I've seen Grease, oh I don't know, perhaps half a million times in my life? It's a comfort blanket, an old friend, one that you can predict and mimic along to every word without annoying them. The songs are classics and I've bitten my lip and tried not to sing along at productions of Grease on stage before. I also went to see it at Secret Cinema when it came to Birmingham ( read about that here ) when singing along was positively encouraged and I took the opportunity with some gusto.
So when I bowled up to the Alexandra Theatre on Tuesday, July 16, me and Our Kelly were pretty confident we'd get just exactly what we expected, no more, no less. We were wrong. Read more: I queued for a 'Ooey-Gooey' Cinnabon in Birmingham's Bullring and need to give you a warning Don't miss updates in Birmingham from food and drink, shopping, things to do and more with our daily City Life newsletter here This production is far more closely aligned with the original telling of the tale of Danny, Sandy and those Su-hummer Naa-haaghts.
The one pre-movie. It's rauchy (blush-inducing in parts), the T-Birds aren't called that and the tale of the main characters doesn't seem to be the most important of all. In fact, at times throughout the production, I started to doubt who the 'main character' was.
For great swathes of it, due in part to me being absolutely in love with her warm smile and sweet disposition, I was sure this was Frenchie's show. Alicia Belgarde managed to take all that I loved about 'mo.