"Grease" - Opening Night - Runaway Stage

Runaway Stage Productions presents the musical "Grease," featuring, clockwise from top left, Lauren Miller as Marty, Lauryn Caruso as Rizzo, Kari Pruitt as Jan, Netty Carey as Frenchy, Stephanie Keeney as Sandy and Tristan Rumery as Danny. It opens at 8 p.m. Friday and continues through Sept. 25 at the 24th Street Theatre, 2791 24th St. (Photo and caption from The Sacramento Bee)

Just returned from seeing "Grease" on opening night. Excellent show, full of exuberant youthful energy (which depends heavily, of course, on choreographer Tiffany Hurley's work): I highly recommend seeing the show!

In some shows, it can hurt to push the pace too hard, but "Grease" is a good show to push hard: Bob Baxter and Co. are to be commended for their blistering attack. Pushing the pace hard can lead to sloppiness, but there was no sense of that (maybe just a bit over-exuberant at the top of the second act, though).

Runaway Stage mikes their shows, which can lead to certain pitfalls, such as degraded sound quality and feedback, and which have marred other Runaway shows. Little of that happened opening night (just a touch, once again at the top of the second act).

Excellent performances from Tristan Rumery (Danny) and Stephanie Keeney (Sandy). Excellent singing from everyone: Lauren Miller as Marty, Lauryn Caruso as Rizzo, Netty Carey as Frenchy, Tevye Ditter as Johnny Casino/Teen Angel, plus Chris Scarberry as Roger and Kari Pruitt as Jan. More critical friends of mine who saw the performance, people who have voice training, commented that Stephanie's singing was weak, but I didn't notice this: I thought there was a bit of a balance problem during 'Summer Nights', however, when both Stephanie's and Tristan's voices were being overpowered by the band and everyone else's voices.

Liberties were taken in the show regarding expletives - the language is rougher than what I remember from the script (DMTC did the show in 2003), which is fine with me, because it would have been true to the time, but may unsettle some.

Good set design for the 24th St. stage. The band was placed on a platform in the back (I guess Erik Daniells was upstairs in the corner: I couldn't see him from where I was, though). There were doors beneath the platform, behind which the soda shop seats/pajama party bed were stored. In addition, there were interesting James Dean (plus Sandra Dee?) paintings, and period bric-a-brac to catch the eye.

One thing that bothered me was the set painting - it took me a while to realize that the beige color dominating the set was the exact shade of the paint I used on my laundry room and basement walls. My unease regarding what I'm sure most people considered a neutral color, and I considered a utilitarian color, was strictly personal, though. I thought the flats on the sides of the stage intruded too far into the proscenium arch - the 24th Street theater stage is quite small and can't tolerate much (if any) intrusions from the side.

Lillian Baxter and Denise Miles did a good job with costumes - bright, flashy (e.g., nice slippers and hairdos on the beauty school dancers).

Bradley Bong's hair was tinted red, just for the sake of the one 'Howdy Doody' joke in Act II - cute: a sacrifice from him, but cute nevertheless!

Excellent performance from Hailee Ketchum-Wiggins, who played Patty Simcox (she's only 14!) She's a fast learner on the baton (Stephanie looks like she's already a pro on the baton, though). I remember taking ballet with a girl in Tucson many years ago (I think her name is Tracey Oates), who got a full scholarship to U of A strictly - and only - because she was Arizona's unbeatable champion baton twirler 5 years in a row - don't lose those irreplaceable motor skills! Brett Bachman played Eugene well: he worked well with Jordan Gomez as Cha Cha DiGregorio in the high school hop scene, providing a real nice 'ahhh!' moment when they exited together.

I worried about Alex Powell, who played Sonny La Tierri (we were in 'Damn Yankees' together a year ago), getting pushed around so much, especially down the stairs, but he's quick and lithe and somehow made it OK. Michael McElroy played Kenickie well: in general, Runaway had an excellent group of Burger Palace Boys.

I somehow missed the "mooning" by Chris Scarberry, who played Roger, despite it occurring downstage center where absolutely no one could possibly miss it. It occurred just on the other side of the head of the tall lady sitting in front of me, so I'm still scratching my head about it. Apparently it was au natural.