The current run of Grease at The Legacy Theatre glows with happy memories and non-stop grins. Director and producer Scott Richardson said, “I only saw Grease once, at the 1994 London production with Debbie Gibson, and it was a trip.”
The show is brightly entertaining with resounding energy, especially in its iconic song-and-dance numbers choreographed by Susan Collier and vocal directed by Melissa Blankestyn. Complemented by phenomenal sets, an onstage band and colorful, mid-mod lighting, Grease is ready to capture hearts all July long as we take a “trip” back to Rydell High.
Grease was created as a parody of one of those Elvis Presley college-at-the-beach movies. It follows a group of 1950s teenagers led by “greaser” Danny, played impeccably by Matt Woodson, and “square” Sandy, delightfully portrayed by Meredith Crifasi. Danny and Sandy share a summerlong romance that somehow neglects the crucial detail they’ll both be enrolled at the same high school. Upon reuniting in the fall (mere days later), Danny prioritizes his street cred over basic human decency and gaslights Sandy while she attempts to fit in at a new school.
Danny’s friends, the T-birds, fix up a hot rod and moon each other while Sandy’s crowd, the Pink Ladies, opt for slumber parties with booze and DIY body piercing. The cliques converge at a dance competition prom hosted by a perverted radio announcer, and a divine intervention arrives in a dream sequence with a sassy teen angel. Jeremiah Brown inhabits the role as a fabulous, sequined-booted gay bestie whose vocals seem piped directly from the heavens as he berates the bewildered high school dropout, Frenchie (played sweetly by Norah Holzmacher). There’s also an obligatory after-school special pregnancy scare. Ultimately, Sandy overhauls her personality (and wardrobe) for Danny and forgives his toxic masculinity. Danny throws on a cardigan sweater to show Sandy he’s… got a cardigan sweater, and everybody lives questionably ever after.
It’s easy to spot the mockery, but when stripped of its silly slang and period hairdos, Grease is really about teens acting like actual teens. They form cliques, they all date each other and they’re often incapable of being nice because they are so desperate to fit in. It’s campy, but it’s camp based on true, chaotic, adolescent behavior.
Sonny, played by Will Moffett, finds the characters strikingly similar to his own high school days. “There was the same type of joking, lighthearted banter and guys flooded with hormones,” he said. When pressed if he had been one of those guys, Moffett plead the fifth, but he delivers a performance so authentic it feels like he recently hopped out of a 1950s teenage time-machine.
The plot of Grease might be as thin as the sole on a worn-out saddle shoe, but even more than 50 years later the songs are still certified bangers. “We licensed the four additional songs from the film, but when you do that there is no vocal music, arrangements, nothing – you’re on your own,” said director Richardson. “I pulled out my playbill from the ’94 production and started googling. I made contacts and they were all very nice, so now we’re using the charts from the ’94 London production,” he said.
The spectacle they’ve created with the classic anthem, “Greased Lightnin’,” alone justifies the price of admission. It highlights one of two stand-out performers in the show – Colum Goebelbecker as Kenickie, and Ellen Tuttle as Betty Rizzo. Goebelbecker’s Kenickie is a triumph of animated, irreverent rebellion. Even within the show’s absurdity, he portrays bad boy Kenickie with legitimate depth, creating more than just a caricature trope. His accent and vocals are perfectly tuned, and his chemistry with onstage love interest Rizzo crackles with a genuine spark. Tuttle as Rizzo is like watching a 1978 Stockard Channing walk onto the Legacy stage and perform again, but this time with even more raw vulnerability. Her characterization is utterly convincing, and her solo, “There are worse things I could do,” sounds belted straight out of Broadway. Both portrayals will leave you breathless.
Overall, Grease at the Legacy is a rockin’ good time. Sure, it’s obvious Woodson has never smoked a cigarette in his life and some of the teens are in their 30s, but these delightful quirks blend seamlessly into Grease‘s inherent, joyful farcicality. This is a world where unadulterated fun reigns, and that exuberance is precisely what the audience will experience from beginning to end.
Grease continues its run at The Legacy Theatre July 9-13, 16-20 and 23-27. Performances start at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are available at atthelegacy.com.
This article appears in Jul 10-16, 2025.
