My favourite musical: GREASE

I am very enthusiastic about many musicals, but in terms of the long standing favourite, GREASE is the always the winner. I saw this retro musical for the third time this week. It is as fabulous as ever, with all the rock’n’roll numbers everyone remembers from the film, and dance routines that are as brilliant as expected from choreographer Arlene Phillips. The cast has recently changed and now features Matthew Goodgame (Channel 4 Musicality, Chicago) as the leader of the T-birds, Danny Zuko and Lauren Samuels (BBC1 ‘Over the Rainbow’ finalist) making her West End debut as Sandy.

Grease tackles some controversial social issues like teenage pregnancy and gang violence, subjects that make the film gritty and sexy. For me, this production is a little too tame and nice to live up to the exciting film, but this could also be because of the lack of John Travolta. I think the geeky characters are the best on stage: Faye Brookes as an adorable Frenchie, and Hayley Gallivan as a fantastic Jan. All the guys look great but their voices aren’t quite as sparkling. Lauren Samuels also impressed me, the role of Sandy is probably the least exciting part to play in Grease, but she grabs the audience’s attention with her strong voice and obvious stage presence.

Despite not being entirely convinced by this production, I still recommend it as a fun night out, catch it before it goes off on tour in Spring 2011.

Other retro musicals to see in London:

- Flashdance: new to the West End stage it tells the tale of 18 year old Alex, welder by day, ‘flashdancer’ by night who hopes to be given a place at the Shipley Dance Academy.

- Dreamboats and Petticoats: a sweet song-writing love story that features many classic songs.

- Dirty Dancing: brought to the stage after the hit 1987 film, features rebellion, growing up pains and above all, the power of dance!

- Sweet Charity: the story of a dancer-for-hire at a Times Square dance-hall who finds love at last (hurry it ends 6^th November).

If you really want to get into the vintage musical mood, pick up a snazzy t-shirt at Grease or Flashdance. I got a Rydell High tee in grey and red, that I love.

Dreamboats and Petticoats

I can’t believe that I had never heard of Dreamboats and Petticoats before I went to see it last night. And so I’m guessing perhaps lots of other people haven’t either. The show is full of classic 1960s hits, sure to get you tapping your feet. And despite being born twenty years later I still recognised nearly all the songs as if they had been in the charts yesterday. Just goes to show pop music was definitely more catchy back then.

The narrative is very predictable and exists to thread around the songs, there is little imaginative about it. The acting too lacks sparkle. The reason for going to see this show is the music. As we sat down we found that we were, BY FAR, the youngest, in fact almost everyone around us was over 60. They all loved it and it seemed to be the oldest audience members that were first up on their feet to dance!

Now is the time to see Dreamboats and Petticoats as currently Tony Christie stars in the show as Phil and 'Older Bobby'. Christie is very entertaining and has a surprisingly powerful and in tune voice. The daft song that made him famous, ‘Is This the Way to Amarillo?’, is featured towards the end of the show. The audience went wild for it! I guarantee there will be at least one song that you recognise, some of my favourites were: Shakin’ All Over, Teenager In Love, Let’s Twist Again, At The Hop and wonderfully lyrical Roy Orbison songs that act as a small motif throughout. I couldn’t help singing along, which I’m sure annoyed the people either side of me.

Bad boy Norman is played by Ben James-Ellis who I have previously seen in 'Hairspray' as suave Link Larkin. Lorna Want is sweet as Laura, and is by far the most convincing character on stage. The story follows her quest to win over the boy (Bobby) and win the National Youth Songwriting competition with him. This is an energetic, light-hearted show, with nearly forty songs played live with a band. Dreamboats and Petticoats has a silly story and bad puns, but I still found it fun to see and dance along to.

Book tickets here.