James Caldwell High School Presents Grease

James Caldwell High School’s spring musical, Grease, debuts this Friday (3/24) at 7:30 pm, followed by other performances on Saturday (3/25) at 2 pm and 7:30 pm and Sunday (3/26) at 2 pm. All seats are $10 and tickets are available for purchase at https://www.showtix4u.com/even....

A children’s Sock Hop will take place in the JCHS cafeteria from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm on Sunday (3/26). Grease cast and crew members will be on hand for singalongs and to teach kids the “Hand Jive” and other fun dances of the era. Sock Hop tickets are $5 per child and may be purchased at the door. In addition, the Saturday (3/25) and Sunday (3/26) matinees will feature elementary performances during intermission.

The JCHS production of Grease will feature 38 students in the cast, 3 stage managers, and 17 stage crew members ranging from freshmen to seniors. All the female principal characters have been double cast, so those eight roles will be played by two different sets of actors. The first group will perform Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, the other group will take the stage Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

The young actors not only get to perform the songs made famous by the 1978 movie Grease, but have also enjoyed some unexpected surprises.

“The students are most enjoying the music. Because of the popularity of the movie version, which was made six years after the show first opened on Broadway, they were already familiar with many of the songs, so getting to sing them on stage is very exciting. They have also enjoyed discovering the songs they were not aware of, those that were not included in the film, and laughing over the way teen slang has changed over the years,” said Randy Bobish, JCHS Theater Teacher/Drama Director.

A main highlight of the show will be the “Greased Lightning” car.

“We are renting a fantastic custom-made electric car from Peter Avagliano (https://www.greaserentals.com), a theatrical designer who has a small fleet of Greased Lightning cars he's built and has been renting out for nearly 40 years,” he said. “It's not the "fantasy" car of Kenickie's dreams, but the beat up, used fixer-upper he was able to afford. I can't wait to hear the audience's reaction when that drives out onto the stage.”

Bobish said that the community and other connections came through to provide a variety of necessary props to bring the 1950s back to life at JCHS, particularly the dresses and semi-formal wear for the high school dance scene.

“We were fortunate to be able to rent a package of costumes from a professional theater in Auburn, NY, the Rev Theatre Co., and they are terrific. However, with a cast of over 30, we still needed students and parents to fill in the gaps in many places,” Bobish said. “And with props, though it is fun researching what you need for each show, acquiring those items can sometimes be challenging, and other times something you think will be difficult to come by is the first thing donated! I shared a slideshow with the cast, crew, and school community showing examples of everything we needed, and over time props and scenery pieces started arriving. Having a large group of people working together to source these things is extremely helpful.”

Bobish, who got to play Danny Zuko in a national touring production of Grease in the United States, says his long and personal connection with the beloved 1950s musical goes back to his freshman year of high school.

“I wasn't in it, but seeing the show is what got me interested in theater in the first place. I then played Johnny Casino/Teen Angel in a summer community theater production a couple of years later. Next, one of my earliest professional jobs was in a European tour of Grease that played in Germany and Switzerland. Then a year after that, I played Danny Zuko in a national touring production here in the U.S. I also directed it at the first high school at which I taught. I noticed that JCHS had not done Grease in the last decade or so. When the administration brought it up as an option, I was more than happy to agree since I love the show and know it very well, which makes it a good choice for my first musical in the district,” Bobish said.

Even with all the Brylcreem, crinolines, saddle shoes, ‘50s music, and vintage expressions, Bobish feels that a major appeal of Grease is how it still captures the timeless essence of being a teenager.

“I hope audiences simply enjoy the exuberance and joy in the show. Grease is really a show for people who have already been through high school in any era. Though it's set in 1958, the experiences and concerns of the high school years are fairly timeless and universal, and the show parodies how we behaved and what was of greatest importance to us at the time. And because it's a parody, an affectionate one meant to fondly remember and not mock, it isn't meant to be taken too seriously. Hopefully everyone will laugh, tap their feet, and just have a good time,” he said.

The following $5 discounts will be available on select days: Friday evening for staff, Saturday evening for students, and Sunday afternoon for senior citizens. Please note that personal ID is required to receive discounts.