MUSICAL REVIEW: GREASE
9 Apr'10

Same old song 'n' dance

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI AGENCY
Rating: 2.5 out of 5

The fact that its best-before date is but a distant memory might serve to disguise the fact that GREASE really wasn't that good a piece of musical stagecraft in the first place -- but not for long. Everything past producers have tried -- borrowing tunes composed exclusively for the movie of the same name, and casting aging rock stars, failing comics and retired figure skaters -- has done precious little to make it better.

That has not, however, convinced the latest producers that there still isn't a bit more gelt to be mined from this particular piece of musical blanc mange -- if only they can come up with another gimmick.

All of which brings us to the GREASE featuring 2006 American Idol winner Taylor Hicks as Teen Angel, which opened Wednesday in a limited run at Toronto's Canon Theatre. Like the musical itself, the result is nothing short of predictable.

Choreographed and directed by Kathleen Marshall, this touring production not only finds precious little that's new or exciting in the time-worn and tired book, music and lyrics of Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, it quite often fails to exploit the limited charms that made the show a hit in the first place.

Right off the top, the casting of Josh Franklin and Lauren Ashley Zakrin (which one can't help but note comes perilously close to rhyming with with saccharine) as romantic leads Danny and Sandy seems destined to flunk not just chemistry but biology at good old Rydell High. They not only flatline in the romance department from the moment they are introduced, but stubbornly resist any limp efforts the book or the director might make to revive it.

In the romance department, there's more of an arc to the steamy, sketchy union between the car-mad Kenickie (David Ruffin) and the tough-as-nails Rizzo (Laura D'Andre) than there is between Franklin and Zakrin, both of whom appear to have come out on the losing end of a feud with the wig department.

As for Hicks, his turn as Teen Angel does little to enliven the proceedings, despite one of the "Tastee-est" entrances going, and though he gives it a game try, his efforts to put a Soul Patrol spin on Beauty School Dropout come off looking like he's channeling Bette Midler and Jay Leno simultaneously.

Which is not to say that the evening is a total washout. Though she fails to inspire her leads in any meaningful way, Marshall finds a few charming nuggets in her supporting cast, not the least of which is Dominic Fortuna's over-the-top turn as smarmy DJ Vince Fontaine. As Doody, Jesse JP Johnson has some nice moments too, as do the aforementioned Ruffin and D'Andre.

On a technical front, while Marshall's choreography isn't likely to set the world on fire, she demonstrates a pleasant restraint, and while Derek McLane's sets and Martin Pakledinaz' costumes fall resolutely into the morass of the uninspired, Kenneth Posner's lighting shows them in the best possible shadings.

As for Hicks, fans shouldn't write him off too soon. He sheds the Teen Angel persona after curtain call, smoothly transitioning into the Hicks his fans know and love, and certainly appears far more comfortable singing one of his own songs. But if he's determined to use the Canon lobby as a point of post-show sale for his CD, management might consider opening a few of the theatre's side doors, so that those pitiful few whose life is already complete without an autographed Taylor Hicks CD can make their way home unobstructed by the adoring throngs.