View from the Green Room: A wop-bop-alloo-bop-a-wop-bamboo
The Stage Coach cast of Grease.
It’s all change for The Stage Coach, Stradbally, as they move from classic shows such as Oliver, Christmas Carol etc to today’s high-octane Grease the Musical with a beat that just never stops. And the Stage Coach is just the stage school to send us all rockin’ up to picturesque Stradbally where Martine Rogers is doing fantastic work with all the kids in the village and beyond.
Well… just everyone loves Grease. Its catchy tunes are infectious and its beat thumps away on your heart for days afterwards. Not that any of it makes any real sense – except in a teen world where relationships and image are everything.
“Grease is the word; it’s got groove, it’s got me-an-ing” and it’s everywhere that matters in the fifties world of cool hairstyles and cars.
The Stage Coach has taken to the polka dot skirt and blouse world of slick chicks and leather jacket cool dudes like ducks to water.
In fact, Bertie Rogers as Danny is beyond cool, as are his gang of five T-Birds of Kenickie (Tom Rogers), Putzie (Luí Ivory), Doody (Arthur Rogers) and Roger (Luca Fitzgerald).
It’s as cool a romcom as you could find in a month of Mondays. Boy meets girl, falls in and out of love, a crucial incident occurs and they’re back together like cooing turtle doves. Happy out.
Caoimhe O’Reilly is the sweet, wholesome and innocent Sandy, who’s in the tug-of-war between gauche child and trendy teen – anxious to hold onto the family values she’s been reared on but tugged toward a more adult world, where image is everything. And guess what? Hasn’t she got four pals in her Pink Ladies gang – Frenchy (Erica Haughey), Marty (Lucy Power), Jan (Gráinne Dowling) and Rizzo (Polly Rogers) – for the four uber-cool buckos as well.
Of course, Sandy has a rival in Patty Simcox (Molly Bradshaw), who also doubles up as Cha Cha – the smartest dancer at the Rydell High prom in the excellent “Born to hand jive, baby” dance contest where Kara Kiely, Eva Gough and Alissa Haughey provide some punchy vocals.
Miss Lynch (Isabella Flavin) is a very strict school principal, while Blanche (Siún Jones) is her dipsy school secretary. Jack Casey is excellent as Eugene the school nerd who is objectionably bullied throughout (this part needs an urgent rewrite from the show’s owners) and his Periodic Table patter song was superb – straight out of the G&S tradition of patter songs.
Director Martine Rogers works wonders with her small stage that extends out into the audience and the show moves out into the aisles in several scenes to facilitate the huge cast.
Another success for the Stage School at Stradbally's Barron Hall.
