Grease – The Musical At Regent Theatre, Stoke Review

Reviewed by Lindsay Burton

For eighteen incredibly long months, we have all been waiting patiently to get back to the theatre! Last night, the Regent Theatre in Stoke prepared a welcome back like no other! Decorated in style to suit a glamorous red carpet event, we made our way to our seats, super excited for this musical to start!

The night begins with clapping and squeals—actual squeals—as the curtain goes up. It’s been too long!!! We immediately meet a loved up Sandy (Georgia Louise) and Danny Zuko (Dan Partridge) mimicking the film by saying a sad farewell to their summer romance.

As Danny Zuko, Dan Partridge shows great talent—a decent voice, nice charisma. Georgia Louise shows even more promise as Sandy—the girl can flat-out sing— and she, like the film, portrays the goody-goody girlish thing faultlessly.

A boy-meets-girl story set in a sock-hop-era high school is never going to be Lohengrin, and Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey padded out their story with a huge amount of sub-plotting which left my guest (who has only seen the film a couple of times), checking if she had missed something.

I throughly enjoyed Paul French’s portrayal of Kenickie, he genuinely reminded me of Jeff Conaway’s tough-bad-boy persona. Josh Barnett (Roger) was a breath of fresh air and made the audience chuckle a number of times and boy oh boy, can he sing! Inez Buff (Marty) and Thea Bunting (Patty Simcox) throughly deserved their casting, they were great in their roles and contributed to turning this show in the hit that it is. Tendai Rinomhota (Rizzo) really made the role her own with great vocals and style). Rizzo will always be special to me as I was cast in this role many moons ago during a secondary school show and I will always have a special place in my heart for it!

Jacob Fisher does a phenomenal job playing two different roles during the show especially as Vince Fontaine during the ever famous “handjive” scene.

“You’re the One That I Want” is a fiendishly catchy song, a terrific way to close a show, but I found “Grease,” the propulsive opening number (and sole contribution of Barry Gibb, Bee Gees fans will be glad to know) as the number that really takes off for me.

During the curtain call, the cast races through quick reprises of all the show’s good songs and gives plenty of chances to see the stars in action. Here, you think, is what the people came to see: the super-concentrated Grease experience, all highlights and characters stars. I was however slightly disappointed with the final Sandy as I expected a more sultry Sandy makeover but completely understand that something like six inch heels may not make for easy dancing on an incredibly busy stage. Arlene Phillips choreographed all the dances so precise to fit on a stage with so many other actors. Apart from slight technical glitches with the microphones, the show was executed faultlessly. Ben Cracknell’s lighting design and Colin Richmond’s scene and costume design complimented each other fabulously! The evening ended with the entire audience dancing and clapping for their finale!

A thoroughly enjoyable evening and highly recommended. I rate this production as a 5/5 and it is showing until the 4th September so don’t delay, get your tickets now!

Rating: 5/5

Tickets cost from £13.00 plus transaction fee of £3.65

For more information or to book tickets please visit Grease Tickets | Regent Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent in Stoke-on-Trent | ATG Tickets.