Grease
★★★★☆ Raucous
Pitlochry Festival Theatre: 18 Jun – 27 Sept 2025
Review by Rebecca Mahar
Grease is a raucous, riotous classic of 1970s American musical theatre, and this new co-production between Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Blackpool Grand Theatre is packed with heart, soul, and exceptional actor-musicianship.
It’s the first day of school in 1958 at Rydell High, and new girl Sandy Dumbrowski (Blythe Jandoo) is introduced to the Pink Ladies clique by Frenchy (April Nerissa Hudson) and quickly invited into the fold. Simultaneously, the greaser gang the Burger Palace Boys gather, focusing on the popular Danny (Alexander Service).
Blythe Jandoo and The cast of Grease. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
Separately Sandy and Danny begin to tell their respective groups about their summer romance — neither realising the other attends Rydell.
This ignorance is quickly dissuaded, of course, but it’s a turbulent reunion when Danny doesn’t want to appear uncool to his friends for liking Sandy, who is as straight-laced as they come. Meanwhile, Sandy is now faced with navigating this hurt and the feelings for Danny, alongside life at a new school, with new friends who don’t follow the rules to which she’s accustomed, and the prospect of figuring out who she is.
nails the emotional aspects
It could be easy to play the various high schoolers as caricatures, but this production nails the emotional aspects of the show.
The company are believable as teens in various states of innocence without being cartoonish, and fully invested in the idea that everything that’s happening to these kids is happening for the first time, as they struggle and celebrate through their time on the cusp of adulthood.
Blythe Jandoo (Sandy) and Alexander Service (Danny) in Grease. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
Jandoo and Service are delightful as the star-crossed Sandy and Danny, deeply genuine in navigating the inner conflict of their characters as they try to be the one that the other wants.
Much feminist critique has been had over Sandy’s eleventh hour transformation from uptight ingénue to greaser’s dream girl, but this version manages to sell it as Sandy shaking off restrictions and exploring a new aspect of herself. Jandoo’s performance, and certain choices by director Sam Hardin, such as having Danny retain his letterman jumper rather than reverting to full greaser mode, grind the rough edges off an ending that, mis-handled, can easily be seen as Sandy abandoning herself.
well portrayed
The production’s other relationships are equally well portrayed, particularly the stormy, jealous one between Rizzo (Fiona Wood) and Kenickie (Tyler Collins). Both have a tendency to fly off annoyed to flirt with someone else at the slightest provocation, but they’re well matched in the end, the soft vulnerability beneath both of their brash exteriors emerging when it really matters.
The Pink Ladies: Eden Barrie, Leah Jamieson, April Nerissa Hudson and Blythe Jandoo in Grease. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
This show’s only real disappointment is a technical one: the band and especially guitars are so hot in the sound mix that it’s difficult to understand the soloists in almost every song. It’s a problem throughout, drowning out Jandoo and Service’s storytelling in Summer Nights, Collins’s powerful vocals in Greased Lightning, and Celeste Collier’s Teen Angel in Beauty School Dropout, to name a few.
The cast deliver stellar vocals in every number, with plenty of projection and mic levels that would be plenty loud for the size of this theatre if only the balance were right: they are let down by aspects out of their control.
monumentally energetic
Other creative elements are as on-point as the performances. Choreography from Kelly Lloyd-Jones is monumentally energetic in its ensemble numbers and full of detail. Nick Trueman’s set is simple and versatile, filling out the various locations with spinning wagons, the opening and closing of cabinets, and clever use of levels in the form of school bleachers.
Costumes from Julie Carlin and lighting from Rory Beaton complete the world of the play, both colourful and punchy, and working in harmony to create time and place.
The Burger Palace Boys: Oraine Johnson, David Rankine and Tyler Collins in Grease. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
Playing into the rock-n-roll nostalgia of late 1950s greaser subculture, with plenty of ups and downs in the lives of the working-class Chicago teens around which it centres, Grease is a show that endures for its addictive soundtrack, bold language and themes, and its enduring reflections on the meaningful challenges of adolescence.
dancing in the aisles
This production has all that in spades, and will surely leave its audience dancing in the aisles every time.
Running time: Two hours and ten minutes (including one interval)
Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Port-na-Craig, Pitlochry PH16 5DR
18 June – 27 Sept 2025
Evenings at 7:30pm: June 18-21; July 2, 3, 5, 16, 19, 30; Aug 5, 15, 16, 21, 22, 27; Sept 5, 12, 18, 23, 27.
Matinees at 2pm: June 21; Aug 6; Sept 6, 13, 19, 24.
Access performances: Audio described (30 Jul 7:30pm, 6 Aug 2:00pm); Captioned (23 Aug 2pm); Relaxed and Dementia Friendly (6 Sept 2:00pm)
Tickets and details: Book here.
Fiona Wood and the cast of Grease. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
ENDS
