May 6, 2006
Thank You Rock and Roll!
Tonight I had the chance to watch a live theatrical performance of Grease, that 50’s smash hit Broadway musical that put me into an if-highschoolers-half-a-century-ago-were-that-wild- then-what-more-today type of thinking. You know, all that booze and Marlboro and making out and skyrocketing ego, and all other horrific teenage behavior that’s driving every parent crazy. But I love Grease, despite the wild convention of the Rydell kids. It’s from Grease that I started appreciating the music and the dance of the oldies, and from Grease that I started devouring the energy that is rock and roll.
I watched the stage play with my three sisters who are likewise theater-lovers and my parents who tagged along. Not in Broadway though, but in my college’s Burnright Center Theater. It’s amazing when I think of it for a community college to stage performances and own facilities like that. Talagang namangha ako. Theirs were props and stage designs much like a Repertory/Trumpets performance back home! They had a real Greased Lightning buick onstage, and a baby orchestra plus conductor creating music the entire night, to think that this is only a college-level activity! Even more, each actor had his own micro-lapel that blended with his skin tone, a luxury that only professional thespians in the
As for the quality of performance, well it was laudable, save for the latter part when the actors started getting tired from all the twisting and turning and mooning and skakin’. Danny Zuko started losing his singing voice in You’re The One That I Want, which prompted my four-year-old sister to say, “Ate Majo, parang hindi na sila magaling.” That little critic, always finding angles to lambast. But no matter, it was a good performance still---and right now, I’m still high with the music.
