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www.Luay.Eljamal.com |
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Author ▪ Actor ▪ Aspirer |
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News Article |
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The cast of Grease, fronted by Janelle Leask, left holding hands with Luay Eljamal at Keyano Theatre, The musical runs to Sunday, but the entire run is sold out. Photo by CARL PATZEL. Today staff |
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Date: N/A SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE |
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GREASE The cast may be made up of primarily high school students but there is nothing “high school” about Keyano Theatre’s production of the his Broadway musical and movie Grease. The vocal performance of local teen Eva LaPrairie, playing the lead character Sandy, is worth the ticket price alone. She is a well-trained vocalist and held the opening night audience captive as she carried out the much loved solo Hopelessly Devoted to You with the confidence of a seasoned performer. As the characters of Grease are slightly one-dimentional: Sandy The Goo Girl, Danny The Bad Boy… etc. it doesn’t even matter than LaPrairie’s vocal ability slightly outshines her stage presence. It’s a musical, we’re here for the songs. LaPrairie’s co-star and on-stage love interest, Tim Cooper, playing Danny, also delivered the goods when required, making the girls in the audience swoon with his rendition of the love song ballad Sandy. Cooper, a more experienced actor, brought more depth to his portrayal of Danny than some might have expected. Instead of simply being Danny — the boy from the wrong side of the tracks — he was Danny The Comedian and Danny The Sensitive Teen. The juxtaposition between LaPrairie and Cooper is appropriate as the show begins with the female cast members on one side of the stage pitted against the males on the other side of the stage in an ensemble performance of Grease. If the production was a battle between the sexes, I’d have to say the men won. The group of guys playing Danny’s gang of friends were on time delivering their lines, quick with a comical gesture and at ease on stage. Of note was Keyano Theatre rookie Jarrod Saunders, playing the hormone crazed Kenicke. Saunder’s may not be the vocalist LaPrairie is, but he depicted the on-again, off-again teen romance with bas girl Rizzo perfectly. After laughing at his character’s antics through most of the play, it was easy to turn and sympathize with him when he was temporarily rejected by Rizzo in the second act. A smaller role that was made significant by the comedic talent of Luay Eljamal was that of Roger, who falls unabashedly for Jan (Janelle Leask). Director, Marie Nychka, and her creative team chose actors that so thoroughly suite dtheir roles, it made the show believable. Jan, who has a penchant for Twinkies, was suitably chubby. Sandy was the blonde beauty we have all come to expect — after Olivia Newton-John made the character a household name in the movie version of Grease. Danny, was tall, masculine with appropriate stature for the leader of a gang. Even the angel that floats down from heaven to tell Frenchie to go back to high school in the show-stopping number Beauty School Drop Out was convincingly ethereal. If you love the movie, have seen the show on or off Broadway and can sing along with all the tunes, Keyano Theatre’s production of Grease will not disappoint … and if you’ve somehow missed an introduction to the show the Keyano Theatre production will bring you up to speed and quickly have you slicking your hair back and singing Grease Lightning in the shower. |
