I am a baloon. The baloon, which was all filled up with adrenaline and helium just anxious and excited to go watch Grease the Musical at the Plenary Hall in KLCC today. A baloon, with high hopes that this would be another awesome and smashing musical like Saturday Night Fever two years ago. A baloon, which at the near end of the performance, would just burst POW! (Wambam thank you, ma'am! And that's how it's done!!!! And the crowd goes wiiiiild!!) A baloon, which could still float on home after that God-awesome performance WHICH I PAID QUITE A LOT OF MONEY to go see. But today, there was no POW! sound. All you could here from me, the baloon, was ...... sssssssssssss.....bwbwtttttttwtttwtttbbttt. By the way, that was the sound of someone letting all the air out of me, the baloon, and just left me there to shrivel up and die.
As an authority of Grease (yeah that's ME because I have watched the movie uncountable times and can memorize which scenes comes before and after!) and someone who worship's the ground John Travolta walks on, I just have to say that this Grease the Musical production was something you would expect from a Malaysian troupe, and not one from the US. When my sister (who had watched the performance last Wednesday) told me the performance was only so-so and that the guy playing Danny Zucco had not much UMMPHH, I thought to myself, "Ok... maybe what the lead actor lacked they could make up in the rest of the show," because I give these musicals the benefit of the doubt. But hells spells, at the end of it, I cursed the director (in my head, of course) left, right and centre!
Arghh COME ON!!! How can Danny Zucco NOT sing the lead in Grease Lightning?! I mean, ok, granted, I'm all for improvising and ad-libbing and adding some creativity to the show, BUT, I don't remember any "cat fights" in Grease. Fine. Some of the songs that are on the soundtrack but NOT in the movie were included in this musical. I can accept that. The big letdown was the performance by the actor who played Danny Zucco, man. It was weak. Not enough of the "John Travolta" attitude. (Ok, the greasy hair-combing was can-do lah.) But ARRRRGHHHH! The scene at the high school prom dance with Born To Hand Jive was THE scene which DEFINED the entire movie, OK! but it was so anti-climax here. I only give credit to the girl who played Rizzo and the woman who portrayed the headmistress, and MAYBE the other members of the T-Birds. The music arrangements was mediocre. Nothing that made me bop to the tunes.
Instead of Danny Zucco, who is supposed to the highlight of the show, Vince Fontaine was actually doing his best to entertain the crowd. The choreography was dull and a bit messy. I remember when watching Saturday Night Fever the Musical at Istana Budaya, I was all hyped up throughout the show and was just in awe with the set design, the dancing, the portrayal of the characters and the music. Today, after Act 1 when we stopped for intermission, I was all "Bleghhhhhh, what just happened?". The only consolation (wait,.. the other is that Danny Zucco had a damn smokin' body and cute ass) was at the start of the show when the original score of Grease was played. That got the audience in the mood, but then it kind of died down although some of them sitting behind me were still singing along to the tunes of Hopelessly Devoted To You and Summer Nights. Oh yeah, and what was with the periodical sound effects of lightning every time Kenickie said the words "Grease Lightning"? What the hell was that about? I know I'm being harsh and maybe a little mean, but still, it wasn't worth the money.
From what I know, since I have been to quite a few Broadway and musical shows, the entire hall/auditorium will burst into thunderous applause when the casts come out to bow to the audience. The lead actor will usually get the most loudest applause, with whistles and whohoo-ing to boot. When the show ended today, something in the air felt that I wasn't the only one who thought that the show was way below the audience expectations. That and the fact that Danny Zucco only received mere claps, minus the whistling and whohoo-ing.
I left the Plenary Hall feeling violated and frustrated. If that wasn't bad enough, the LRT was so full that when I stepped into the carriage that was bursting at the seams, the bloody door slammed into me and knocked my sunglasses off my head, where it was resting comfortably.
So there I was, waiting for the next train to come, thinking that if John Travolta saw the musical today, he would probably have gone on stage (after sniggering in mortification at the guy who SUPPOSED to play HIM, of course) and showed them how it's really done.
After I got in my car at the Kelana Jaya station, I turned on the Grease soundtrack on full blast just to rid myself of the irritation I felt for the amateur performance and to ease my senses with the sounds of JT and the original cast doing Summer Nights and Grease Lightning. (Needless to say my car was almost about to fly when I gunned the engine to Grease Lightning.)


Damn, that was a load off my chest. Pun intended, the show lacked grease. Grease is supposed to be the word, man. Unfortunately, it was SO NOT!


What else Aida saw today?

- A woman wearing a sheer silky dress with no bra walking at the Kelana Jaya LRT station. So obvious! For God's sake lady, buy a bra!-

- A TV airing a football game in the middle of the fruit section at Carrefour, Subang. (Husband: Ok honey, you get the fruit and I'll be watching TV.)