This show has a young, but energetic and highly motivated amateur, cast are presented by Studio2Stage Youth Productions in conjunction with Phoenix Theatre. Although aged 11-18 years, they gave a quality performance in a broad range of dance, and advanced theatrical styles.

This two-hour show can be seen at the Phoenix Theatre Inc, in the Memorial Hall at 435 Carrington Street, Hamilton Hill. The season runs on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings until 27^th January, with all the shows have curtain up at 7.30 pm. There are a couple of Sunday matinées at 2.00. As always at the Phoenix, the foyer was decorated having a glowing, realistic jukebox (Jodie Innes, Emma and Mark Foster, Michelle Shoosmith and Carrie Lewis).

A couple of key nights have sold out already, so get in quickly.

Studio2Stage have a merchandise table with fun 50’s items for sale.

Nightly raffles and programme sales profits will go to two worthy causes, Autism WA and The Lupus Foundation.

The main sets were the classroom and sports field of Rydell High School in 1958. There were several minor sets on the stage apron, e.g. café. The sets were quite symbolic, but the numerous, fascinating props of the era supplied by Narelle Thoms enhanced the scenes.

Alexander Coutts-Smith and Mikaela Innes’ lighting and sound design helped the show bounce along and added to the spectacle. Michelle Shoosmith operated the complex lighting design smoothly.

Bryan Shoosmith was the sound operator, retaining an ideal balance of accompaniment volume for the singers, and kept up with the numerous headsets (they all worked!! Wow).

         It is the end of the summer holidays, and T-bird greaser, Danny Zuko (Liam Pini) is keen to tell his pals consisting of his best friend Kenickie (Lincoln Tapping), guitar strumming Doody (Tim McClelland), the group’s sex bomb Sonny (Rudi Palmela), and Roger (Edan Frazer), all about the dream girl he met on the beach. She was beautiful Sandy Dee (Rebecca Collin), they fell in love, but Danny added a few tasteless comments into the affair and these got back to Sandy.

         Meanwhile, the Pink Ladies, who are a clique of stylish girls consisting of Rizzo (Kel Camponova), Marty (Mia Frazer) and Jan (Ruby Thoms) are sitting in the classroom, disclosing to each other their holiday affairs. As they chat, an old maid teacher, Miss Lynch (Lili Thoms) introduces them to a new girl, Sandra. Most of the Pinks ignore her, but welcoming Frenchy (Phillippa Bialas) befriends her. Before long, Sandy meets Danny, but she is horrified to find he described her as a loose woman.

        Frenchy invites Sandy to a pyjama party, but after trying a cigarette, drinking and getting her ears pierced by Frenchy, Sandy is feeling even worse. Rizzo makes fun of her virtuous nature. Kenickie buys a wreck of car, that he names ‘Greased Lightning’ to impress Sandy, but Danny borrows it and takes Sandy to a drive-in.

        Frenchy feels that school is a waste of time and decides to go to college to study makeup. However, she is visited by a teen angel (Elias Shoosmith) who advises her to return to school.

       The school dance is hosted by DJ Vince Fontaine (Elias Shoosmith) who flirts with Marty. Kenickie attempts to spite Rizzo by dating Cha-Cha (Emmalee Bialas). Although she is very pretty, poor Patty (Laura Foster) finds that along with geek Eugene (Lachlan Felstead) they are the leftovers when the dance competition is announced.

       Broken hearted, Sandy sits at home singing along with the radio singer (Amalie Meneghetti). Still in love with Danny, Sandy decides to do all she can to win him back, so with advice from Frenchy, she arrives at the school in a stunning black leather outfit. Could this bring the answer to her prayers?

 The ensemble is an unfortunate name for the group of wonderful, remaining performers; they are Tara Butt, Charlotte Holly-Little, Eliza Lewis, Keira Butt, Rebecca Winn, Bethany Tandy and Riley Innes.

Normally a director has an uphill battle trying to mould a young cast into their characters, whilst praying that the whole show will come together in the end. However, this cast has been superbly trained in all the theatre skills by the Studio2Stage acting school. Thanks to director, Jodie Innes and her assistant Narelle Thoms, this whole cast were acting years above their age. Their stage presence was jaw dropping.

The delivery of the songs was done with power and perfect pitch – I didn’t notice bum note anywhere. There was some tremendous singing by the leads and featured singers, but when 13-year-old Mia Frazer sang ‘Freddy my Love’ I was blown away at the skills shown. Every singer was outstanding.

The lively orchestral music was on a licenced disc, but the musical direction of the cast was by 16-year old (yes 16!!) Lincoln Tapping; who along with choreographer Mikaela Innes, gave us numerous memorable numbers. The young stars gave us acrobatic lifts, with graceful and interesting dance routines.

