4) The costumes were pretty decent, however I do wish that the guys were jeans that didn't look exactly the same, it seemed pretty obvious that they were all bought from the same place, and weren't exactly as snugly fitting as the original Danny Zuko's (John Travolta)

5) They did add some spice and fun to this production, which was probably the highlight. Many of the non-lead singers were fantastic, my personal favourite was 'Go Back to High School' where they adopted a very black, diva/gospel delivery. It was absoluitely brilliant! They should have made it the pre-interval song, because their version of 'Hopelessly devoted to you' was somehow lacking in some musical sense and ended rather suddenly and awkwardly, resulting in a number of stunned faces in the audience when the lights came on for the interval.


So those are my thoughts on Grease by Harvest Rain Theatre. Will be catching Ignatians' version of Rent next week with Mark at the Schonell Theatre! Tickets are only $35 for concession! So even if it were a let down I think it should be ok =)