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.

The first edition only sold 3,000 copies; however, it is now 68^th on the American Library Association’s list of the 100 most objectionable books of the 20^th century. ‘Time’ magazine later said it was one of the best 100 modern novels ever.

In 1995, Nigel Williams adapted the book, producing the stage version that is now brought to you by the Harbour Theatre Inc., Harbour Theatre, within ‘Camelot’, 16 Lochee Street, Mosman.

The performance is two hours long and can be seen on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings until Saturday 6^th August at 7.30 pm, with Sunday matinees on Sunday 31^st July, Saturday 6^th and Sunday 7^th August at 2.00 pm.

The setting is an island (possibly in the Philippines?) during World War II. The stage is a sandy seashore. There is a lagoon on the stage apron. A mountain has been erected on each of the auditorium’s side aisles. The set has numerous palm trees, lianas and branches. A large piece of plane wing lies on the beach.

This is a difficult scene to create on the stage (designer Sarah Christiner, with construction co-ordinated by Brian Mahoney), but some very innovative ideas have been employed to give a most satisfactory result.

The complex lighting design was well thought out and operated by Aaron Smith. Evan ‘Zany Flash’ Skinner was in charge of the dramatic soundscape. His choice of threatening music was superb; throughout the play, there were also passages of low rumbling notes that shook the auditorium seats, giving a real sense of foreboding.

     We can hear the chatter of schoolchildren as they board a steam train taking them to the airport. It is World War II, so the children are being sent far away from home. There is the massive roar of powerful plane engines as the children head for safety. It is not long before we hear the plane, packed with boys from several schools, skydive onto a deserted island. None of the teachers survive.

     As self-assured survivor, Ralph (Niall Coyle) wanders the beach, where he meets a tubby, intelligent, but shy asthmatic boy, Piggy (Charlie Young). Then, from the bushes emerge a group of boys donned in full, choir-school uniform and black gowns; a bullyboy, Jack Merridew (David Heder), leads them. Jack is a school prefect who has a lot to say, yet seemed to be lacking in self-assurance. Ralph is chosen as leader of all the boys and they go searching for inhabitants and food.

     Aggressive Jack and his schoolmates, including the introverted and nervous Simon (Connor Brown), find a pig and Simon squirms as the others kill it. Even though they all feel empowered, Piggy announces that in order to retain harmony, only the person holding a conch shell that they have found, will be allowed to talk. Steeling Piggy’s spectacles to focus the sunlight, a fire is lit on the nearby hill, in hope that the smoke will be seen by passing ships. Unable to cope without his glasses, Piggy talks to twin brothers Sam (Lachlan Felstead) and Eric (Charlie Martin), two youngsters who finish each other’s sentences.

     The young boys, the ‘littluns’, Henry (Finn Mallett, alternates nights with Jacob Clayton), Bill (Shane Marshall) and Perceval (Elijah Styles, alternates with Luke Callaghan) go searching for food with one of the older boys, Maurice (Caelan Steedman) who being totally unaware of their dire circumstances, looks upon the whole disaster as a fun game, with him as an African Chief. They meet another young boy who staggers out of the bushes; he is Roger (Jamie Buttery) an aggressive boy with a mean streak.

     When Piggy berates Jack for allowing the fire to go out, Jack and his closest friend start their own group and move to the other side of the island where they become savages.

     Will the boys ever be rescued? Alternatively, is a terrible fate awaiting them? Will the illusive beast attack?

Paul Knight has an important cameo part.

Director Sarah Christiner must be brave or mad. Of all the easy plays she could have tackled, Sarah has chosen a serious, complex drama with a large cast of ‘children’. A play that requires a clear distinction between depravity and decency coupled with gut reaction and balanced thought.

Next, she was faced with producing a realistic jungle environment, and a team of young actors capable of coping with large chunks of the script, whilst convincingly depicting their subliminal fears and their descent into the darker side of nature. This play, although written 60 years ago, is still as relevant today with peer pressure still being a major controlling factor, featuring in a school kid’s life.

The boys, who were keen to do their own makeup, were instructed by Nicole Miller, Harry Wake and Kelci Coyle. It was subtle enough to look as though there were days of dirt built up on the boys’ bodies – although their parents may say it was there before.

Sarah employed the whole theatre as her stage. By surrounding the audience with actors, missiles and menacing sounds, the tension was raised a couple of notches. The boys were amazing, with most of them capturing their multifaceted characters completely. The play is two hours long, with almost every member of the cast on stage all of the time, and yet the boys maintained their drive and interaction perfectly. With a major climax at the end of the play, I was worried that they would run out of steam or lose some of their malice, but to their credit, they were word perfect and the chemistry wonderful. Perhaps a little more projection of the dialogue would help, but I saw the final rehearsal so it could have been nerves, as many of the actors have had little previous experience.

It is a most difficult play to stage, but thanks to a huge amount of work, the result was admirable. A good play for teenagers to see, warning them of how easy it is to be sucked in by society.

Director Sarah’s courage paid off wonderfully. Congratulations to all.