Danny Bayne and Susan McFadden
in Grease
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Grease has returned to the West End in a production first seen at the Dominion in 1993, which subsequently transferred to the Cambridge and was later seen at the Victoria Palace. Now it is playing at its fourth West End address, the Piccadilly, with its two leads, 19-year-old Danny Bayne as Danny and 24-year-old Susan McFadden as Sandy, chosen by the public via the latest reality TV casting show, Grease is the Word. Did critics have the final word on this production?
Here’s a sampling of what they had to say:
Matt Wolf in his Theatre.com Review: "What is Grease like in this go-round? Loud, fast, defiantly charmless, utterly painless and possessed of enough genuinely dynamic dance sequences courtesy Arlene Phillips that one doesn't have that much time to ponder the peculiar and apparently ceaseless hold exerted by '50s Americana over the U.K....There wasn't much personality to the recent Joseph, nor is there here, and it doesn't help that a considerable portion of the cast look old enough to be the parents of their characters...And what of the stars who sometimes have to shout to be heard over a band that plays the overture to the Jim Jacobs/Warren Casey with an urgency by way of Gypsy? Dubliner Susan McFadden—sister of Westlife's Brian—has the harder role as Sandy, the goody two-shoes who turns out to be cannier than her surname (Dumbrowski) would indicate; I warmed to her most once she let her hair down and emerged sporting curls reminiscent of a pubescent Bernadette Peters...Danny Bayne isn't quite the physical specimen one might have anticipated, but then again Lee Mead can't be in everything (though give him time). Bayne's proven skills in freestyle, hip-hop and Latin American dance do all prove useful once he departs the inert book scenes and starts gyrating with an abandon pretty much unequalled anywhere else on the West End."
Sam Marlowe of The London Times: “Bayne and McFadden make their initial entrance on plinths either side of Terry Parsons's neon-lit set, looking rather like two shop-window mannequins. It's an accurate indication of what's to come; though they sing nicely enough, they go on to give rather stiff performances. McFadden –small, pretty and somewhat simpering—seems unsure what to do with her hands; Bayne—beefy but bland—manages a certain cheeky charm once he warms up a bit, but there's no real chemistry between them. What's worse, they both signally lack sincerity and sex appeal. To be fair, what surrounds them is not a great deal better…Those who come expecting nothing more than a routine trot through well-loved material and a chance to see the two young competition winners in the flesh probably won't be disappointed...for some this Grease will be bubble gum fun—even if it is overstretched and losing its flavour.”
Danny Bayne in a scene from Grease
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Michael Billington of The Guardian: “The focus, inevitably, is on the two winners of the TV-reality contest. Danny Bayne as the hero displays bags of energy and has one good moment when he puffs on a last fag before setting off on a track-race, but he doesn't possess the mocking insolence of John Travolta in the movie. As for Susan McFadden, she has all of Sandy's wholesomeness and sings prettily, but has a painfully limited range of physical expression: in her big ballad, “Hopelessly Devoted To You”, she expresses romantic sadness by pressing her palms to her stomach as if suffering from cramps. Only Jayde Westaby as the tart-tongued Rizzo and Charlie Cameron as a Monroe lookalike rise above the prevailing ordinariness.”
Sarah Crompton of The Daily Telegraph: “Bayne makes John Travolta look like Olivier, substituting a twitch of the collar and a curl of the lip for anything approaching acting. He dances well enough, but he always appears to be copying someone else's moves—whenever he is asked to be still, or to think, he looks blank. McFadden—sister of Westlife's Brian—has a sweet smile and a strong voice. Unfortunately she belts out every ballad as if it were karaoke night; there's no finesse or feeling...They appear what they probably are—two nice, eager people who are overwhelmed by the chance they have been given. At some levels, of course, their limitations do not matter. No one goes to Grease for a master-class in performing, they go to have a good time…. [but] there is something laboured about the whole enterprise. This Grease is so busy trumpeting how enjoyable it is, that all real joy seems to vanish."
Paul Taylor of The Independent: “Admittedly, it’s hard to resist the appeal of Grease—a hymn to teenage horniness, set in a parodic Seventies view of a cheekily tweaked B-movie-style Fifties high school… What about the competition-winning leads? Is the power they’re sup-plyin’ electrifyin’? Not really. As chief greaser Danny, Danny Bayne exudes a certain sex appeal and he sings and dances with more than efficiency but the performance lacks the attractiveness of natural humour. When his Danny shifts from unguarded emotion to strutting macho defensiveness, you can always hear a kind of mechanical click. Though she can float a mean decorative falsetto in “Hopelessly Devoted To You”, Susan McFadden doesn’t muster much magic or bring out your protective instincts as the square virginal Sandy. But then there’s not much individuality in the company as a whole and even the best moments feel dodgy.”
Nicholas de Jongh of
The Evening Standard: “How under-sexed, how under-done and under par I found director David Gilmore's attempt to put the brilliantine back into
Grease! Yet this famous high school musical, set in the Fifties when leather jackets were fresh fashion items, when girls in flashy cars at drive-in movies warded off kisses and clung to their virginity, was welcomed by first-nighters like a long-lost lover. Neither of the leads, a less than dynamic Danny Bayne as gang-leader Danny Zuko and Susan McFadden as the girl for whom he falls but cannot pick up, display the singing and acting charisma required to galvanise this almost plotless musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Gilmore's production, with neon-lit, basic sets that swing from high school to burger palace, proves no match for his 1993 production on which this is closely modelled. Almost everything and everyone is now caught in caricature's grasp rather than garlanded in satire—from the posturing high school gang boys to the girls wearing ridiculously ornate party dresses. They gabble like zombies, talk of little but sex, while doing little about it.”
Julie Carpenter of The Daily Express: “This version is frothier than a milkshake and fizzier than an Alka-Seltzer in an American soda…The plot charts cool-guy-meets-good-girl in a 1950s American High School but is really an excuse for students to demonstrate raging hormones, slicked-back hairstyles and poodle skirts…It’s irresistibly hard to beat and it does help that Bayne, at just 19, is endearingly charismatic as the cocky Danny. He oozes self-confidence and has a well-honed sense of comic timing. And wow, can that boy dance…McFadden has the less enviable task of playing the somewhat bland role of Sandy. She has a clear, sweet voice but you sense she’s just itching for the closing scene where she transforms from butter-wouldn’t melt-Sandra Dee clone to tight, black lycra-clad sex kitten. If she lacks a touch of chemistry with her co-star, it hardly seems to matter. Grease has no pretentions towards Romeo and Juliet—it’s all about the songs, which here gather a frenetic momentum, sweeping into a glorious megamix climax.”
Robert Gore-Langton of The Daily Mail: “Grease is like a musical zombie. It won’t die. This is the third revival I’ve seen in a decade—and it’s always the same. True, it’s had a lick of paint, they’ve changed the bulbs on the set, and the boys’ hair quaffs have been stiffened with handfuls of fresh lubricant. But the real injection of youth are the leads—Danny Bayne and Susan McFadden—who last night leapt on to the stage already famous thanks to ITV reality contest Grease is the Word. Honestly, these casting programmes! You think you’ve seen the blasted show about nine times before it actually opens…The two youngsters may not spark like plugs on a Fifties Chevy. They may be a bit on the porky side. But they can move—and they can sing. Any reservations about their lack of lip-curling chemistry one quietly shoves on the backburner. It’s only rock ‘n’ roll after all, not Ibsen.”