There are a number of shows on what I call "The Never List." One of them I've mentioned in an earlier review. These are shows that I would never, ever, ever, ever, EVER produce at Pontiac as long as I was Theatre Director, no matter how many times they were suggested to me. Most of the shows on this list are there either because I simply dislike them intensely (Annie, Kiss Me Kate, The Music Man, anything by Rodgers and Hammerstein), because they're ridiculously over-done, meaning every school and every camp does them every other year (Guys & Dolls, Bye Bye Birdie, My Fair Lady, anything by Rodgers & Hammerstein), because people suggest them to me for the wrong reasons (Fiddler on the Roof, Camelot, anything by Rodgers & Hammerstein), or some combination of these criteria. Many of the shows named above meet all three.

For a long time, Grease was on that list, primarily for the first two of those reasons. It was produced in camp in 1997, my first summer, before I took over the theatre program, so I was able to avoid it for several years. Then in the Spring of 2000, Tony Georgan, who was directing a production of Grease at The Stage theatre in Merrick, Long Island, called to offer me a role in his show. He had seen me in the Clare Rose Playhouse production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat earlier that year, and needed someone to play either Johnny Casino or Teen Angel. I wound up playing both parts.

In the process, I discovered something that I probably should have known anyway: that the stage version of Grease is quite different from the movie, and significantly more appealing (my aversion to the show had always been based on my aversion to the movie). Some of the more annoying songs from the film (including "Hopelessly Devoted" and "You're the One That I Want") are not in the play at all, and there are good songs in the play that are not in the film (such as "All Choked Up"). In addition to playing the aforementioned roles on stage, I played acoustic guitar in the pit orchestra when I was not on stage.

Then in the spring of 2001, I directed a production of Grease at Long Island City High School, becoming intimately familiar with the entire book and score, and having overcome my dislike of the show (even though it remains absurdly over-done) I considered taking it off The Never List. By that time, though, as with Joseph… in 1999, I had already chosen and written the shows for the upcoming summer of 2001. About two weeks before camp, one of the directors called me and asked me to do Grease in place of Jesus Christ Superstar, knowing that I had just done it for the second time and therefore assuming it would be easy. Obviously I didn't want to do that, but it was way too late anyway, so I replied that it would be next to impossible for me to write a camp-ready adaptation, a time-consuming process no matter how familiar I am with the show, in so little time.  I penned it in for 2002.

The most obvious benefit of producing Grease in camp was that, as was the case with Joseph…, I had recently done it twice, once as a performer, once as director, so once I had condensed it down to camp length it was relatively easy to put together and stage, since I essentially already knew what I wanted it to look like. We had a very good turnout for auditions, although I was disappointed that many of the inter boys who had been in The Nightmare Before Christmas as sophomores the year before abstained from this production.

Junior Brandon Dinetz, who had had ensemble roles in two shows in 2001 after two featured roles in 2000, was cast as Danny Zuko, having matured into a fine and confident all-around performer. Lori Davidson had developed an incredible singing voice and got the role of Sandy Dumbrowski, while Rachel Greenfader brought the perfect voice and attitude to the role of Betty Rizzo. Richard Neumann, who had been so good in the speaking role of Officer Krupke in West Side Story, got to sing a little bit here as Kenickie.

As was the case in both The Stage and LICHS productions I had done, the best pure singer among the male cast got the role of Doody; here, it was Michael Warren, whose vocal skills had continued to improve after The Nightmare Before Christmas. He was so good, in fact, that a couple of days before the show I gave him the additional role of Teen Angel, once it became clear that we wouldn't be able to have a staff cameo (it also made sense in the context of the play, since Doody and Frenchy have a thing for each other and she would therefore naturally envision him in her "Beauty School Dropout" fantasy). The duet that Michael and Brian Leigh (Roger) sang on "Rock and Roll Party Queen," in full two-part harmony, remains one of the very best single musical numbers performed in all the shows I've done in camp.

Cara Cohen, who'd had an ensemble part in West Side Story, was cast as Marty and did an amazing job, as did Laura Zukerman (one of the trick-or-treaters from The Nightmare Before Christmas) as Jan; both are very talented singers. So is Ashley Greenwald, a newcomer to camp who played Frenchy. All of our non-singing parts were perfectly cast as well: Peter Kula as troublemaker Sonny LaTierri; Jennifer Feingertz as perky Patty Simcox; David Fisch as nerdy Eugene Florczyk (whose bruises and damaged limbs grew progressively more serious throughout the play); and Amanda Mondre as stern Miss Lynch. We combined the roles of prom emcee Vince Fontaine and bandleader Johnny Casino into one, Jenny Fontaine, and cast Blue Sanders, another Pontiac newcomer who had such a good audition that we really wanted to give her a role. Hannah Wallace won the dance audition for the role of Cha-Cha DiGregorio, Danny's prom date.

Grease was a very good show; the material is not terribly challenging or substantial, and I still think it's over-done, but the cast had a great time with it and put forth very strong performances across the board. 2002 was shaping up to be a very good year indeed, but the best, as they say, was yet to come.
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