‘Grease’ a massive undertaking

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This article was published 08/11/2024 (380 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Get your hair slicked back and put on some dancing shoes. The 1950s are back — well, on stage anyway — with the Vincent Massey High School production of “Grease” at the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium.

Sporting a huge cast of 45 students and a further 140 kids behind the scenes from Vincent Massey who have taken part in some way to produce the show — plus members of the local community to help take the show to stage — the sheer number of people who have worked on the production has been nothing short of extraordinary.

And while there are challenges to organizing such a show with so many people and so many different schedules in the day, director/producer Nancy Pitcairn says the cast and crew have been extremely dedicated.

“So there are about 200 people who make the show come to life, which is kind of a miraculous event,” Pitcairn told the Sun on Thursday morning. “The best kids are always the busiest kids. They’re in other performances, they’ve got dance classes, they’ve got jobs. They’re pretty awesome, but yeah, it is very difficult.

“We had a whole group of them in the Westman Honour Choir, and so it’s always a challenge getting everybody together for rehearsal. But we’ve been doing 7:30 a.m. rehearsals in order to combat the busyness of everyone getting up in the morning. I don’t know if I’m great at getting up in the morning, but they’re fantastic.”

Based upon the original 1971 American stage musical and 1978 romantic comedy film of the same name, Vincent Massey’s version of the iconic 1950s story of growing up and finding love is a special “school version” that has been adapted for a younger audience from the original.

Pitcairn, who is also the high school’s drama teacher and nutrition teacher, says publishing companies have been capitalizing on the fact that high schools love to stage musicals, and as a result they’re creating more and more scripts that are geared toward such productions.

In doing so, Pitcairn says the companies are taking into account some of the limitations and financial differences between that of a Broadway production and a school production.

“It’s really great because it it’s giving more and more materials for us to be able to get and be able to produce. It’s exciting that you know, for this year, we’ve got a great show that is suitable for a wider audience demographic, but also moving forward in the next number of years, we’ve got other shows that we can we can bring to Brandon audiences and be able to perform.”

The Broadway version of the musical is advertised as a “rock n’ roll high school musical celebration of growin’ up, cruisin’ with friends and goin’ steady.”

And while the school version has removed a few songs and added some new ones — to make them more school friendly — the soul of the plot remains the same. It’s a group of teenagers who are trying to find their place in the world.

All of the references still fit for the 1959 time period, and Pitcairn says she has had to become a bit of an expert on the ’50s to ensure that the production is historically accurate. This included having to check to see whether disco balls were present in 1950s dance halls or were an invention of the 1970s.

“And I now have learned stupid things like the fact that the disco ball was invented in the 1920s,” Pitcairn says, laughing. “Absolutely useless information for my life, but (necessary) in order to make sure that we have authenticity to the show.”

The musical itself follows the lives of greaser Danny Zuko, played by Vincent Massey student Cash Laluk, and Australian transfer student Sandy Olsson, a role taken by Dannah Pentney, as they develop an attraction for each other during a summer romance.

Laluk, who also plays for the Vincent Massey Vikings football team, missed his team’s final game last night as a result of his performance on stage on Thursday.

“I sure appreciate that,” Pitcairn said Thursday morning, hours before the performance.

“He’s going to kill it on that stage tonight. He’s just fantastic.”

The third main character is that of Betty Rizzo, the tough and sarcastic leader of the Pink Ladies, played by Veronika Hrytsenko.

“We’ve got lots of great, talented kids all the way through,” Pitcairn said, adding that all three of the main characters are experienced young actors, having taken parts in Mecca Productions shows before. But there’s also some talented newbies to the stage, such as Skye Zosa playing Kenickie Murdoch, who has the production’s main musical number, “Greased Lightnin’.”

“For him, the nervousness of performing for the first time is kind of extra heightened, because he’s not only getting to sing the big song of the musical, but also doing it for the first time on the stage, which he’s pretty excited about.”

Pitcairn is also very excited about a set piece that came to the high school production as a stroke of good luck — a beautifully decked out convertible pedal car that they have on loan from a Winnipeg owner she found on Facebook.

“And so I contacted him and I said, I can’t afford to buy your car. But he so graciously has rented it to me, and he’s off in Portugal right now. So I currently am the owner of a beautiful roadster pedal car right up until he gets back in January. I’ve been taking pictures for him so that I can share them with him and his wife, who were just so great to us in loaning us this car.”

The car comes in a pivotal drive-in movie scene, which includes a cameo by the late Vincent Price.

The Vincent Massey production of “Grease” continues tonight and Saturday night, with both shows starting at 7:30 p.m.

Adult tickets are $20, seniors and students $15 and children under 12 are $12.

Check out wmca.ca or call 204-728-9510 to purchase tickets.

» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com