DURHAM -- If you see "Grease" at the Durham Performing Arts Center this week, do not go hoping to see the movie reincarnated right before you.
Instead, prepare for a fun version with a slightly different plot, a few extra, forgettable songs and a swell time -- but not much more.
The 1978 movie starring John Travolta as Danny Zuko and Olivia Newton-John as Sandy Olsson has been seducing teenage girls at slumber parties for more than 30 years now. It might be difficult to get an audience that doesn't have certain expectations of "Grease" the musical.
For example, Danny is played by Eric Schnieder, who looks more like Adrien Brody from the film "The Pianist" than Travolta. Frankly, Dominic Fortuna, the actor who plays Vince Fontaine, the horny DJ, looks a heck of a lot more like Danny. And for some reason, Danny wears a striped polo shirt and loose, cuffed jeans with his T-Bird leather jacket, rather than the plain white T-shirt and tight jeans of the Zuko I suspect many were hoping to see.
But he can sing, and at times Schneider channels the silky Travoltan pipes of yesteryear. The whole cast has pretty decent vocals, though a few of the women sound a little too much like Disney characters than they do Stockard Channing, the film's original Betty Rizzo, or Newton-John.
Emily Padgett, who plays Sandy Dumbrowski (note the different last name than Sandy from the film -- was that really necessary?) is adorable at times, flitting between insecurity around the Pink Ladies and earnestly coquettish around Danny. But she holds onto the words a little too long during her solos and lets the vibrato linger.
Birdie Carroll as Jan, and her romantic interest on stage, Will Blum as Roger, steal the show. Blum in particular is able to take a caricature, the funny fat kid, and make him not only dynamic -- and I mean laugh-out-loud funny -- but also believable.
Ultimately, the musical is upbeat and has high energy, even though the scenery is a little flat, aside from the ice cream cone atop the diner from which Teen Angel, played by Taylor Hicks, emerges from the heavens.
Hicks, winner of "American Idol" season whatever, does his best to get some laughs, but the song he sings -- originally done by Frankie Avalon -- is not the best showcase for his vocals. He makes up for it after the show by singing a solo piece from his new album.
Some of the dance sequences are spectacular -- mainly the all-male routine atop the Greased Lightning car. The high school dance scene is also cute and more reminiscent of the film than I thought they could pull off.
Still, there's something about the nuance of the original, the subtle sexual innuendos, unexpected humor and palpability of the friendships that come across a little hazy on stage. The overt erection humor is a little misguided, the jokes at times heavy-handed and the spark between characters a little dull.
But hey -- it's live and it's fun.
