Backstage pass

A lot of work, and wig-baking, goes into 'Grease: The Musical', TARA BRADYdiscovers

GREASED LIGHTNING DOESN’T begin to cover it. It’s early afternoon at Bradford’s Alhambra Theatre and Grease company manager Adam Havoc is on his rounds, zipping impressively between floors and departments.

Outside, the city of fine Victorian architecture and finer curry emporiums is grey and decidedly wet. It hardly matters; it’s not like the six-day-week cast and crew get any time off to speak of.

On the stage Jason Capewell, resident director and the production’s Vince Fontaine, is running through lines with a sizeable squadron of understudies.

Down in wardrobe Lisa Brindley is pressing skirts with more layers than a Joyce novel and wasp waists that might trouble Barbie.

She holds up an improbably doll-like pair of vintage pedal pushers. “Look at this: Carina is so tiny,” she laughs.

Carina is Carina Gillespie, a graduate of Liverpool Theatre School who earned critical wows for her turn as Maria Elena in The Buddy Holly Story. She and this particular touring production of Grease: The Musicalhave only lately decamped from London's West End.

The prepossessing 26-year-old joined the cast as Sandy last January and shows no sign of shoo-by doo-wop she-bop chang-chang chang-it-ty-chang shoo-bop fatigue.

The songs remain the same but there is, says Gillespie, a different energy in every city. “Edinburgh has been the loudest so far. They know every line; it was like a big karaoke session.”

Iconic and sing-along familiar, we tend to forget that Grease: The Musicalhas mutated and evolved over the years. Before John Travolta slicked back his hair in earnest, Richard Gere and Patrick Swayze played Danny in stage versions; long before the 1978 film version, it was a 1972 off-Broadway sensation that featured neither Hopelessly Devoted to Younor You're the One that I Want.

These hen-party classics, written for the film, were finally parachuted in to the 2007 revival, an incarnation made famous by ITV's reality talent search, Greaseis the Word. Four years and 1,300 performances later and this rolling production will finally make its Dublin premiere next month. It's tough getting away from the London stage when you're popular.

"But that's what makes it so special," says Gillespie. "Everybody loves Grease. Everybody feels good in the theatre, the audience and the actors. You always finish the night with a smile on your face."

This production of Grease: The Musicalhas outlasted alternate West End and Broadway versions starring such disparate folk as Debbie Gibson, Brooke Shields, Micky Dolenz, and Xena: Warrior Princess'sLucy Lawless.

We suspect the longevity is down to the details. Each department, mindful of the weight of history, works hard to create an authentic aesthetic that makes one wonder if Eisenhower is currently in the White House.

“The thing about the movie is that it’s not really period at all,” explains wigs master Chris Coles as he tackles a freshly baked – yes, baked – batch of hairpieces. “The film is very disco and tight perms. We have a couple of outrageous pieces like Frenchie’s pink wig, but we’re mostly going for a much softer, more realistic look. We bake them then brush them through to keep the wave soft.”

The T-Birds, says Chris, have been a lot less work than the ladies, “We gave them a quiff masterclass so they look after themselves. We want to keep that street feel.”

In this spirit, there are no synthetic shortcuts, only hours of backbreaking backcombing; T-Birds jackets have been lovingly hand-painted with a nod to The Wild One; perfectly co-ordinated turquoise and canary-coloured heels have been replicated from vintage photographs.

The Pink Ladies, too, keep their make-up minimalist and high school. Mostly, they look after their own warpaint in scenes not unlike a nightclub restroom.

“Again, it shouldn’t be much more than what you’d see out on the street,” explains Chris. “Only Rizzo and Cha-Cha wear red lipstick.”

And we all know what those girls are like . . .

Grease: The Musicalis at Dublin's Grand Canal Theatre from Tuesday, August 9th to Saturday, August 27th