Grease - Thursday

Event information

The Swanage School returns to The Mowlem Stage following last year’s high quality production of \"Rock of Ages\" that was one of the most outstanding productions of the year.

Grease is a 1971 musical with book, music and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Songs include “Hopelessly Devoted to You”, “You’re the One that I Want”, “Grease” and “Sandy” used by arrangement with Robert Stigwood.

The show is named after the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as greasers, the musical is set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School and follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of peer pressure, politics, personal core values, and love. The score borrows heavily from the sounds of early rock and roll.

At the time that it closed in 1980, Grease\'s 3,388-performance run was the longest yet in Broadway history, although it was surpassed by A Chorus Line a few years later. It was adapted in 1978 as a feature film starring John Travolta as Danny Zuko while Australian singer Olivia Newton-John was cast as Sandy. To accommodate the casting move, the character was rewritten so that she was Australian, also adding two songs (the big-band inspired \"You\'re the One that I Want\" and ballad \"Hopelessly Devoted to You\") from John Farrar, Newton-John\'s personal producer and songwriter.