With a large cast, Leanne and Emily Winn managed the stage wonderfully well, and with Ebony Howard and Bethany Tandy helping with the muscle work on stage everything flowed smoothly. The colourful and well researched costumes were excellent. The hair (loved Teen Angel) and makeup were also by Jodie and Elaine Innes.

I went expecting a simple musical from some youngsters and came away totally impressed. Quite a few names to remember, I hope their Stage School has a year book for future reference.

This joint production between ‘S2S’ – Studio2Stage – and Phoenix Theatre Inc., can be seen in the Memorial Hall, 435 Carrington Street, Hamilton Hill twice nightly at 6.00 pm and 8.00 pm on Friday and Saturdays until 28^th May. There is a 1.00 pm matinee on Saturdays, with 3.00 and 5.00 pm matinees on the Sunday.

‘S2S’ is a Medina acting school, teaching 13 to 17 year olds most of the skills required by the theatre, including acting, singing and dance.

This 55-minute show has NO interval. The one act performance is at the sensible price of $15 – for all ages.

The producers are pleased to donate the profits from the programmes and raffle to the worthy cause of Autism WA.

The scene is 1952, in Room 4 of the Little Red Schoolhouse. The set is of a well presented classroom, with all of the fittings (set and costume designer Jodi Innes). Charlotte Johnson’s lighting is bright and colourful, setting the mood for the lively and catchy, pre-recorded backing track that was supervised by the musical director, Krispin Maesalu. The sound was presented and operated on a digital desk, by Scott Anderson; the result was a clearer, crisper presentation than Phoenix’s normal, slightly unreliable, fader desk.

         When the teacher of Grade 4 has a nervous breakdown, poor young Miss Quackenbush (Emily Chivers – excellent) is asked by the weird Principal, Miss Crabapple (Lili Thoms – delightful) if she will take over. Miss Crabapple, who has a grating voice that sounds like a blend of Ethel Merman and Homer Simpson, also has the worst memory. The class are horrendous, and their chances of graduating to the next grade is nil.

      Miss Quackenbush decides to test the class’s knowledge with a series of questions covering most subjects, Dorothy (Annie Tapping) and Bonnie (Ebony Howard) are little brighter than most of the others, but still hopeless. Little Mary (Ella Griffiths), who looks a little ill, recites a poem; this encourages George (Charles Montgomery) to pipe up with a terrible piece of poetry. After every bad joke or poem, Skippy (Brooklyn Thomas) gives a quick blast on her trumpet.

      Just as Beatrice Quackenbush thinks that she is winning, Patsy (Laura Foster) starts licking a huge lollypop, causing aggravation to her friends Peggy (Kesha Girsang) and Lolly (Ruby Thoms). A small riot starts, and mystical Jack (Edan Frazer) topples off his chair. Silence falls as newcomer, Shirley (Rebecca Collin) arrives. In an attempt to befriend her, Fred (Elias Shoosmith) shows her what he has in his lunch box!

       Will any of these monstrous youngsters graduate into Grade 5?

Director, Jodie Innes and her Dance Academy trained daughter Mikaela, have given us a wonderfully bright and up lifting show. As the story behind this show demonstrates so well, this is the kind of success that you get with having loving caring teachers. These youngsters just glowed. They had wonderful stage presence, hitting their marks perfectly, and good synchronisation in the dancing. Their delivery of the corny, but funny, ‘Granddad jokes’ of the script had the audience laughing aloud.

Often with children in a production, there is inevitably one trying to be noticed, or hogging the limelight – here we had perfect harmony. The actors were aged between 13 and 17; some of them I recognised from previous ‘S2S’ productions, but many were first timers in a major production.

The singing was clear, perfectly in tune, delivered with enthusiasm and a broad smile. The choreography covered not only the dancing, but also the general movement about the stage. With more than a dozen youngsters, this could have been pandemonium, but here it was slick and quick. EVERY actor can be proud of their performance.

Thoroughly enjoyable, a great family show for ages 5 – 95.

This fast moving show brings joy to all ages, and is being presented by Phoenix Theatre Inc, in the Hamilton Hill Memorial Hall, 435 Carrington Street, Hamilton Hill.

Every day this week, this bright, two-hour show has a performance. The Sunday twilight matinee is at 5.00 pm and the rest are as follows:-

Monday a Matinee at 1.00 pm

Tuesday Twilight Performance 5.00 pm

Wednesday Evening 7.00 pm

Thursday Matinee 1.00 pm

Friday two shows, a matinee at 1.00 pm and in the evening 7.00 pm

Saturday 18^th July – Closing Night 5.00 pm

The story is set in Chicago during the 1920s. For a decade, the production of liquor was banned – Prohibition – and so the gangsters took over, namely Al Capone and Bugs Moran. In this fun musical production, there is only extremely mild violence, and with cast of ages ranging from seven to seventeen, it means that an audience of children as young as even five, will love the singing and dancing.

