Critical Review of Grease

The performance of Grease was performed at the stage of Beijing International School of Beijing, BISS. The performance is about a good girl Sandy and greaser Danny fell in love during the summer. But when they realize that they are in the same high school they become two whole different persons. I think it shows what it’s like to be for two persons to unexpectedly be at the same place and meet when they never thought of seeing each other anymore. In this essay I am going to write about how they unexpectedly discover they're now in the same high school and also about how trying to forget about each other and just have their own ways in their school life.

One of the main characters was Danny. Danny tried to ignore that he knew Sandy in front of his friends. The actor (Alex Hong) who played Danny had really strong and confidential performance skills. He projected his voice really clearly therefore everyone in the audience could understand him. An example of this was when Danny sang the song with Sandy at the end of the show; I could understand clearly what he was singing about even dough the music playing under him was really loud. His voice was also very strong and at the beginning his tone indicated that he was upset but at the end his tone became happy and full with life. I think it related pretty well with his character. The actor was able to move really well, performing a little complex dance movements/routines such as the scene from “School Gym”(act 1, scene 1). I think there were times when his movement was not understandable/unclear for example at the “Drive-In Movie”(act 2, scene 3). I enjoyed his performance the most because his singing skills were really good and his voice was amazing. Most of the times his attitude was cool but upset when he saw Sandy or when she talked to him. His speed was fast but when he sang it became slower. The levels were mostly medium, for example when he sang his level was mostly low. There was fall in his voice when he was talking to Sandy but when he sang his voice was rising.

Another main character was Sandy, Danny’s shy girlfriend. She always tried to talk to Danny but he always ignored her but she was strong and never gave up on this. The actor (Monique Brown) who played Sandy had a clear, understandable voice and strong performance skills. An example of this was when Sandy in the “PJ Party” (act 1, scene 4) talked to her friends and she didn’t want to be like them, I could understand her clearly even though another girl was singing as well. Her voice was very soft and kind of shy and her tone indicated that she was upset but shy at the same time. I think it was perfect according to her character. The actress was able to move well, this was shown in the scene of the “PJ Party”(act 1, scene 4) when she was singing and moving really well with the music. I think there were times rarely

when her movement was a little unclear for example when she was talking to Danny in the scene of the “Drive-in Movie”(act 2, scene 3).

Grease used various symbols. A powerful symbol was the use of the car shaped piece of paper, which was painted, and color very well, this was for indicating a racecar. In the “Drive-In Movie”(act 2, scene 3) scene, when Danny used this piece of paper which was used to be a racecar. In contrast the other side of the car shaped piece of paper was used which indicated an old car. This allowed the audience to understand the difference between Danny’s old car and his new racecar. It was a very effective scene because of its visual symbols.

In the “Drive-In Movie”(act 2, scene 3) scene there was a variety of pace. At the beginning, when Danny and Sandy were sitting in the car the director used slow pace. This meant that each of the two characters spoke slowly and also acted slowly in the car, which I think, meant they were in love and also their behavior was very peaceful and calm. Even though the pace was slow it added to the excitement of the scene. In contrast, in the other parts of the scene the director used a faster tempo. I think he used this to symbolize that when two people are in love it seems like the time slows down but still the other things happen faster and faster. The lights were very effective and were also used in a symbolic manner. Profile spots were used to indicate that the main characters are Danny and Sandy. This was effective as it emphasized that they were the two most important characters. I think the colored gels were used to indicate the difference between the times when two people are in love and when people are just living their life real quick without stopping or concentrating on anything. Due to coloured gels the audience thought they could see the difference between two completly different worlds. The colour selection was effective and allowed the audience to get the difference between two worlds. I think the director used bright colours to show happy feelings at the beginning of the scene, “Drive-In Movie”(act 2, scene 3) scene and themes and used darker to show more sad ones.

The music in Grease was quite varied. The majority music had drums, bass, guitar, and trumpet. The rhythms of the music became faster and faster. The director’s choice of music I think was rock and pop because this style was especially characterised in this era. The music changed the choir started to sing noisily but clearly. The atmosphere created by the music was effective and strong due to piano and drums.

The performance was set back in the 50’s Rock N Roll times. The costumes were used to show the type of clothing back at that time in school especially for the main characters. At the beginning of the story Sandy wore old and simple clothes, Danny wore a cool jacket, sunglasses and jeans, and not colourful clothes to emphasize that they are serious people. The colour choices were important in this scene. At the end, she wore a black and beautiful dress and Danny wore normal clothes. The director described Sandy as a cool girl and Danny as a normal school student. I think that the director wanted to show that no matter how different they are they can still love each other at the end. Due to the clothing from the beginning to the end of the movie their style became totally different

and they changed into to two whole different persons. I think it was a smart idea and it was very effective.

In the performance the space was used basically in two different ways. At the beginning of the scene there were everybody from a school. The girl crew and the cool guy crew were at the two opposite parts of the stage. Then later in the “Drive-In Movie” (act 2, scene 3) only the two of them, Danny and Sandy were on the stage. So this means that there were two different theme styles: the parts when everyone is on the stage and singing and dancing and the part when only Danny and Sandy are on the scene. But also at the scene of “PJ Party” (scene 4) when four girls were hanging out and then it became two of them left and only Sandy and another one of the girl crew stayed.

I particularly liked the scene of the “Drive-In Movie” (act 2, scene 3) scene because it was an effective way of showing two people in love when nobody else is around. Also the idea of the race car and the old car made out of simple pieces of paper, it was really effective and a great, creative idea as well. I would recommend it to others because it was a performance with great lightning, sound and other effects as well as the design of the stage. This made this music really effective and it made me think that I was watching a real school day with regular and normal student and teachers (everyday life school day).