Grease The Musical review at the Dominion Theatre London

“Slick”

“Nikolai Foster’s .. has replaced all the twee of the fan favourite with something darker.”

“All the joy of Summer Nights comes rushing back with the unmistakable first notes from the orchestra pit. The dance numbers, choreographed by Arlene Phillips, are as hip-thrusting and hand-jiving as ever. But the truly affecting moments come with Foster’s considered directorial choices. As Olivia Moore begins pondering her heartbreak in a flawless delivery of Hopelessly Devoted to You, she watches, sidelined, as Danny slow-dances with another girl. And in her spats with the acidic Rizzo – a wonderfully cruel Jocasta Almgill – Moore rises to become her equal. This Sandy can hold her own.”

“Though the humour in this production – with the exception of the loveably loud Mary Moore as Jan – could be cranked up a notch or two, this is a good night out. And for many, the euphoria of young love will be enough to have them dancing along to the final megamix.”

“Peter Andre shines with a small but prominent part”

“It’s not the one that I want”

“Grim is the word. This version of the beloved 50s-set high school musical has a hard carapace of professionalism but underneath it’s colourless, charmless, and emptily energetic. The love story of bad boy Danny and goody two-shoes Sandy is insipid, and swamped by a tide of teen-drama clichés. The familiar songs still stand up, but only a few of the big numbers – Greased Lightning, Hopelessly Devoted to You and Hand Jive (here sounding alarmingly like ‘hand-job’) – have real vocal power or choreographic verve.”

“A harder, darker hornier version of the classic musical”

“Nikolai Foster’s big West End revival isn’t an aggressively dramatic reappraisal, like the version of ‘Oklahoma!’ currently playing at the Young Vic. It’s more a careful sift through all the songs and story options available, that have then been pieced together into the hardest-edged version available, but without actually dramatically departing from precedent.”

“Foster’s key decision is to reinstate swathes of the very first, 1971 version of the musical, which has never been performed professionally in this country (or indeed, outside of Chicago where the show originated). He’s held on to the big anthems added for the film – ‘Grease is the Word’, ‘You’re the One that I Want’ – because obviously he doesn’t want an audience riot on his hands.”

“It’s highly professional.”

“Arlene Phillips’s choreography offers some thrills”

“[When] Olivia Moore takes centre stage.. to sing good-girl Sandy’s impassioned lament Hopelessly Devoted to You — it simply soars”

“It’s never going to be West Side Story, fine, but even so this Grease needs a more vivid sense of lives in the balance.”

Grease is booking until 29 October 2022 at the Dominion Theatre, London.