In this production, the children do their own singing, unlike the film when adults dubbed the kids’ voices.

The scenery had some clever touches to it, such as the library and the getaway car (Scott Anderson, Richard Taylor, Leanne Winn, Emily Winn). There are a couple of very good scenery flats on wheels, but the youngsters need a little more practise handling them, however, as the show was light hearted, some people actually thought it was part of the entertainment. Tricky stage management for SM Jeni Stevens, with entrances coming from several directions around the auditorium.

     Within seconds of the opening overture, by the melodic swinging band (Musical direction was by Krispin Maesalu and his associate Josh Haines) featuring wind musicians, Catherine Motteram, Trish Telcik, Emma Mondy and Vanitha Hart, a poor mobster Ritzy (Chelsea Ameduri) had been ‘splurged’. Killed by the gangsters controlled by Fat Sam (Ashley Garner – excellent). When Bugsy Malone (Connor Gosatti – a natural) hears that his man has been killed, he goes to Fat Sam’s speakeasy – nightclub – to settle the score. He pushes his way past the stunningly talented, Charleston-style tap dancers, Billie (Jessica Huntley), Bangles (Ella Griffiths), Tillie (Erin Barrett), Velma (Shoshanna Olson) and Judy (Emmalee Bialas).

       As Bugsy reaches the bar, Tallulah (Abigail Banister-Jones) – Fat’s girlfriend – starts to flirt with him. Meanwhile, the members of Fats’ gang, Snake Eyes (Rebecca Winn), Knuckles (Edan Frazer), Shake Down (Gabriel Newman) and Captain Smolsky (Daniel Muller) disappear out the back quickly.

      Fat Sam has another enemy, Dandy Dan (Julian Monck) a conman who wants to cheat poverty stricken Bugsy out of his boxing gym. Therefore, Dan sets his men – Bronx (Matthew Styles), Yonkers (Libby Taverner) and Doodle (Luke Newman) to wipe out Fats’ gang along with Bugsy.

    One day Fats has a talent audition to get new entertainment for his club. As he is served with a tray of food by the waiter (Olivia Goud), Fats and his assistant (Amy Roche) judges the acts. The poor shoe-cleaning boy, Fizzy (Adeson Oyasope – well done) wants to apply but is not given the chance. Even skilled dancers, such as Dotty (Phillipa Bialas), Louella (Mikaela Innes) and Loretta (Mmoloki ‘Milo’ Hartill) do not get through the door, even the Great Marbini (Casidhe Gerrish) did not get to do one trick. A wonderful song and dance routine by a young girl (Tiffany Narrier) got nowhere.

      As Bugsy is buying a paper from the paperboy (Mia Frazer), he bumps into singer Blousey Brown (Sarah-Rose Kelly – fabulous voice) who is leaving the club; she too has been rejected. They flirt, and decide to run away together to Hollywood, but neither has any money. Bugsy goes to Fat’s bar and asks the staff, barman Joe (Liam Telcik) and the waitresses (Ruby Thoms, Lili-Mai Thoms, Saoirse Gerrish) if Blousey can have another proper audition.

    Which gangsters will survive the inter-gang battle?

Stunning programme (Mike Allan, Joanna Harrison, Devetta Ridgwell) in the sepia style of the 20s period, however the print was a little faint and so difficult for elderly reviewers to read – I have been told. The only other problem, and it happens all the time for many companies, the headsets did not seem to work for the first Act and a half, although towards the end of the show, life started to appear. I have full faith in sound operator Simone Ostle to correct these devilish devices.

Director, Jodie Innes, has ignored the old warning ‘never work with children’ and excelled. Every single child was totally focused, everyone knew their dialogue, and even the younger members seemed to understand the subtleties of the story. At no stage was there a cast member looking lost – many congratulations.

The magical, complex choreography was the brainchild of Mikaela Innes. The dancers – I guessed wrongly – were part of a troupe that worked regularly together. Most had not worked together before. They hoofed and tapped their way through the difficult routines of the era. The costumes (Jodie Innes, Elaine Innes, and of course the parents), makeup and hair (Thérèse Cruise) had all of the frills and quality of the 20s. A huge amount of work, but made the show classy and sassy.

I went expecting a simple children’s production and came away mouth gaping at their first class effort. Take the kids along, if you do not have any, borrow some.