If you’re a fan of Grease (who isn’t?) and also of participatory happenings (some aren’t) there’s a fair chance you’ll be hopelessly devoted to this spectacularly ambitious show from Secret Cinema. The company has carved a niche among novelty-hungry London audiences by immersing them in scenarios inspired by a cult film prior to a screening, usually at an obscure and atmospheric location.
Here, the world of Randal Kleiser’s 1978 movie - with its hormonally charged 1950s high schoolers, hot rods and gravity-defying hairdos - is built out on a brash and astonishing scale. The projection of the film, the live performance and the participation of some punters who’ve paid extra to take part in dance routines and group scenes all happen more or less concurrently.
The exterior of Evolution in Battersea Park – the big shed that’s home to the Affordable Art Fair, among other things – has been decked out as the school hall from Grease’s Rydell High. It’s surrounded by a recreation of the funfair where star-crossed lovers Danny and Sandy (Liam Morris and Stephanie Costi) finally get it together on graduation day. So there’s pre- and post-show entertainment here, plus a chance to pre-load on cocktails, hot dogs and alcoholic jelly shots.
Inside, a huge central stage is ringed by ten vast video screens, themed drive-in and diner seated areas (again, for those who’ve paid a bit extra) and platforms for set pieces: an auto shop complete with automobile for Greased Lightnin’, a salon for Beauty School Dropout. At one end a live band hammers out the film’s score and other hits of the era, like the Surfaris’ Wipeout or Elvis’s Hound Dog, when the action and the film are paused for a reset. There are yet more food and booze outlets.
You can wander about and sing and dance along as scenes pop up around the arena or sit back and wait for the action to come to you, while getting cheerfully smashed. The actors sing live, occasionally synching but sometimes disconcertingly not with John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John et al on screen: sometimes live sequences are projected alongside the film.
Dressing up as a T-Bird or a Pink Lady is encouraged. So if you happen to find yourself far away from the leads as they perform You’re The One That I Want it doesn’t matter, as a middle-aged couple from Hendon will be re-enacting it beside you. The atmosphere is part festival, part hen-do.
Whatever your reservations about so-called immersive theatre – mine are the way it weaponises FOMO and gives audiences the false illusion of agency – this is a masterpiece of co-ordination by director Matt Costain and choreographer Jennifer Webber. Tom Rogers’ design celebrates the tawdriness of 1950s Americana he gets to drop a custom car from the ceiling. The large cast is expertly drilled in big routines: the dance competition to Born to Hand Jive is the absolute highlight.
Morris is a lean and wolfish Danny with a quiff like a heron’s beak, Costi a pert and bouncy Sandy. As a brassy, ballsy Rizzo, Lucy Penrose sings Look At Me I’m Sandra Dee from an elevated bed that’s trundled round the auditorium, and There Are Worse Things I Could Do triumphantly alone on stage, in a black sequined ballgown. But the real stars are arguably the team of stage managers and costumed supernumeraries who keep the action going and the blissed-out, boozed-up throng of onlookers moving and safe.
I’ve seen many iterations of the original 1971 stage musical, seen the film countless times and interviewed Stockard Channing, Frankie Valli and Jim Jacobs, who created Grease with the late Warren Casey and who lectured me on the finer points of mooning (though sadly the mooning scene is cut here). I thought there was no way this story could re-engage or surprise me. But it seems Grease is the word. Again.
To 7 Sept, greasetheimmersivemoviemusical.com
