A tough act to follow

The musical Grease, which will be performed in the city next week, aims to recreate the magic of the original production.Producer Raell Padamsee has a hard job on her hands. She along with director Advait Hazarat, associate director Karla Singh and choreographer Pearl Tirandaz is attempting to bring the iconic musical Grease for the first time on the Indian stage. Grease was originally a 1971 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey set in the late 50s at a fictional high school revolving around the lives of working-class teenagers. Most, however, know it as the 1978 film starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John that traces the love story of Danny and Sandy and that became a huge crowd-pleaser. In the US, the film is said to be the highest-grossing musical, to date. While John and Olivia received cult status for their roles, closer home it’s two young actor/singers Khurshed Mogrelia and Tara Sutaria who will be playing the lead next week at NCPA.

NOT AN ADAPTATION
Talking about the production, Raell says, “We realised that it’s an iconic film and that we have a tough act to follow. However, we’ve kept as true to the script as possible and have conceptualised the production using the entire theatre space for a 360 degree effect.” The crew has attempted to push all boundaries in production and audiences will get to see a car on stage as well as four-five motorcycles to bring the scenes to life.

There will be actors singing mid-air, some coming down the flys and there will even be children from NGOs such as the Victoria Memorial School For The Blind who’ve learnt to play musical instruments for this production. “The cast has gone through rigorous training. During the vocal sessions, they were taught to sing while running around with bricks in their hand to build their stamina,” says Raell, who felt that while Tara had the ideal voice and look for the role of Sandy, Khurshed has the right charm and talent.