Northwestern production of 'Grease' highlights seniors
Apr. 26—If you have chills that are multiplying, you aren't alone.
Northwestern High School students have been working on a production of "Grease." The show opens Friday.
Kelsey Donson, the school's theatre director, said she picked "Grease" because there's a fairly large batch of graduating seniors this year — roughly 15. She wanted to show off their talent with an ensemble show.
"We do really good ensemble shows and 'Grease' is definitely an ensemble show with the richness of multiple characters and things like that," Donson said. She later added, "It's definitely a fan favorite. Everybody knows it."
Two seniors said it was strange to be in their final Northwestern production.
"When I tell you that the people that are in the show are my best friends, I mean that," said Kaitie Bonds, who will play Sandy. "I'm definitely going to be emotional, I feel like I'm going to cry."
Brady Nelson, who will play Danny, agreed.
"It's very weird, like surreal, to reach the end point," he said.
Both of the leads have been performing since elementary school and plan on continuing in some capacity. For Donson, that means pursuing a degree in theater and musical theater in Chicago. Nelson, on the other hand, wants to pursue films.
While the show is popular among older audiences, Donson said the high school students were less familiar with "Grease" and tend to gravitate toward newer shows. She said the cast has grown to enjoy the show, though, with roughly half the cast being introduced to the musical that debuted in 1971.
Nelson said he had watched it as a kid, but needed to revisit the movie before auditions. He tried to stick with John Travolta's portrayal of Danny. Bonds said she had also seen the movie, but not recently.
If you're more familiar with the movie version of "Grease," which came out in 1978, Donson noted there are several changes, like new songs and the removal of some risque topics and profanity for the high school version.
You can still expect to hear fan favorite songs like "Hopelessly Devoted" and "You're the One I Want," though.
"The heart and soul of the movie kind of shines through on the stage as well," Donson said.
She hopes to see audience members dancing in their seats and singing along like they did with last year's production of "Mama Mia."
"It's cool to do an older show," Nelson said, adding most of the shows the high school performs are from the past 15 years. "It's very different — the script style, the music — but I really like the music in the show. I love '50s doo-wop type music. I think it's a lot of fun."
He hopes the audience walks away happy they spent the past two hours watching the performance. The choreography, which was put together by Bonds, and the music should be fun, he added.
"It's such an iconic and stylistic show and I want people to come ... and be filled with happiness because they got to see such an iconic movie on the stage," Bonds said.
James Bennett III can be reached at 765-454-8580 or james.bennett@kokomotribune.com.
